good old-fashioned epic
April 23, 2008

I watched the end of John Adams on Sunday.
It was the end of the Abigails that affected me the most strongly, though. Nabby's breast cancer and Abigail Senior's fade out had me bawling.

Especially the "surgery". It seemed like every episode had to include one really gory, "look-away" moment. What the heck was that about? Off the top of my head, I can think of a really gruesome tar-and-feathering, the smallpox innoculations, the amputation-at-sea, and Nabby's mastectomy--that's four of seven, just off the top of my head.

One thing that was gnawing at me in this episode was Charles's widow, Sally. The actress who played her seemed so familiar--and for me, that almost always means the voice is familiar. All hail IMDb. Turns out the Streepling sounds kind of like her mom. There's some facial resemblance, too, and from some angles, it's kinda freaky.

But can I just say--of all the times to throw in a reference to "1776"! When John and Abigail were anxiously awaiting the outcome of their daughter's butchery surgery, JA's pacing compels Abagail to snap for God's sakes, John, sit down ...and I lost it.

It did put me in a "1776" mood, though. After spending a happy couple of hours on You Tube last night, I came to a couple of conclusions: Ken Howard was one fiiiine specimen in his prime. And I've always had a low-grade crush on William Daniels.