GQ rewatches this show

"John Adams’ lack of an obvious “hook” and sales-pitchy themes of the kind we’ve come to expect from American TV is a big part of what makes John Adams great. It’s one of the few depictions of the American revolution that treats the founding fathers as people, whose particular hang-ups and fractious personalities informed the republic they were building. And even “the republic they were building” is gilding the lily a bit—a situation had come to a head and they were trying to deal with it. "

https://www.gq.com/story/rewatching-john-adams-paul-giamatti