On John Adams

Over the holiday weekend, HBO has been repeating its miniseries based on the David McCullough biography of John Adams, so now I've watched all seven episodes, some more than once. John Adams has been by far the most impressive thing I've seen on television in years. A superior production in every aspect: writing, acting, photography, costume design, set design, score, you name it. I'm so impressed I've decided I need to read the book as well. Anyone who hasn't seen John Adams owes it to themself to do so; the dialogue alone makes the eight hour viewing time worthwhile. Highly recommended.

I assume the show is reasonably accurate historically, and correctly depicts life as it was lived from 1770 until the early 1800s. If that's the case, it causes me to think about how radically the world has changed since the time period in which the U.S. Constitution was written and ratified. For example, there are at least three scenes in John Adams that dramatize the practice of medicine then in astonishing contrast to technology we take for granted now. As exceptional as Founders like Adams, Washington, Franklin and Jefferson were, I have to wonder if they could imagine what the world would be like 200 years later. Just something to consider when the argument is made that today's Supreme Court decisions should be based on original intent.