That’s not the way I would have ended the show, but I guess the filmmakers couldn’t resist depicting the nearly incredible circumstances of the death of Adams and Jefferson.
I think that the reconciliation between them had already occurred by the time Abigail died. I seem to remember that John’s statement that he wished he could lie down and die with her was something he wrote to Jefferson. So, I wish they had ended the show with Adams and Jefferson “explaining themselves to each other” and before Abigail died. The exchange of letters between the two men, each with a bust of the other for reference, was nicely done, though.
The scene with Nabby’s surgery was almost too disturbing to watch.
Did Jefferson and Adams really have a bust of the other in their homes?
One of the scenes that stood out for me was the guy (don’t know his name) who suggested to Adams that Adams should start the reconciliation, since Adams was the wronged party.
Did Nabby’s husband really stay away until after her death?
I think they did a great job with the series. Would they have been changing history if they’d shown Adams ever being happy, or at least content? He seemed like he was always waiting for the other shoe to fall. What a restrained individual.
The series was interesting, but they were awfully hard on Jefferson. Not surprising, I suppose, since this was history from Adams’s perspective. We saw almost none of Jefferson’s famous charm. Throughout the series, he seemed grim and cold.
And I will repeat my criticism of the accents. I think American accents would have been recognizeable to us as such by the time of the Revoltion. And certainly by the time Adams died.
Yawn. All the whispering and long stares of silence. I fast forwarded through half of it. I liked the earlier episodes, but the later ones just seemed to drag out.
Those prosthetics they used for the bad teeth made them all look like they had a chew in their mouths.
Jefferson did have a bust of Adams that he supposedly kept nearby him at Monticello, but I don’t remember if Adams also had a bust of Jefferson. And Dr. Benjamin Rush did in fact instigate the reconciliation. He prodded gently at both of them over a period of time, assuring them both that the other was ready to reconcile. Wikipedia says that’s what he’s most famous for.
I liked the White House scenes in the prior ep (for which I didn’t see a thread). It was eerie to see it in the middle of nothing but dirt piles. Plus all the dust. And all the slaves. I’ll never see that mansion in quite the same way again.
Me too. I figured John Quincy was standing off to the side, shaking his head and regretting bringing the old man to see it.
At the end of the movie 1776, as they sign the Declaration the actors move into particular positions and assume a pose, and the shot freezes into a painting. I always thought that was the one that hung in the Rotunda, but it’s not the Trumbull, so maybe they made it up.