Short Summary is an original series in which I write brief reviews of movies, TV shows, video games, books, and more. Spoiler alert, just in case!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember learning much about John Adams in school. Out of the first three presidents of the United States, I know the least about our second. Out of all the Founding Fathers, I’d argue that John Adams goes unrecognized for most of his achievements. Now, let’s be fair, he had a lot of competition; many of the men leading our country at the time achieved so much and, at the same time, were held in much higher esteem.

John Adams gave me a sense of just how misunderstood and intriguing the man really is. He was unpopular, estranged from his own political party (the Federalists) and deeply resented by the opposing party (the Republicans). He had a controversial presidency and only served one term. However, as the miniseries proves, John Adams was honest, outspoken, dedicated, and dutiful. He held himself and others to extremely high standards. He stirred his fellow man to revolt and also sued for peace, always doing whatever was necessary to put country above anything else.

Each episode of this miniseries shows John Adams during different periods of his life, starting with his law practice and ending with his retirement and eventual death. He goes from being a lawyer to Congressman, ambassador to Britain, vice president, and finally president. The miniseries format is fitting to tell a life story, as every episode is over an hour long. So you’re basically watching one movie for each stage of John Adams’ life. I thought that this definitely worked; you get to see even more details and learn about a man who’s often overlooked.

Paul Giamatti is excellent playing John Adams; it’s probably my new favorite role of his. Laura Linney plays Abigail Adams to perfection, and scenes with them together are the best of the series. John Adams is as wonderfully shot, staged, and designed as any period piece out there. The screenplay is especially strong, with certain lines of dialogue actually taken from John Adams’ writings and other primary sources.

Ultimately, this series showed and taught me quite a bit about John Adams himself and the people he associated with. In particular, I didn’t know much about how he served as defense counsel for the Redcoats involved in the Boston Massacre. I wasn’t aware of just how much time he spent abroad in France, England, and the Netherlands taking part in so many negotiations. And I had no idea what many of his relationships were like outside the ones he had with Abigail and Thomas Jefferson.

John Adams was equal parts entertaining and educational!