Part Five reveals John frustrated in the mostly powerless position as Vice President. He presides over the Senate, but only casts a vote during a tie. Washington does not include John in his Cabinet, but later seeks his counsel as the both France and England struggle to bring the new nation into their conflict. The Adams’ children are grown up and beginning to form their lives. The episode concludes with John’s inauguration as President of the United States.
John’s one Presidential term is explored in Part Six. He finds himself at odds and in between the political struggles of Vice President Jefferson and former Treasury secretary/Federalist Party leader Alexander Hamilton, both of whom worked to undermine his and his re-election bid. John signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts and kept the country out of an all-out war with France.
John’s retirement and remaining years up to 1826 are covered in the final part. He loses his wife and daughter, sees his son John Quincy elected President, and through correspondence repairs his friendship with Jefferson. The men would die hours apart on July 4th.
It’s easy to see why John Adams was showered with awards. History is brought to life by the amazing talents of the cast and crew. Giamatti creates a believable person, infused with passion and imperfections, intelligence and social awkwardness. He and Linney make the love between John and Abigail palpable in every scene. The production design team did marvelous work from the costumes and sets, and the make-up team did an excellent job aging the actors almost 60 years.
The series has one major flaw and it’s the overuse of the Dutch angle that distracted from the visual presentation of the story. I am surprised no one pulled director Tom Hooper and cinematographers Tak Fujimoto and Danny Cohen aside after seeing the rushes because it was more a distraction than anything else.
The video is presented in 1080p High Definition with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The ornate costumes and production design are vividly detailed and the textures can be clearly seen. Even hair strands on wigs are clearly delineated. The brightness of the colors is limited, mainly the outdoors scenes are where the hues would shine, but that stems from the source material. The red on the British uniforms stands out among the dark earth tones of the colonists, but they aren’t vivid enough to pop off the screen. Instead, they blend within the scene. In most scenes, the faces reveal pores and blemishes, but a couple of instances, it looks like they were smoothed over, possibly through DNR.
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