Franklin (2024)
Season 1 Premiere:
Apr 12, 2024
Metascore
Mixed or Average
57
User score
Generally Favorable
6.7
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All Seasons
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Metascore
Mixed or Average
57
36% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
64% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Apr 10, 2024
83
Whether singling out characters like the gender-bending Chevalier d’Éon, taking us to the theater, regaling us with armonica and piano recitals, or indulging us in Temple’s first blushes of love (and lust), Franklin takes enough narrative detours to more robustly tell this quintessentially American tale.
Apr 23, 2024
70
[Michael Douglas is] an inspired choice to portray the legendary Founding father and stateman Benajamin Franklin in a lavish if leisurely eight-hour docudrama. [22 Apr - 12 May 2024, p.5]
User score
Generally Favorable
6.7
64% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
27% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
9% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Apr 18, 2024
10
Appreciate the acting and historical accuracy (compared to most of the immersion-breaking tripe coming out of Hollywood).
Jun 16, 2024
4
Michael Douglas plays the American Founding Father at age 70, when he travelled to France to negotiate an alliance with the country. While the political process involves most of the series, his dalliances with women and the preoccupation with the Court by his grandson (Noah Jupe) get plenty of play. Expectedly, the settings and cinematography are lovely (some was shot at Versailles), but the wandering story weakens the narrative. Douglas makes no attempt to look like his character, so that's one point against him. He manages to bring some gravitas to the role, but isn't especially powerful. Those interested in American history may enjoy the machinations (although not especially compelling), but as a dramatic experience, it's less impressive.
Apr 10, 2024
70
Franklin is too composed and unruffled in its storytelling to be a gripping spy thriller, but it also juggles too many plotlines at once to be considered a straightforward biopic. Yet every scene where Douglas inhabits this seemingly larger-than-life person humanizes an American hero — and reasserts that this may have just been the role he was meant to play at this stage in his career.
Apr 10, 2024
60
Douglas combines twinkly-eyed insouciance with gravel-voiced gravitas to prove that Franklin was the real deal. So much so that you want to know rather more about him and rather less about the flotilla of characters that breeze in and out of a story that focuses entirely on Franklin’s eight-year stay in France.
Apr 12, 2024
50
Franklin’s legendary charm was indeed good for something, and it still is here. But even those attributes, and Douglas’ interpretation of them, don’t quite prove inventive enough to compensate for its shortcomings.
Apr 12, 2024
40
Across eight episodes stuffed full of dull monologues in a country 3,000 miles away from the action of the war, the philosopher’s quest feels both self-serving and arrogant. Douglas tries to infuse humor in the role, highlighting Franklin’s various ailments – including his bouts of gout, along with his terrible grasp of the French language. Still, these interjections fail to break through the monotony of the show.
Apr 10, 2024
40
Franklin rarely completely succeeds. Adapted for TV by Kirk Ellis and Howard Korder and directed by Tim Van Patten (Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos), Franklin pinpoints all sorts of compelling historical details, but struggles to create any sort of narrative flow for what turned out to be an eight-year task for Franklin.
Apr 17, 2024
1
The acting and writing for this is simply awful. What could maybe have been a good period piece is ruined by Michael Douglas poor acting, surely there must have been better choices for the role. I would hope Apple in the future would do a better job screening its series purchases, this was almost as difficult to watch as the Completely Made Up Adventures of **** Turpin.
