John Adams was a really interesting guy. Don't forget that like I did.

During the Christmas vacation, we played an awful lot of Wits and Wagers, a game in which all the questions have a numerical answer. I missed a question about the date of the Constitution’s ratification because I was counting the years backward from the presidency of Thomas Jefferson and I forgot to include the four years John Adams served as Commander in Chief. Oh, the indignities that poor man has suffered, now to be forgotten entirely by a history major! I resolved to do penance by watching HBO’s miniseries about him, entitled John Adams.

It’s a delight. I mean, I am speaking as a history geek, and also as someone who might even brave the horrors of an Oliver Stone movie if Paul Giamatti was in it, but I do declare it was a delight. Giamatti’s performance was fantastic as usual, and he was surrounded by a really spectacular supporting cast, particularly Laura Linney as Abigail Adams, Stephen Dillane as Jefferson, and Tom Wilkinson as Benjamin Franklin. It was especially fun to watch Dillane, a British actor, utter lines like, “I would gladly lend my hand to sink the whole island of Great Britain into the ocean.” Acting!

The DVDs contain a feature that allows you to watch the episodes with facts popping up throughout. If you do that you’ll learn things like how the scene you're watching actually took place in London, not Massachusetts, and awesome stuff like what Abigail really thought of Alexander Hamilton. She once wrote, “I have read his heart in his wicked eyes many a time. The very devil is in them." Where’s Aaron Burr when you need him?