Roush Review: Michael Douglas Embarks on ‘Franklin’s French Adventure

Franklin

Matt's Rating:

Michael Douglas has built a career, reaping a Best Actor Oscar and an Emmy among other accolades, around his considerable charisma, which makes him an inspired choice to portray the legendary Founding Father and statesman Benjamin Franklin in the Apple TV+ limited series Franklin, a lavish if leisurely eight-part docudrama.

“A long life has taught me that diplomacy must never be a siege, but a seduction,” Franklin declares to his French hosts as the 70-year-old global celebrity embarks on a mission during the darkest days of the American Revolution in 1776, wooing the monarchy and its skittish representatives to support the colonies in their armed rebellion against the British king. (The French royals would face their own bloody resolution more than a decade later, but that’s another story.)

This escapade sprawls over eight years, with spies lurking everywhere and Franklin surviving vandalism of his prized printing press and even an assassination attempt. It’s a compelling story, though the viewer may occasionally get lost in a sea of powdered wigs and faces as we witness the sausage of history being made. Still, there are respites from this lesson in the delicate dance of negotiation and diplomacy, with Franklin’s charms attracting several flirtatious female admirers who flatter his ego when he’s not nursing his debilitating gout.

Initially banned from the Versailles court and even Paris, sequestered in a country estate, Franklin sometimes comes off as the houseguest who’ll never leave, threatening to overstay his welcome. His teenage grandson Temple (A Quiet Place‘s Noah Jupe), who’s led astray by privileged peers more often than Pinocchio, definitely does. But things pick up at the series’ midpoint when the irascibly impatient John Adams (Ray Donovan‘s terrific Eddie Marsan) arrives from the embattled colonies to chastise his more popular advocate for freedom about the “slow, silent, imperceptible creeping” of Franklin’s progress.

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Adams warns of the peril of trading allegiance to one tyrant for another (the ill-fated King Louis XVI), while Franklin bristles at what he considers his blunt colleague’s “expedient backstabbing.” Their banter is great fun, worthy of its own series. Like when Adams declares, “I did not come here to be liked,” and Franklin responds, “And you have succeeded admirably.”

It’s impossible not to like Douglas’s cunning spin on the larger-than-life Franklin. Adams may have loathed and envied his wit and wiles, but they ultimately win the day. And the war.

Franklin, Series Premiere (three episodes), Friday, April 12, Apple TV+