Revolutionary TV (John Adams II)

At the end of a long, but busy three-day weekend I finally got some quality TV time in. Experiencing both ends of the television-watching enjoyment spectrum on Sunday, I watched part three of John Adams, the new HBO miniseries, and an excruciatingly long PGA golf tournament. Now I realize that most of society enjoys watching sporting events, enough to even warrant taking over the entire television broadcast spectrum on holidays, despite the fact that Direct TV offers 37 different channels (that I could count) devoted entirely to sports. One of them is a horse racing channel! So I know that I am in the minority in hating watching sports on TV, but I really don't get televised golf. The soporific play-by-play announcing of such a slow-moving game lulls me into a comatose state for the whole day. Watching golf also makes me feel like I need to be quiet because the announcers are practically whispering, not to mention the lack or tone or inflection in their voices - it's the sports equivalent of public radio.

Luckily, second president-to-be shook me from my lethargy in the third part of John Adams Sunday night with his piercing words and passion for independence. He was a loose cannon - the Jimmy McNulty of the American Revolution, if you will. Unfortunately, he was not as successful with France as McNulty usually is with Major Daniels. Too bad high school history class didn't focus more on our founding fathers' personalities. I mean, I didn't know John Adams was so hotheaded, but also kind of whiny. And I knew that Ben Franklin was a great inventor, but didn't know he was such a jerk in need of a lesson in teamwork. Abigale Adams also surprised me, being an excellent farmer and quite possibly the first American feminist.

This week the show takes us to France, where John Adams and Ben Franklin travel to request aid from the French government. Franklin is not on-board with Adam's plan for how much assistance is required from France and doesn't seem to be of much help when Adam's tries to ask for more. Of course, Adams doesn't understand sex-obsessed, perverted French culture and ends up offending King Louis XVI (disappointingly, not played by Jason Schwartzman) because he doesn't speak French. Turns out the French were a-holes even back then, and Americans were just as self-righteous and entitled as today. As many blogulator staff members pointed out, this would have been a great crossover episode, if only directed by Sofia Coppola, of course. HBO must have figured that the decadence of Versailles and the creepy French ghost face paint was enough stimulation for the viewer in part three of the miniseries, however, because they stopped filming it at a 15 degree angle. Last week, I got very confused as to whether I was tilted or the camera was. Good to know that I'm level headed. (haha?)

Like Qualler's mom said, "our ancestor's had it a lot harder than us." I agree. Sounds like John Adams had a really crappy job. I would definitely NOT like to spend months at sea, engage the British navy in a battle, and expose my son to a man's death resulting from sawing his leg off in a failed amputation attempt, only to be laughed at by some snooty French aristocrats. Jobs these days are easy in comparison. Though your job may not be as tough as founding a nation, readers, if a career change is in your future, check out the dry-humor of the latest Career Builder commercial - pretty funny!

This entry was posted by Lady Amy, on Monday, March 24, 2008. You can leave your response.