John Adams Show discussion (open spoilers)

[Miss_Purl_McKnittington]

I think the lack of long, curly eyelashes can be attributed to them being hard to paint, and that posters generally don’t catch all the details of a portrait/painting. And the lack of mascara. I’ve got long, dark eyelashes, and they don’t show up in photographs taken at a reasonable distance very well unless I’m wearing lots of mascara or my eyes are closed.

[jellyblue]

@Dumbguy

I thought they portrayed Abigail Adams as a lot more than a dutiful housewife. She seemed to be managing John and making him a better person a lot of the time. His closing remarks at the Boston Massacre trial were largely designed by her. She told him to address people’s frustration with taxation, and he did. She told him to cut back on the erudition, and he did. When she gave her letters to Washington to deliver to her husband, Washington implied that he’d deliver the letters because they needed Adams to be confident and forceful in his beliefs, and he never really was until she had approved them.

The way the show handled Abigail’s influence on her husband was subtle, but it made her seem strong to me. She didn’t tell her husband what to do. She told him what she thought, knowing that it would shape what he did without demanding it of him.

I think Laura Linney’s doing a great job. My favorite line is when her daughter asks her [essentially] why boys get to have all the fun and Abigail replies, “Because we let them!”

I’m glad I missed the tar and feather scene ::shudder:: The guy getting his leg sawed off on the boat without any anesthesia was bad enough!

What Adams sick with in Holland, does anybody know?
Sadly, I’m probably not going to get to see the rest for awhile - I just got to see a few episodes on the HBO Free Weekend deal.

[jellyblue]

Some fascinating discussions in this thread, btw. I didn’t know there was a 2nd page until after I posted :o .

[What_Exit]

@jellyblue

Some fascinating discussions in this thread, btw. I didn’t know there was a 2nd page until after I posted :o .

If you go to user options, you can change your default posts view to 200 from 50. Then many more threads become only one page or at worst 2-3 pages.

Jim (Supplying nearly useless information for going on three years now)

[Eleanor_of_Aquitaine]

@AuntiePam

Thank you for checking on this. Is the “as I used to” the important part here? He doesn’t want to take the chance that personal stuff will be made public? That’s how I take it.

It’d be interesting to know if any of Abigail’s letters to him were intercepted. Or to know what correspondence was intercepted.

Some things never change, do they, for public figures?

As is discussed towards the beginning of this thread, their letters are supposedly very affectionate and intimate. She’s essentially complaining that he’s not writing love letters like he used to write when he was away at congress.

All of the founding brothers knew that they were making history, even if they didn’t yet know what kind. At some point they became aware that they were writing as much for posterity as for their correspondents. Adams specifically told Abigail to start saving their letters as a record of events.

I just noticed above where you asked about John Hancock’s signature on the Declaration. It’s a popular legend that he signed his name really big so that “Fat George can read it without his spectacles”.

If you like musicals at all you should rent 1776. It’s a fun movie, and William Daniels really makes a better John Adams than Paul Giamatti.

[Liberal]

Regarding the white faces and yellow teeth, I sometimes wince at the look of modern (as in just the last few years) superwhite teeth, especially framed by tanned or dark skin. I’m not sure but what it isn’t a fad that won’t last. When taken care of properly, teeth are more of a bone, or antique white. And I think they look better that way.

[UncleRojelio]

@Eleanor of Aquitaine

At one point Adams receives a packet of letters from Abigail “filled with abject loneliness and accusing him of neglecting her.” Adams claimed to have written nearly fifty letters to her between April and September, which was almost certainly an exaggeration (the author says), but she received only two. She complained that his correspondence was too cold, too brief, and too impersonal. He answers that “Millions would not tempt me to write to you as I used to” because he knows the letters will be intercepted and copied to Congress and the newspapers.

Adams and Abigail were smart people. One would think that they could have come up with and encoding scheme for their private mail.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@UncleRojelio

Adams and Abigail were smart people. One would think that they could have come up with and encoding scheme for their private mail.

How do you know they didn’t?

[EllisDee]

@UncleRojelio

Adams and Abigail were smart people. One would think that they could have come up with and encoding scheme for their private mail.

Only a guy would think applying some sort of encryption algorithm to romantic love letters was a good idea.

[sturmhauke]

Of course it’s not a good idea.

It’s an awesome idea.

[Green_Cymbeline]

@AuntiePam

Wasn’t Abigail pregnant in episode two? I don’t recall seeing a baby.

At the end of episode 1, Abigail was very pregnant as John went off to the first Continental Congress. As he said goodbye, he said, “if it’s a girl, name her Elizabeth, after your mother.”

Then in the next episode, it’s some time later, but there’s no baby. That’s because the baby was stillborn (named Elizabeth, born 1775 - via Wikipedia). But the show doesn’t address that. I wonder why they left it out?

They also had another child who died young – Susanna (1768-1770) (also via Wiki).

[Miss_Purl_McKnittington]

Somebody on Livejournal mentioned that Playtone wanted 11 1-hour episodes, but HBO said that was too long, and would only give them seven hours. They got it cut down to 8.5 hours, but the script had changed a lot. So what we’re getting is sort of the super highlights version of the Adams’ life. Elizabeth’s birth probably got left on the cutting room floor, along with a thousand other important things.

[jellyblue]

@What Exit?

If you go to user options, you can change your default posts view to 200 from 50. Then many more threads become only one page or at worst 2-3 pages.

Jim (Supplying nearly useless information for going on three years now)

Thanks, Jim. I, for one, appreciate Useless Information Suppliers.

[Boyo_Jim]

@Elendil's Heir

A friend who read McCullough’s book said the Adamses’ letters were “the 18th-century equivalent of phone sex.”

I don’t get HBO, alas, so I’m looking forward to the miniseries DVD.

Just a thought for you DVD folks. For the cost of one set of DVDs you could probably subscribe to HBO for a whole year. And they have lots of shows that are DVD-worthy. I would give up CBS NBC and ABC, all 3 of them, before I would give up HBO.

[Eleanor_of_Aquitaine]

@jellyblue

What Adams sick with in Holland, does anybody know?

The serious illness actually occurred during his second trip to Europe. It was described as a “nervous fever”. McCullough says it was probably either malaria or typhus. Adams was very sick for a few weeks and his symptoms lingered for months.

[MLS]

@Eleanor of Aquitaine

The serious illness actually occurred during his second trip to Europe. It was described as a “nervous fever”. McCullough says it was probably either malaria or typhus. Adams was very sick for a few weeks and his symptoms lingered for months.

No doubt helped immeasurably by losing quantities of blood from time to time. :rolleyes: