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The New Yorker was not complimentary about this series (they’d seen the first four episodes) so I was prepared for the worst. What I saw was rather pleasant, extremely well acted, and provided a vision of Boston that felt utterly believable rather than being over pixelated or sentimental. It is worth watching, in other words, even if it has some flaws.

One of these flaws is the omissions. We see Adams as he defends the redcoats in the ‘Boston Massacre’, and very gripping it is. Yet I’d have liked to know how Adams became the upright lawyer he was, and I’d have liked to know more about the way the American Revolution was fomented. We come into the action too late, with Americans already upset and rebellious and it is all hung upon the issue of taxes. I suspect there’s more to it than that…

The relationship of John and Abigail possibly represents one of the finest marital pairings of the age, and it is deftly sketched here. Yet because of the demands on a TV program to keep us excited I’ve a feeling we’ll never get to see how it came about.

These may seem to be small complaints, yet they lead to a bigger concern. If ‘history’ is to be seen as the actions of great men, it is therefore reducible to accounts of what these ‘great men’ got up to. That is, essentially, what we seem to be offered, and David McCullough, whose excellent book is the basis of this mini-series, may well be wincing at such a simplistic portrayal of the historical forces that embrace us all.

Think of our own times. For many months anyone who criticized the Iraq war was likely to be attacked by its supporters, branded as ‘unpatriotic’ (there’s that American Patriotism thing again) and all such voices were stifled. Then, who knows how, the general tone of things changed into a very strong anti-war cry. The ridicule that had been aimed at such people is now turned to respectful, even thoughtful, attention. True, the war is still in progress, but the attitudes have changed.

If I were a suspicious person I’d wonder why we need a Patriotic mini-series just now, when the outgoing President is less impressive to a greater portion of Americans than any president in living history. I’d wonder at a series that has Adams talking about God-given rights and then stating these are more important than government, at a time when we have a White House incumbent who is a radical Christian who defies his own government and flouts its laws by signing them with ‘exemptions’ that fit his own use.

But then, I’ve only seen one episode.