Franklin Series Review: Majestic Apple Tv+ Series That will Captivate Lovers of Costume Series

Cast: Michael Douglas, Noah Jupe, Marc Duret, Ludivine Sagnier, Thibault de Montalembert, Daniel Mays, Assaad Bouab, Eddie Marsan, Jeanne Balibar, Théodore Pellerin

Created By: Tim Van Patten

Streaming Platform: Apple TV+

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars)

The review of Franklin, the miniseries produced and starring Michael Douglas from April 12th on Apple TV+ in which the actor plays the role of one of the Founding Fathers but the result is a slave to the pomposity of the staging. Benjamin Franklin remains one of the most fascinating but above all fundamental figures in American history and beyond. Politician, revolutionary, patriot, man of culture, inventor, libertine, spy… nothing was missing in his incredible life. On Apple TV+, a miniseries arrives starring the late Gordon Gekko Michael Douglas, who gives every ounce of his charisma and class to a visually beautiful, well-directed, sumptuous drama which perhaps doesn’t have a clear identity, and which exceeds sometimes with a mix of genres and atmospheres.

Temple: How long will we have to stay?

Franklin: Until we get France on our side and secure our independence. Or we get hanged.

Temple: Is there a third choice?

Franklin: I guess there’s always being accused of treason!

This is one of the first dialogues with which the new Apple TV+ series with Michael Douglas opens, and it is capable of summarizing very well the situation in which the two main characters of this story, Benjamin Franklin and his nephew Temple, find themselves. The two have just landed on the French coast and must carry out a very difficult mission: convince the king of France and his advisors to support America in the War of Independence against England. It’s not an easy situation, on the one hand, the Americans are openly losing, so it doesn’t seem particularly convenient at the moment to support them, on the other the English, even on French territory, are willing to do anything to ruin their plans.

If the war were to be definitively lost, what would become of them? Most likely death as traitors. On his part, however, Franklin has a brilliant intellect and a very strong predisposition for diplomacy, as well as being famous in France for his pioneering discoveries, characteristics that lead him to easily infiltrate the nobility of the place, to weave plans and intrigues to bring the situation in his favor and consequently in favor of the American people. Michael Douglas in the main role, as we will see in this review of Franklin, is quite convincing, the now almost eighty-year-old actor plays the heavy role of one of the founding fathers of the United States at times with irony and lightness, at others with the gravitas necessary to manage the most complicated situations.

Franklin Series Review: The Story Plot

Benjamin Franklin (Michael Douglas) had a mission to accomplish in December of 1776: he must go to France, to Paris, and convince King Louis XVI and his court that the newborn American Revolution’s days were not numbered, that their support it could be decisive in defeating England, which the Transalpines detest and to which they had to cede their colonies in North America at the end of the Franco-Indian War. Franklin was a true world star already at the time, of his stature as an intellectual, thinker, politician, inventor, and a thousand other things, which made him the leading personality of his time. The American rebels, however, are in a bad way militarily speaking, and many in France doubt that it would make sense to help them. Only the Count of Vergennes (Thibault de Montalembert) and the young Marquis of Lafayette (Théodore Pellerin) are truly on their side. The situation will get complicated in an unpredictable way.

Franklin confirms that when Apple TV+ makes historical or costume dramas, it focuses on the level of workers, aesthetics, and overall quality of production of an absolute level, to which only HBO has been able to respond in recent times. We saw it with Masters of the Air, with Manhunt, with Palm Royale and now here we end up in France that still doesn’t know it’s on the brink of a Revolution, while it thinks about whether to help another one or not. Directed with a sure hand by Tim Van Patten, Franklin is taken from the book “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America” ​​by Stacy Schiff but unlike other similar recent cases, it takes considerable liberty in what it concerns historical truth and of course the re-enactment of what France was like at the time.

Franklin focuses on the efforts, unplanned but contrary improvised from time to time, with which the messenger of the newborn United States of America tries to make space for himself and gain consideration within a world that, voluntarily, the miniseries presents totally opposites as far as its protagonist is concerned. Michael Douglas moves with mastery, making his character a sort of curious explorer of an unknown land, made of lace, wigs, haute couture, powder, refined dishes, and a complexity that fascinates him. However, he will be able to respond blow for blow, without denying his own identity, but on the contrary, making himself sometimes exotic, other times very flexible in that strange realm where everything is appearance and nothing is certain.

Franklin Series Review and Analysis

Franklin brings other very important characters into the writing. Above all, the composer Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy, Ludivine Sagnier, and Noah Jupe, who plays Franklin’s then-teenage son, William, deserve a mention. Then Eddie Marsan emerges as the intractable John Adams, and Jeanne Balibar in the role of Madame Helvetius, in short, there is no shortage of faces and personalities. The miniseries, after a fairly classic start, decides to turn and become a mix between training film, costume comedy, and a sort of modernist and pop reinterpretation, in short, it mixes the cards, positioning itself as a cross between modern atmospheres and representation for the more general public. blatantly modern. Which in the long run can be an excellent idea or even boring, depending on how open you are to such a radical game of masks.

Franklin sometimes gives the impression of not knowing exactly whether to follow the path of historical narration tout-court, of the melody, of the coming-of-age film, or the American-style revisiting of a very American moment. Brilliant in terms of the interaction between the different characters, who offer moderate smiles, he plays perhaps the best part in the chemistry between Douglas and Sagnier. The dialogues, however, often tend to be too diluted and elongated, the clash-encounter between America halfway between Enlightenment and Puritanism and France anchored to traditions, rituals, and inferiority syndrome compared to the British enemy, often appears crude and too pro-American. We alternate between splendid costumes and interiors, we conspire but not much, we court but then it seems like we are in today’s world, and we talk about realpolitik until the next dance or concert. Fascinating, suave, but a little too predictable, a little too devoid of a true historical vocation.

Compared with the cynical and visceral audacity of the recent Mary & George, with the telenovela 2.0 coherence of a Bridgerton, Franklin seems to take on the same defects as the recent The Buccaneers, compared to which it has a greater artistic caliber, a beautiful protagonist, as well as the desire to talk to us about the complicated game of politics. But he insists too much on the father-son dynamics, the modern and inclusive rereading is honestly not very coherent.  In any case, Franklin is a perfect miniseries to pass the time with beautiful images and a refined but accessible and, to say the least, bewitching atmosphere, but as far as biopics are concerned, Apple TV+ must do something more. After all, he gave us Manhunt and The New Look, perhaps it’s time to be a little less pop and a little more direct.

Franklin is yet another valuable product produced by Apple TV+, which never disappoints with its production and distribution choices. The series directed by Tim Van Patten and based on Stacy Schiff’s 2005 book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, stages an extremely interesting moment in American (and French) history between majestic reconstructions and sumptuous costumes, the protagonist takes us with him to pre-revolutionary France where we can already feel the weight of what will happen in a few years, trying to convince a monarch and a nobility anchored to the most ancient traditions to support new people who want to rebel and rebuild themselves. The battles fought by Franklin do not pass through the sword, but through words: the art of diplomacy is something with which man is capable of manipulating those around him, slowly convincing them to bend to his plans.

The dialogues – in multiple languages ​​- between Franklin and his interlocutors are the most convincing element of the screenplay, and even the local spectator – perhaps less informed about the historical events of that period – is dragged into the chess game played by the protagonist with his eloquence and his incredible ability to adapt. If Michael Douglas is capable of giving a convincing face to Franklin’s ambiguous charm, in which strengths and extreme weaknesses coexist, his character works very well also because he is contrasted with complementary supporting characters: his nephew Temple, young and innocent in first episodes but increasingly aware and “active” in subsequent ones, the passionate Gilbert du Motier (the Marquis de La Fayette) who with his impulsiveness and recklessness will prove decisive, and the female characters who surround him, in particular his beloved Anne Brillon (Ludivine Sagnier).

However, we would have expected more from a series of secondary characters who are introduced but left exaggeratedly in the background, primarily Pierre Beaumarchais (Assaad Bouab), initially fundamental to Franklin’s cause and then less and less present, and the famous Chevalier d’Eon (Romain Braud), a figure who deserved more space and a more in-depth background. Let us therefore move on to what we consider the sore points of the series directed by Tim Van Patten: by shifting the focus on the diplomatic work carried out by Franklin – rather than on the actual War of Independence – the plot is not always able to be particularly compelling, and to think back to the once we have finished watching the episodes we realize that it is difficult to distinguish them from each other, because fundamentally what happens is always the same. Franklin talks and convinces increasingly important members of the French nobility to support the United States in their war, escaping several attacks plotted by the English.

Meanwhile, Temple is searching for himself, between friendships that are increasingly important to him and the desire to grow up and leave the nest (for him there is a succession of mentors, loves, and adventurous impulses…). Perhaps the perspective of what is happening in the United States is missing, we would have liked that more “action” side of the events to also be explored, giving somehow a different weight to the work done by Franklin. Most of the time the man ends up looking like a diplomat who, in addition to living the good life, fights for a cause we know little or nothing about, for a revolutionary people that we don’t even see from afar (except for a very brief sequence in which we follow the misadventures on American soil of the Marquis de La Fayette). In conclusion, Franklin is a good costume product that will undoubtedly captivate lovers of the genre, but to be truly convincing it should have told the historical period it talks about with a broader perspective. Narrowing the focus to Franklin is fine for a few episodes, but then we needed to move overseas and bring some action into the story, which otherwise ends up being unfocused and decidedly too verbose.

Franklin Series Review: The Last Words

Franklin is a majestic series that will captivate lovers of costume series, a shame about the too-narrow focus on Franklin’s character. We would have preferred it if they had told us more about what was happening overseas. We close Franklin’s review by asking ourselves why Apple TV+ insists on proposing these historical miniseries that try to reconnect with current events but don’t always succeed. If Manhunt a period drama became a true crime, in this case, we want to focus on the analysis of the strategy adopted by Benjamin Franklin, who however fails to pierce the screen, despite the charisma of Michael Douglas. Too much running time and too many (useless) characters to keep up with, and not properly explored.

Franklin Series Review: Majestic Apple Tv+ Series That will Captivate Lovers of Costume Series - Filmyhype

Director: Tim Van Patten

Date Created: 2024-04-12 13:28

Editor's Rating:
3

Pros

• The main character is very convincing
• The majestic reconstructions and fabulous costumes
• The interesting perspective on the work of Benjamin Franklin...

Cons

• ...it's a shame that after a while you also need a broader perspective
• The series ends up being a bit repetitive