The Adams Family: HBO does John, Abigail and founding fathers proud

The founding fathers, so forbidding as historical figures, come to life in all their contradictory complexity, their courageousness, self-sacrifice and mortal dread, in HBO's new miniseries, "John Adams."

Consider it an antidote to the national damage done this week by Comedy Central's "Lil' Bush." Debuting with back-to-back installments at 7 p.m. Sunday on the premium-cable channel, this weekly seven-part miniseries is a production to make an American viewer proud, not just because it has a far better man as its focal point.

Paul Giamatti, who played the prickly Harvey Pekar in "American Splendor" and the self-absorbed wine snob in "Sideways," is cast in the title role, and as unconventional as that might seem for such a contemporary actor, he turns out to be perfect. Adams was confrontational and irascible, especially by the standards of those far more formal times, and Giamatti captures his prideful insecurity and his reluctant leadership.

"You, sir, are a walking contradiction," he tells Thomas Jefferson in Paris.

"We are all contradictions," says Ben Franklin, wonderfully, lovingly (if a bit too tall-ly) played by Tom Wilkinson.

Wilkinson, who just missed winning an Oscar as the bipolar attorney in "Michael Clayton," is an actor who can play almost anything, from comedy to melodrama, which is what makes him so right for Franklin. "John Adams" places an equally versatile and skillful actor in another key role with Laura Linney as Abigail Adams, John's wife and adviser and a prototypical feminist.

The relationship between Abigail and John is rightfully renowned in history, as their letters attest. Abigail gets a little short shrift in this miniseries. John is arguing for independence in the Continental Congress and helping to found a nation, after all, and this is a historical drama, not a Ken Burns documentary that lends itself to letters being read over tinkly piano music. Yet Linney nevertheless makes Abigail real and heroic, whether critiquing John's proposed final statement in defending the British soldiers accused in the Boston Massacre ("You have overburdened your argument with an ostentatious erudition. You do not need to quote great men to prove you are one."), tending to the family farm or nursing her children through a smallpox epidemic.

This is the story of truly great men and women, but that's just the thing: They seem like men and women we'd recognize, not like legends made larger than life. They have real fears and flaws, but also a respect for ideals seemingly unique to the Enlightenment that makes them better than themselves. Or, as John explains in sending his son, John Quincy Adams, off to Russia as a secretary to a diplomat: "There are times when we must act against our inclinations." The skill in the acting and in Kirk Ellis' screenplay, drawn from David McCullough's Pulitzer-winning biography, is that it acknowledges those natural human inclinations, while showing how the characters transcended them for the good of the country.

Take George Washington, a commanding presence played with unexpected nuance by David Morse (with the help of a prosthetic nose and chin). As "the tallest man in the room," Washington is a natural leader, but Morse projects his humility as well. When he takes the oath of office as president at the end of next weekend's third installment, with the massive New York City crowd straining to hear him, it's a moment all the more dramatic for its understatement.

The first part focuses on Adams' controversial defense of those British soldiers, the second on the Congress and the Declaration of Independence. (Adams recruits Jefferson to write it by saying, "I have a great opinion of the elegance of your pen.") The third sends him off to Paris as a wartime diplomat, a role that did not suit him as well as it did Franklin, and the fourth finds him the first U.S. ambassador to Britain before returning home to serve as vice president to Washington.

From there, it figures to move on to his own presidency and his long feud with Jefferson, through it all with Abigail at his side. The story does bog down from time to time in incessant ideals, but director Tom Hooper proves himself equally skilled at executing a dramatic battle at sea or an elegant matte shot to depict pre-Revolutionary Paris, and he keeps things moving at a brisk pace.

"Facts are stubborn things," Adams says as an attorney, and the best thing about "John Adams" is it sticks stubbornly to the facts instead of burnishing the legend of the founding fathers. Produced by Tom Hanks, it shows the same attention to detail as his previous HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" and "From the Earth to the Moon." It's a great work about a great man - a double play all too rare on television.

Career opportunities

The Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences holds its annual Career Day at WCIU Channel 26, 26 N. Halsted St., Chicago, from 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday. Admission is free to students and NATAS members, $5 for others. Call (312) 344-8600 to make reservations or e-mail infonatas@aol.com.

Witch to 'Wisegal'

Former "Charmed" star Alyssa Milano gets mobbed up in the new Lifetime drama "Wisegal," premiering at 8 p.m. Saturday. She gets support from stereotypical heavies James Caan and Jason Gedrick.

D-List commercials

Comedienne Kathy Griffin of "My Life on the D-List" plays host to a new TBS "World's Funniest Commercials" special featuring ads about sex and love under the title "Hilarious Liaisons," at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Waste Watcher's choice

The Brat Pack does Dumas in the 1993 version of "The Three Musketeers," with Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen and Oliver Platt in the title roles, and Chris O'Donnell as D'Artagnan. But Tim Curry steals the show as Richelieu. It's at 8 p.m. Saturday on the Hallmark Channel.