Franklin is a Dad Show about a Founding Farter
Michael Dadlas IS Benjaman Franklin...and he has gas
Prime Video, home of Reacher and Bosch, is the spiritual streaming home of Dad Shows. But Apple TV+ produces the highest number of Dad Shows
per capita. Masters of the Air and Manhunt just ended, and Apple TV+ already has another historical drama limited series ready to take their place: Franklin, starring Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin is presented as a political thriller in which Philly Boy Ben travels to France to try to secure the crown’s support for the American revolution. The French need persuading, there are British spies all around, and the only people Ben Frank can trust are his teenage grandson Temple and Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy, a French lady who thinks he’s the sexiest man in Paris.
It brings me only a little bit of joy to report that while Franklin is definitely a Dad Show, it is not a good one. The little bit of joy comes from how unintentionally funny the show often is. Its clunky dialogue and hammy performances give it a distinctly school play feel. It often reminds me of the classic Benjamin Franklin Drunk History video. “William, you are my bastard son…”
Michael Douglas is a great choice to play Ben Franklin. If you need someone to play the horniest man in American history, you want the guy who said he got tongue cancer from cunnilingus. Mike Doug was probably like “I get what makes this guy tick. I’m something of a renaissance man myself.”
Douglas is clearly having a lot of fun in this show. It’s his first time starring in a costume drama, which is pretty incredible considering how many things he’s done in his career. But even he can’t make stilted lines like “One has the honest desire to punch him in the nose” sound natural. I think the dialogue on Franklin is meant to sound period-accurate, but it mostly sounds stuffy and overwritten. (The only actor who doesn’t get tripped up is Théodore Pellerin, who plays the Marquis de Lafayette so excitedly that he powers his way through it.)
Franklin just makes a lot of baffling choices in general. There are a lot of sexual references that are supposed to be bawdy but just aren’t funny, and a lot of, like, fart jokes. I mean, Ben Franklin liked to fart, so it’s historically accurate, but to have a scene where he rips ass and says “It’s remarkable how one’s outlook is improved by the passing of wind” just feels…unnecessary.
There’s a moment in one episode where Franklin approaches Anne while she’s playing the harpsichord. “You play beautifully,” I said out loud, as a joke, because that’s the most cliched line he could possibly say at that moment. Literally one and a half seconds later, he said “You play beautifully.” In French, but still, my point stands. And I don’t understand why they put the Ozark filter on Franklin and turned everything a murky, unappealing shade of blue.
All right, that’s enough piling on. This newsletter is for celebrating Dad Shows, not burying them. And Franklin is certainly a Dad Show. Benny Bifocals is not dads’ favorite Founding Father – George Washington and Alexander Hamilton are ahead of him, especially among dads who watch MSNBC – but all dads recognize him as the Coolest Guy among the Founding Fathers. He discovered electricity and ate so good he got gout. Nobody else who signed the Declaration of Independence had his joie de vivre. When John Adams – nobody’s favorite Founding Father, sorry to Paul Giamatti – shows up in Franklin, it’s to stop Ben from having fun. C’mon, John. Let our boy cook.
I can’t recommend Franklin – if you’re looking for a recent Apple TV+ thriller about American history, watch Manhunt – but I also can’t say don’t watch it, either. It’s fun in its own goofy way, and it gets better as it goes on. And if you’re a history buff who has been waiting your life to hear Ben Franklin go all Blazing Saddles, your dream has come true.