John Adams

Enjoyment rests on whether you can buy Giamatti as the titular founding father and second president of the U.S. Based on the best-selling bio by David McCullough, Adams is intelligent, impatient, irascible, resentful, and deeply devoted to both his country and his wife, the equally resourceful Abigail (Linney). Most of the familiar historical figures are present and accounted for--George Washington (Morse), Benjamin Franklin (Wilkinson), and Thomas Jefferson (Dillane)--as well as such events as the Continental Congress and the Declaration of Independence, but Adams isn't particularly likeable and you'll probably find out more than you could ever want to know.