History Series / JohnAdams

* AssInAmbassador: Adams, to a degree while representing America in France. Franklin eventually gets him removed because of it. Ambassador Genet while whipping up support for the French in America is very much this.

* AdmiringTheAbomination: Adams' views his biggest on the Continental Congress, John Dickinson, as a ditherer at best and a coward at worst. Later, he privately admits to the man that he admires his integrity and principles, even if he disagrees with his opinions.

** Same description, different context: In the series, Dickinson mentions that they are about to fight a was in a "skiff made of paper," meaning they have no hope to win if they sign the document. In the play, as John Hancock is about to put his signature on it, he refers to the Declaration as a "skiff made of paper," but meaning the start of a new nation.[[labelnote:Context]]This was actually something said by Dickinson in the first place, which John Hancock says in 1776, which was restored to the correct speaker in HBO Adams.[[/note]]

** Same description, different context: In the series, Dickinson mentions that they are about to fight a was in a "skiff made of paper," meaning they have no hope to win if they sign the document. In the play, as John Hancock is about to put his signature on it, he refers to the Declaration as a "skiff made of paper," but meaning the start of a new nation.

** Interestingly enough, the show watches UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams from a young, bookish little boy all the way to ascending to the presidency.

Directed by Creator/TomHooper, it stars Creator/PaulGiamatti as John Adams and Creator/LauraLinney as Abigail Adams.

** John Adams did not cast the deciding vote on the Jay Treaty. Though it was close, it was in fact a 20-10 split in favour, exactly the bare minimum needed to approve it. Not only did Adams not need to cast a deciding vote, he ''couldn't'', as treaty approvals require an outright two-thirds majority in the Senate, with no vote from the President of the Senate allowed.

* KavorkaMan: Creator/BenjaminFranklin is not what some would call traditionally attractive. Nevertheless he is very popular with the ladies.

* {{Warhawk}}: Alexander Hamilton and his crones Pickering and [=McHenry=] in Washington's cabinet are itching to wage war just to gain power for themselves (and less so for America), no matter how flimsy the pretext. After Adams is elected, he retains the old cabinet, not realising that Hamilton is plotting to use them to steer him towards war with France. Initially it looks like Hamilton has a justified reason for doing so - he argues that that the hotbed of revolutionary France will lead to a French "liberation" of the Americas from the tyranny of the American federal government. However, once [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] takes power in France and establishes his own pseudo-monarchy it becomes clear that America no longer has anything to fear from the French who are now setting about conquering Europe. Still, Hamilton, Pickering and [=McHenry=] are dead set on war with France and closer ties with Britain. They tell Adams that he'd be assured of re-election if he were to take America into war because the people are also in favor of it. Adams goes ballistic and fires Pickering and McHenry on the spot for engaging in Realpolitik for their own gain, rather than for the actual good of the nation.

* {{Warhawk}}: Alexander Hamilton and his crones Pickering and McHenry in Washington's cabinet are itching to wage war just to gain power for themselves (and less so for America), no matter how flimsy the pretext. After Adams is elected, he retains the old cabinet, not realising that Hamilton is plotting to use them to steer him towards war with France. Initially it looks like Hamilton has a justified reason for doing so - he argues that that the hotbed of revolutionary France will lead to a French "liberation" of the Americas from the tyranny of the American federal government. However, once [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] takes power in France and establishes his own pseudo-monarchy it becomes clear that America no longer has anything to fear from the French who are now setting about conquering Europe. Still, Hamilton, Pickering and McHenry are dead set on war with France and closer ties with Britain. They tell Adams that he'd be assured of re-election if he were to take America into war because the people are also in favor of it. Adams goes ballistic and fires Pickering and McHenry on the spot for engaging in Realpolitik for their own gain, rather than for the actual good of the nation.

* {{Warhawk}}: Alexander Hamilton and his crones Pickering and McHenry in Washington's cabinet are itching to wage war just to gain power for themselves (and less so for America), no matter how flimsy the pretext. After Adams is elected, he retains the old cabinet, not realising that Hamilton is plotting to use them to steer him towards war with France. Initially it looks like Hamilton has a justified reason for doing so - he argues that that the hotbed of revolutionary France will lead to a French "liberation" of the Americas from the tyranny of the American federal government. However, once [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] takes power in France and establishes his own pseudo-monarchy it's becomes clear that America no longer has anything to fear from the French who are now setting about conquering Europe. Still, Hamilton, Pickering and McHenry are dead set on war with France and closer ties with Britain. They tell Adams that he'd be assured of re-election if he were to take America into war because the people are also in favor of it. Adams goes ballistic and fires Pickering and McHenry on the spot for engaging in Realpolitik for their own gain, rather than for the actual good of the nation.

* DecadentCourt: The French nobility are all debauched party animals, and Franklin is only to happy to ingratiate himself by joining them. He tells Adams that to be fully accepted in French high society, one must become somewhat of a [[ReallyGetsAround depraved sex addict]], and even counsels him to get a French mistress to improve his standing with the aristocracy.

** When John sees Trunbull's painting, he scathingly remarks that he "is no Rubens." Reminiscent of the play when he tells Franklin that the man painting his portrait "is no Botticelli."

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The prestige gained by Washington as the main general of the Continental Army makes him a virtually uncontested candidate for the first presidency, much to Adams' chagrin.

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: The trial of the Boston Massacre soldiers hinges on Adams' belief that mob rule cannot be allowed to ignore the facts of the case. But the series avoids showing how Adams made that argument [[ValuesDissonance on a racial basis]], arguing that the mob was composed of "saucy boys, negroes, and molattoes, Irish teagues[[note]]An old slur for the Irish, based on the Irish name Tadhg[[/note]] and outlandish Jack Tarrs[[note]]Sailors[[/note]]" and by characterising Crispus Attucks, one of the five dead, as a ScaryBlackMan who intimidated the soldiers and roused the mob (despite two eyewitness accounts saying Attucks was back amongst the crowd and not particularly prominent.)

** John Adams did not cast the deciding vote on the Jay Treaty. Though it was close, it was in fact a 20-10 split in favour, exactly the bare minimum needed to ratify it. Not only did Adams not need to cast a deciding vote, he ''couldn't'', as treaty ratifications needed a two-thirds majority rather than a simple one, with no vote from the chair allowed.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Yes, we do have Thomas Jefferson to thank for the swivel chair.

* StunnedSilence: The delegates of the Second Continental Congress after they pass the Lee Resolution, making the United States an independent nation, July 2, 1776.

* TheGreatestHistoryNeverTold:
** Adams is keenly aware in his later years that his contributions towards American independence will be ignored and forgotten in favor of the legends around his more popular contemporaries. As he puts it, history will say that Benjamin Franklin "smote the earth with his electrical rod and out popped Washington and Jefferson".
** In the final year of his life, Adams is presented with the painting of the signing of the declaration of Independence featuring all the delegates in the same room. He comments that it's a big canvas of BlatantLies because the signing happened piecemeal due to everyone being busy fighting the war against England. Adams considers the true history of the revolution to be utterly lost forever in the intervening fifty years.

* AntiVillain: John Dickinson, who's adamantly opposed to independence but for very sympathetic and understandable reasons. This is markedly different from most other portrayals like ''1776''.

2008 US {{Creator/HBO}}'s MiniSeries about the life of UsefulNotes/JohnAdams, second President of the United States, from his defense of the soldiers accused in the Boston Massacre in 1770 to his death in 1826. It's based on the biography by David [=McCullough=], and is divided into seven parts.

* CourtroomAntics: John Adams when defending the British Soldiers after the Boston Massacre.

* ArmorPiercingResponse: Abigail and Washington are discussing the terrible cost of the war, and Abigail suggests that it might be DivineRetribution for the sin of slavery. Washington gives a pained expression of acknowledgement.[[note]]Like many slaveowners nagged by conscience, he did not free his slaves during his life but stipulated manumission in his will. Specifically, his death immediately freed his own personal valet but stipulated that the slaves he got through marriage would only be free on Martha's death, and she decided to free them because she didn't want that death to happen too soon.[[/note]]