18 Years Ago, HBO’s Most Underrated Series Premiered (And They Need More Shows Like It)

While HBO has produced plenty of incredible dramas over the years, the cable network needs to bring out more shows like its criminally underrated miniseries from 2008. There are a lot of great HBO shows, from The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, to Deadwood and The Wire. Over the decades, the network has been at the forefront of challenging US TV censorship norms, creating dark, morally complex entertainment that pushes the boundaries of what television can achieve in terms of both bold vision and budgetary ambition.

While Band of Brothers and The Pacific are both great examples of this, 2008’s underrated historical drama miniseries John Adams is arguably the network’s most underrated historical drama to date. Starring Paul Giamatti as the titular US Founding Father, John Adams is a seven-part miniseries based on David McCullough’s biography of the same name. The show tells the story of Adams’ life and the founding of the United States over seven patiently paced episodes, all of which were directed by The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper.

John Adams Premiered On March 16 2008

With a staggering supporting cast, John Adams is a must-watch for fans of historical drama, but also an accessible, engaging show for anyone who is put off by the genre’s somewhat stuffy connotations. The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach does some superb supporting work as John Quincy Adams, while Justin Theroux, Andrew Scott, David Morse, and Sarah Polley flesh out their supporting roles with aplomb. As Adams himself, Giamatti is typically superb.

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The tribulations of setting up a nation are etched across the star’s face throughout the miniseries, but Giamatti is more than matched by Laura Linney’s standout turn as his wife, Abigail Adams. Best known for The Big C and Ozark, Linney gives a typically great performance in this immersive historical drama. Like many of HBO’s best shows, a major strength of John Adams is Hooper’s ability to shift perspectives and tell the show’s lengthy story from a diverse array of viewpoints.

HBO Needs To Invest In More Historical Dramas Like John Adams

Although John Adams was well-received critically, the show’s good reviews didn’t result in a string of similar historical dramas coming from the network in subsequent years. AMC’s four-season historical drama Turn: Washington’s Spies was just about the only show with a similar conceit, likely because John Adams came with a whopping budget of $100 million for its lone season. However, HBO should not allow this high price tag to put the network off future additions to the genre.

Much like Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Chernobyl all proved that HBO could be trusted with bringing 20th-century history to life, John Adams showed that the network could look further into history for inspiration, too. 2005’s earlier Rome was another superb historical drama that showed just how much the network can achieve when HBO is willing to invest in the admittedly expensive genre.

Sadly, it has been some time since viewers received a new HBO historical drama that could compare to John Adams, and it is not clear when the next period piece of similar depth, ambition, and complexity will come around. However, HBO’s history of acclaimed successes in the genre proves that the network would do well to revisit the fertile ground that brought them hits like Rome, Chernobyl, and John Adams over the decades.

What type of programs would you like to see more of from HBO?  Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!