A reasonably cool sex scene involving John Adams and Abigail Adams.

HAWT OLD SKOOL MIDDLE-AGED YANKEE SEXX0RS!

. . .

Okay, maybe not.

{Still, I hold that John & Abby are the ultimate Great American Romance and Partnership. Period. End stop.)

What I'm talking about is John & Abby's reunion in France in part 4 of John Adams, which I watched over at crossbonesdj and oletheros's place tonight (along with part 3).

Part 3 is all about Adams' manifest unfitness to be a diplomat to France (and, Holland, more or less), because he's so bloody... American. Continental mores do not come naturally to him, nor can he unbend enough to groove with the decadent trappings of European "politics."

Painful, but somehow funny, to watch. Poor old John.

Part 4 brings him, and Abby, back to France, along with Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. I have to say (and maybe this is just me), I love how Jefferson is coming off so odd and creepy. Because he was odd and creepy, dammit. Brilliant, important, necessary, intriguing -- all yes. But damn, he is the American Sphinx.

There's a fantastic scene in part 4 -- a discussion in a garden between Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson -- regarding Jefferson's unbounded faith in humanity, and Adams' faith in the necessity of good government to limit the excesses of humanity's frailties. (Well-explicated in Ellis' Passionate Sage, I should add.) At the close of this scene, I announced to the room: "And thus begins twenty to thirty years of problems between Adams and Jefferson."

ALSO -- and this is just my suspicion, unsupported by anything except my personal readings of history: Jefferson was intensely jealous of Adams' relationship with Abigail, that remarkable woman, though he himself could never, EVER, countenance a helpmeet with Abby's spine. IMAO, and please take a grain of salt or three with that. (Still, I think the miniseries follows my view.)

Adams' meeting with King George was intense. I kept thinking: "This is a man born under the monarchy, and he is standing for a new thing under the gaze of the monarch." Impressive.

David Morse as George Washington returns at the end of part 4, and dear lord... he has it. The gravity, the awesome charisma, the ability to connect. Please, give me a miniseries about Washington with Morse in it next.

To sum up: I loved Giamatti for Lady in the Water, but I am loving him even more for John freaking Adams.

Tags: movies, reference, underkoffler's overviews