History Series / JohnAdams

* ContrivedCoincidence: More like remarkable coincidence, Adams and Jefferson [[TruthInTelevision did]] die the same day and exactly 50 years after the The Declaration of Independence was signed.

* BerserkButton: For both Washington and Adams, injecting party politics into the business of government. The only time the audience sees Washington truly shout in anger is when he scolds Jefferson and Hamilton for continually arguing over "factions" in the government. Both of them look like sheepish schoolboys afterward. Adams, meanwhile, does constantly stress over Jefferson and the Republicans' attempts to oppose him. However, he still explodes in anger and fires Timothy Pickering and James McHenry from the Cabinet on the spot when they suggest he prolong tensions with France in order to increase the Federalists' chances in the upcoming election. Adams doesn't regret it later on, either. While naturally disappointed at losing reelection to Jefferson, he says that he would have hated to have a second term simply because of possible war when peace was possible in just one.

* BaldOfAwesome: John Adams and Benjamin Franklin are both balding.

* CultureClash: Funnily enough not as strongly between enemies US and UK. John and Abigail Adams seem more baffled by the land of their allies, France.

** Adams' meeting with George III, in all its awkwardness, surely counts as an example. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n725zX3zIk0 Behold.]]

** This also applies to Charles, who (accurately) isn't portrayed during the Boston Massacre scene but later appears to be roughly five or six years old as John prepares for the trial, foregoing aging for the remainder of the war.

* NotAllowedToGrowUp: The on-screen portrayals of Nabby and John Quincy don't age at all from the Boston Massacre (5 March 1770) in "Join or Die" to the American victory at Yorktown (19 October 1781) in "Don't Tread on Me".

** When the French ambassador tries to engage the United States in war with Britain to defend the fledging First Republic by pointing out that the United States has a treaty with France, Alexander Hamilton points out that the treaty was made with and signed by Louis XVI, and since the French have just overthrown and executed Louis then said treaty is now null and void.

** One of John Dickinson's concerns about seeking independence for the colonies is the possibility of Civil War. [[note]]84 years later, just such an occurrence would indeed happen.[[/note]]

** This is lampshaded in the final episode when a now-elderly John Adams is presented with Trumbull's [["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Independence_(Trumbull) Declaration of Independence"]] and critiques it for the many historical inaccuracies is contains, leading an argument between the two over historical representation. Adams bitterly concludes that the truth of the Revolution is lost, turned into myth and artistic fabrications as the generation who was there gradually dies away and are replaced by generations who have to interpret events they were not part of. The meta-critique of the series as doing the same thing is clear, if subtle.

* WeaponsOfTheirTrade: Following the Boston Massacre, the British authorities claim that the rope makers had been looking for trouble because they all been carrying batons. It is then pointed that out that the baton is a tool of the rope maker's trade--being used to beat the strands in the huge hawsers into position--and that every single man in the rope factory carried one.

** This also applies to Charles, who (accurately) isn't portrayed during the Boston Massacre scene but later appears as John prepares for the trial.

Starring Creator/PaulGiamatti as John Adams and Creator/LauraLinney as Abigail Adams.

%%* DeadlyDecadentCourt: ''Vive la France'', baby.

*** John Adams actually made two separate trips to France, which the show condenses. In doing so, however, it omits one of Adam's greatest achievement: singlehandedly drafting the Constitution of Massachusetts 1780, the oldest written constitution still in use in the world.

** Only six of the eight soldiers of the Boston Massacre were acquitted of any charges. The other two (specifically the two who fired directly and purposefully into the crowed) were convicted of manslaughter, but received a reduced sentence and avoided the death penalty.