Word: jeffersons
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America's first president, George Washington, is on Mount Rushmore. So is the third, Thomas Jefferson. But there is only the merest crevice between them where the second, John Adams, might have been. Nor has Adams ever been on the face of a regular piece of U.S. currency. William McKinley got the $500 bill, for God's sake...
Adams (Paul Giamatti) didn't catch many breaks. He wasn't tall and commanding like Washington, wildly gifted like Ben Franklin or silver-tongued like Jefferson--and, he notes, he doesn't have an inheritance, so he must work for a living as an attorney. This colors his personality; Giamatti plays him as a trudging bulldog, noble but vain, intellectual but provincial, idealistic but cautious. And it colors his politics, giving him a darker view of life than those of his colleagues with cleaner fingernails...
...most thought-provoking differences are between Adams and Jefferson (Stephen Dillane). Jefferson is a classic Enlightenment optimist, who believes in philosophy and science and the improvability of mankind. Adams believes that you can change people's condition--make them freer, more prosperous, more fairly represented--but you can't better their souls...
Their differences spill over into politics after the Revolution. Jefferson is leery of creating a strong Constitution that will effectively force the choices and values of his generation on Americans to come. Adams favors it--for exactly that reason. To him, it's human nature to revert to mob rule and injustice; if his generation is lucky enough to get the rules right for once, they should damn well be cemented so that later generations can't screw them up. "You have a disconcerting lack of faith in your fellow man," Jefferson chides. "And you," Adams retorts, "display a disturbing...
...debate between hope and pragmatism. Put another, it's the argument between liberalism and conservatism. In Episode 4, the two men watch a demonstration in France of a manned hot-air balloon. It's a small, perfect illustration of the ferment and unease of the Enlightenment. Jefferson is rapturous about the flight and all it symbolizes about human progress; man's bond to Earth is literally being severed for the first time. Adams is convinced the thing won't get off the ground. When the balloon takes off, Jefferson gloats, "Mankind floats upon a limitless plain of air." Adams deadpans...