SYNOPSIS
Franklin is a biographical miniseries streaming on Apple TV+. This series is about the United States Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin. This series portrays the eight years Franklin spent in France to convince King Louis XVI to support the fledgling United States in the American Revolutionary War.
SUMMARY
The Revolutionary War began in 1776. To solicit procedural support from France. So, America sends Benjamin, his grandson, and his aide, Temple, across the Atlantic.
The two flatter themselves to French society, attempting to work their way through the deeply entrenched barriers that keep them from the purse-string holders.
He sees American boys involved in a charm. Benjamin bats his eyes at Anne Louise Brillon de Juoy or Temple snuggling up to a group of idealistic revolutionaries.
The more their efforts find purchase within the French aristocracy, the more their problems compound. British representatives entered the intervention to stop Franklin.
Edward Bancroft shuffles his care for Franklin with his work as a double agent for the Brits. As John Joy scratched their way to a formally signed accord with Britain at war’s end, their competing aspects about what America should look like and how it should treat its allies came to loggerheads.
Franklin’s see-sawing preferences are made clear in the show’s entertaining title sequence, a Pythonesque array of figures drawn from political cartoons of the time showing Franklin in varying states of scandal.
That’s also captured in Tim van Patten’s thorough, considered direction; he and cinematographer David Franco lean heavily on natural light and desaturated blues to craft a France still clinging to greatness as its cruddiness becomes clear.
Jay Wadley’s score balances the classical stuffiness of 18th-century France with modern scoring techniques that sell the show’s frequent dips into political thriller mode. Franklin, Douglas, is an entertaining figure; he manages the granted historical wit of the real Franklin.
He is gnarled but no less amorous for his advanced years, the kind of aging playboy that fits in with the pre-French Revolution incontinence around him. He plays well against his co-stars, especially under the paternal guidance of Jupe’s Temple.
He comes most alive when bombing with Adams, who appears halfway through the series as if he were Nick Fury about to rope Ben into the Founders Initiative. Franklin struggles to capture a legacy in his final years. Temple comes of age, losing himself in the hubbub of French life.
He falls in love with an opera singer, and he searches for a job as a page-rushing letter writer. These subplots could carry a show on their own. Ben Franklin’s more refined statecraft makes them feel worth the runtime.
CAST AND CREW:
- Director: Tim Van Patten
- Writers: Kirk Ellis, Howard Korder
- Producers: Tim Van Patten, Kirk Ellis, and Howard Korder
- Release Date: April 12th, 2024
- Genre: Drama, Biography
- Distributed by: Apple TV+
- Country: United States
- Language: English and available in other regional languages.
- Starring: Michael Douglas, Noah Jupe, Daniel Mays, Ludivine Sagnier, and Thibault de Montalembert