Franklin secures America’s future, far too slowly

The Spool / Reviews

Michael Douglas proves a good surprise in the titular role but AppleTV+'s Franklin can’t overcome its pacing issues.

GenreAnimation Comedy Drama Family History Kids, War & Politics,

SimilarA Boss and a Babe, A Discovery of Witches, A Fortunate Life, A Hero of Our Time, A League of Nobleman, A Little Princess, A Menina Sem Qualidades, A Model Family, A Native of Beijing in New York, A Respectable Trade, A River Runs Through It, A Shop for Killers, A Spy Among Friends, A Touch of Frost, A Very English Scandal, A Year in the Life, A2Z, Advokát ex offo, Agatha Christie's Poirot Alexandr Dumas starší, Alif Allah Aur Insaan, All Creatures Great & Small, And Then There was One Yuriko, Angel Flight, Anna Karenina, Annika, Anxious People, Archangel, Arn: The Knight Templar, As Beautiful As You, Ash, Återkomsten, Atomic Train, Babel, Baby Reindeer, Band of Brothers, Barbora Rösselová, Battle for Happiness, Be with You, Beach Girls, Better Man, Between Us, Beulah Land, Black Narcissus, Black Out, Black Raven, Blackwater, Bleak House, Blossoms Shanghai, Bobby Kennedy for President, Bodies Boys from the Blackstuff, Brand New Cherry Flavor, Brass Dreams, Brides of Christ, Business Proposal, Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?, Café Minamdang, Captains and the Kings, Catch-22, Celebrity, Chaser Game, Chicken Nugget, Choice Husband, Christopher Columbus, Cleopatra, Club Friday the Series 14: Love & Belief, Come Home, Conquistadores: Adventum, Cooking Crush, Copenhagen Cowboy, Culpa - No One Is Innocent, Cupid's Command, Cutie Pie, Cyclone Tracy, Dangerous Liaisons, Dark Winds, Dash & Lily, Dating in the Kitchen, Dead by Sunset, Dead Head, Dead Ringers, Dear Edward, Detective Forst, Dexter Die Diplomatin, Die Patriarchin, Die Wölfe, Dopesick, Driven, Eagles and Youngster, East of Eden, Echoes, Eclipse of the Heart, Elizabeth R, Eric, Evlerden Biri, Faith, Fallen Faraway Downs, Fearless Felipe y Letizia, First Kill, Fool Me Once Fosse/Verdon, From Scratch, G.B.H., Game of Thrones Game Rak Patihan, Genesis, George & Tammy, Good Life: Thank You, Papa, Goodbye, Good Morning Children, Goodbye Earth, Gossip Girl Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones, Halo: The Fall of Reach, Harlan Coben's Shelter, He's Into Her, Heidi, Hello Anne: Before Green Gables, Henry and Anne: The Lovers Who Changed History, Herzogpark, Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway, Hotel, Houdini, Howards End, Hymn of Death, I Just Want To See You, I Know My First Name Is Steven, I Know What You Did Last Summer, If Tomorrow Comes, In Cold Blood, Informa, Intruders, Intrusion, Island at War, Jack the Ripper, Järnvägshotellet, Jekyll, Jesus, Jewels, JFK: Reckless Youth, Joseph Balsamo, Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits-, Kaleidoscope, Kamen Rider Black Sun, Kamen Rider Jeanne & Kamen Rider Aguilera with Girls Remix, Kamen Rider Outsiders Kamenskaya, Kamenskaya - 5, Kamenskaya - 6, Kindred, Kiri, Kiseki: Dear to Me, Kiss Me First, Kiss Sixth Sense, Kita Yoshio's Tomorrow, Korea-Khitan War, Krupp: A Family Between War and Peace, Kumokiri Nizaemon, Kungamordet, L'amaro caso della Baronessa di Carini, La Chambre des dames, La Cloche tibétaine, La vida simplemente, Längtans blåa blomma, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Les Misérables, Life of Shakespeare, Like a Flowing River, Likit Kammathep, Little Birds, Lives of the Saints, Logically Impossible! Detective Ryoko Kamizuru Is on the Case, Long Time No See, Love Between Fairy and Devil, Love By Chance, Love in the Big City, Love Is Sweet, Love Syndrome III, Lovecraft Country, M*A*S*H Maid, Marco Polo, Mare of Easttown, Master of the Game, Mayfair Witches, Meet You at the Blossom, Meeting You Loving You, Melissa, Midnight Ferris Wheel, MIGNON, Million Dollar Babies, Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced, Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye, Miss Marple: The Body in the Library, Monarch of the Glen MosGaz. Delo N1, Motto! Majime ni Fumajime Kaiketsu Zorori, Ms Ma, Nemesis, Murder in the Heartland, Muted, My Beautiful Man, My Fantastic Mrs Right, My Gear and Your Gown, My Lovely Boxer, My Only 12%, My Ride, My Secret Love, Nacht der Frauen, Nice Work, Noah's Ark, Nothing Remains the Same, Number Woman Gye Sook Ja, Nur eine kleine Affäre, Nutcracker: Money, Madness & Murder, Oh! My Sweet Liar!, Olivia Twist, On Marriage, One Day, One Trillion Dollars, Open Your Eyes, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Ordeal by Innocence, Orient Express, Os Maias, Pachinko, Pandora's Clock, Paper Giants: Magazine Wars, Parizaad, Paul Gauguin, Per amore del mio popolo, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: JonBenét and the City of Boulder, Peter and Paul, Planet of the Apes Polisen i Strömstad, Pollyanna, Pompeii, Pope John Paul II, Povídky malostranské, Power Rangers Dino Force Brave, Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, Presumed Innocent, Pride and Prejudice Prima sezóna, Prom Pissawat, Provoke, Quatermass II, Queer as Folk, Quicksand, Rage of Angels, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Reacher, Reborn Rich, Rebus Reverse 4 You, Ridley, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Roswell Roswell, New Mexico, Run with the Wind, RUSH: Inspired by Battlefield, Saint X, Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, Scarpetta, Scrublands, Scully Scumbag System, Seven Seconds, Seventh Avenue, Shadowlands, Shangri-La, Shardlake, Sherlock Holmes Shining Girls, Six Survivors, Ski into Love, Son of the Morning Star, Soul Land, Spies of Warsaw, Strangers and Brothers, Studs Lonigan, Supreme God Emperor, Sweet Magnolias, Sweetbitter, Sweetpea, Taken, Takin' Over the Asylum, Tales from the Neverending Story Tales of the South Seas, Tanner '88, Teacup, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tell Me Lies, Tender Is the Night, The 100, The ABC Murders, The Act, The Agatha Christie Hour The Amazing Grace of Σ, The Baxters, The Bequeathed, The Blood of Youth, The Bourne Identity The Brothers Karamazov, The Catch, The Cicada's Eighth Day, The Colour of Magic, The Consultant, The Couple Next Door, The Day of the Triffids, The Debt, The Defence, The Demon Hunter's Romance, The Essex Serpent, The Far Pavilions, The Final Cut, The Fire Next Time, The First Olympics: Athens 1896, The Forest of Love: Deep Cut, The Founder of Diabolism, The French Atlantic Affair, The Frog, The Genius of Mozart, The Glory, The Gold, The Gravy Train Goes East, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Helicopter Heist, The High School Heroes, The House in the Woods, The Ingenious One, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, The Invisible Man, The Irrational, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA, The Journalist, The Jungle, The Kidnapping Day, The Killer's Shopping List, The Killing Kind, The Last Convertible, The Last Cyclist, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Little Drummer Girl, The Lost World The Loyal Pin, The Lørenskog Disappearance, The Lying Life of Adults, The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns, The Many Faces of Ito, The Midwich Cuckoos, The Minions of Midas, The Murder of Mary Phagan, The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Night Agent, The Ordinary World, The Patient, The Perfect Couple, The Phantom of the Opera, The Plot Against America, The Prey, The Quatermass Experiment, The Rainbow, The Rector's Wife, The Regime, The Return of the Condor Heroes, The Secrets of Lake Success, The Serial Killer's Wife, The Shield and the Sword, The Shining The Silence, The Singing Detective, The Stone of Affection, The Story of Park's Marriage Contract, The Strain, The Sun Also Rises, The Sympathizer, The Tatami Time Machine Blues, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, The Tyrant, The Undoing, The Whirlwind, The White Queen, The Witness for the Prosecution, The Woods, The Word, Those About to Die, Three Women, Through the Darkness Tiger Lily, 4 femmes dans la vie, Till The End of The Moon, Time and Him are Just Right, Tiny Pretty Things, To Kill a Cop, Trickster, True Women, Tsurune, Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky, Twist of Fate, Ultraviolet, Unknown, Unlucky Girl!, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, V, Vanity Fair, Vyhnanství, War & Peace, War Sailor, Wedding Impossible, WHAT / IF, When We Were Young, Where Your Eyes Linger, Who Were We Running From?, Wimarn Din, Wir sind das Volk - Liebe kennt keine Grenzen, Without Breast There Is No Paradise, World War II: When Lions Roared, Wycliffe YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master, Yonder, You Touched My Heart, Young Catherine, Youth, Yuri or Another, ZERO -The Bravest Money Game-, Каменская - 3,

Watch afterBetter Call Saul, Black Mirror Breaking Bad Chernobyl Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story Dark Matter, Doctor Who, Fallout, Fear the Walking Dead, Game of Thrones Hannibal, Invincible Loki Money Heist Monk, Squid Game Stranger Things The Boys The Mandalorian The Simpsons Westworld

StudioApple Studios,

6.6

Michael Douglas’s career so deeply connects him to as specific kind of late 20th/early 21st Century man. As a result, throwing him back to the 18th Century and into the body of Benjamin Franklin feels deeply counterintuitive. It is not surprising that Franklin—an adaptation of the book A Great Improvisation by Stacy Schiff—is one of the few period projects Douglas has done, joining the likes of The Ghost and the Darkness and those flashback scenes in the Ant-Man films. What is surprising, and to the series’ credit, is how quickly that strangeness recedes. It isn’t that Douglas manages to fade into the role of Franklin until he disappears entirely, but he does manage to recede enough that he doesn’t disrupt the show’s reality.

In some ways, Douglas proves a surprisingly apt selection. No stranger to playing womanizers on screen, Douglas easily finds the correct valence to portray Franklin’s specific flavor of late 18th-century skirt chaser. The metacommentary works in his favor as well, an aging icon who retains much of his skill but perhaps can no longer command the same buzz or box office returns embodying an aging icon whose mind remains sharp but whose body—and possibly will—has been beaten up by life and time. While almost a decade older than the Franklin he’s portraying, Douglas also excels at the moments where the audience witnesses the statesman energized like old times.

Franklin (AppleTV+) — Thibault de Montalembert has neither the time nor the interest in your lame attempts at Call My Agent/Dix pour cent joke attempts. (AppleTV+)

Still, the script too frequently hamstrings the actor. Not bad by any means, the writing still suffers for trying to match Franklin’s reputation. It’s the old conundrum of trying to build a series, film, or play around a singular piece of art. How does a creator convince the audience that someone is singing the most fantastic song ever without truly writing the most fantastic song ever? Similarly, how do writers provide dialogue to what is, by historical reputation, one of the greatest wits in American History without simply quoting his greatest hits?

Douglas invests a slyness in Franklin that hints at his talents, overcoming some of those script deficiencies. Nonetheless, it is a bit akin to telling, not showing, in the end. On the other hand, the source material was similarly criticized for its inability to make Franklin come to life on the page. On this score, the series fares a fair bit better. Even if the script can’t always find the words, it at least frequently confirms how the man earned his reputation.

The supporting cast is a mixed bag. Some, like Eddie Marsan’s John Adams, prove near perfect. Marsan’s depiction of Adams’ rigidity and love of country make it clear his unpleasantness and decency. Thibault de Montalembert as foreign minister Count de Vergennes gives the French side of the story a grounding that the series too rarely affords the host country’s citizens. Too often, Franklin seems both overly dazzled and repulsed by the French upper class’s excesses, a condition that renders them more cartoonish than characters.

Other supporting players are interesting but ultimately incomplete. Ludivine Sagnier, as potential married love interest Madame Brillon, gives her character far more depth than the script affords her. She finds many ways to portray sadness and regret with only a look or cadence. Still, she remains frustratingly ill-defined. Edward Bancroft (Daniel Mays), Franklin’s doctor and confidante, is in a similar situation. He’s a thin character embodied by an actor doing tremendous work to push Bancroft into three dimensions.

Finally, there is Franklin’s grandson Temple (Noah Jupe). The series has seemingly elected him to carry all possible shifts in mood and motivation while Douglas remains steadfastly wily. As a result, Jupe frequently feels like he’s playing different characters, often within the same episode. More tiresomely, he—and thus, the viewers—frequently finds himself on the receiving end of several lessons from “perhaps the French aren’t all that great” to “perhaps rich people aren’t all that great” and, most frequently, “perhaps my famously intelligent and witty grandfather might be intelligent and witty.”

With so little to hold on to, it’s no wonder Jupe’s Temple feels so immature and unpleasant. Present-day 19-year-olds would not seem so naïve. A 19-year-old, during a time when, effectively, there was no societal difference between teens and adults, has even less of an excuse to so thoroughly and repeatedly demonstrate such immaturity. Jupe, a talented performer, deserves better.

While there is a lot of Temple, he’s ultimately not the titular Franklin. Thus, regardless of the character’s shortcomings, the series largely moves past and over him without much by way of derailment. The number of episodes and their running time do far more damage. There’s plenty to enjoy visually alongside the aforementioned strong performances, but Franklin’s pace still leaves much to be desired. It has a churning, repetitive cadence. That may accurately portray the grind of Franklin’s years in France securing the country’s relationship with the fledgling United States. However, from an entertainment standpoint, it makes for sluggish viewing.

In the end, Benjamin Franklin’s mix of merits and flaws made him such a compelling historical figure. Unfortunately for Franklin, its ratio of virtues to defects leans too heavily to the latter.

Franklin fires up on the printing press on AppleTV+ beginning April 12.

GenreAnimation Comedy Drama Family History Kids, War & Politics,

NetworkApple TV+