Did Franklin achieve the impossible: make a History class, full of names, political turns, and the “bureaucratic” stage of the United States’ independence process, a fun and interesting series, even for foreigners? And whose merit is it? Michael Douglas, of course.

Looking at Michael, no one would immediately consider him to play Benjamin Franklin, but his experience of so many years as a producer and actor cannot be underestimated. The series covers the eight and a half years that the American inventor and diplomat spent in Paris, negotiating the terms and conditions to make the United States of America official as an autonomous country recognized as such internationally.

It’s not worth going into arguments about how complex this process is, the series aims to transform this long, delicate, and even dangerous process into a story with romance, laughter, fears, and surprises. It achieves.

Are there a lot of things thrown in without context or conclusion? Yes. Was it possible to understand everything all the time? For foreigners, no. But it left us curious and engaged. And certainly, that was the creative goal.

The last two episodes went into the painful behind-the-scenes of international politics, with betrayals on all sides and tough negotiation of terms that were inflexible for all parties concerned. And he never let us yawn.

The entire cast, bilingual, gave great performances. Michael Douglas even seems smaller next to them, but his charisma was essential to hold back the entire aura around Franklin. There are creative liberties, like making it clear that he knew all along who betrayed him and how. Historians differ on this, but it made sense as Franklin put it.

The use of the soundtrack weighed heavily on the signing of the document and Benjamin Franklin’s final journey back to the country he created. But it gives us a sense of closure, which has been so rare in all series these days! It’s worth checking out.

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