Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Franklin’ On Apple TV+, Where Michael Douglas Plays The Farting Founding Father

When we heard that Michael Douglas was going to play Benjamin Franklin in a new Apple TV+ series, we had our doubts. But after watching the first episode of the series, which depicts the 70-year-old Franklin and his grandson Temple in France as he tries to negotiate for France to join the Revolutionary War, we appreciated the Oscar winner’s depiction of the Founding Father. The rest of the show, though…

FRANKLIN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “December 3, 1776. Brittany Coast, France.” A rowboat makes its way to the shore in the darkness.

The Gist: Among the people on that boat are Benjamin Franklin (Michael Douglas) and his grandson Temple (Noah Jupe). They’ve arrived in France just as the Continental army in the brand-new United States of America are at its lowest point, having retreated after losing New York and been reduced to about 3,000 soldiers.

Franklin is in France in an unofficial diplomatic capacity, looking for the French to join in the fight against their common enemy, the British. The Continental forces are in need of soldiers, weapons, and funds. When Temple asks his grandfather how long they’re going to be there, he says, “Until we win France to our side and secure our independence, or until we are hanged.”

As Benjamin and Temple make their way into Paris, they’re greeted by throngs of well-wishers; Benjamin blithely tells his grandson that they love him because they think he invented electricity. They pull into the home of Edward Bancroft (Daniel Mays), a friend of Franklin’s and an ally of the Americans. What Franklin is looking for from Bancroft is merely an introduction to someone with the ear of the royal court in Versailles.

Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, the Comte de Vergennes (Thibault de Montalembert), gets reports from spies about the Franklins’ movements and whereabouts, and wants to make the case to King Louis XVI (Tom Pezier) that the court should hear Franklin out. But the king wants nothing to do with Franklin, given the Americans’ dire circumstances, and tells Vergennes that Franklin should not be received at Versailles.

Franklin meets with Pierre Beaumarchais (Assaad Bouab), a producer of stage plays who has some standing in Versailles. He knows he can get the ear of Vergennes, so he gives the producer the numbers of what the Continental army needs. Beaumarchais has a contact that can help procure contraband; Vergennes tells him in an obtuse way where he can obtain some weaponry, but he also wants Franklin to get out of the crucible of Paris for awhile.

Beaumarchais takes the Franklins out to the country to meet Jacques-Donatien La Ray de Chaumont (Olivier Claverie). Utterly charmed by Franklin, Chaumont invites Franklin to stay at his estate, an offer that Beaumarchais strongly suggests he takes.

Franklin has another move, though; he sends Temple straight to Versailles, posing as a cartography student, to send a note personally to Vergennes. Before Vergennes responds, he has Temple stay at the palace, where he gets introduced to the aristocratic French life by the Marquis de Lafayette (Théodore Pellerin), who is among a growing number of young aristocrat soldiers ready to go overseas to fight the British. Franklin and Vergennes eventually meet in secret; Franklin lays out the terms the Americans are looking for and what France can expect in return.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Franklin could be Hamilton without the music, or the 1997 docudrama Thomas Jefferson without Gwyneth Paltrow.

Our Take: Written by Kirk Ellis and Howard Korder based on the book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America by Stacy Schiff, Franklin suffers a bit by having Michael Douglas in the tile role. It’s not that Douglas isn’t believable as Ben Franklin. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It’s just that when Douglas isn’t on screen, the show becomes a fairly boring period drama about diplomacy in 18th century France.

Douglas isn’t asked to do a Ben Franklin impression, to the credit of Douglas, the show’s producers and director Tim Van Patten (of The Sopranos fame). He’s essentially approaching Franklin like he has any other character he’s played over his long career: Charming, a bit rough around the edges, and always looking two steps ahead of the people he’s dealing with. You put Gordon Gekko in tights, ruffles and tiny glasses, you get how Douglas approaches his performance as Franklin.

In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if the then-70-year-old Franklin acted more like Douglas than the avuncular figure you often see in pop culture representations of the founding father. We all know he was whip-smart and inventive, and he could be charming and curmudgeonly, sometimes in the same conversation. He had affairs when he was in France, so his flirtatious conversation with the younger Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy (Ludivine Sagnier) as she played the harpsichord isn’t a surprise. So, when you put together the picture of what Franklin was like back then, the role seems to fit quite well into Douglas’ oeuvre.

The rest of the show we can take or leave. Jupe is OK as Temple, but doesn’t leave much of an impression; sure, his character is a teenager but he seems to absorb the energy and personality of whoever is around him, to his detriment. And as we stated above, the rest of the characters seem to be an amalgamation of diplomatic functionaries that aren’t really portrayed as having any personalities of their own. They all exist in this story in reference to how they interact with Ben Franklin, and when there is no Ben Franklin in the scene, the lack of personality is palpable.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: After Franklin’s secret meeting with Vergennes, Bancroft asks Franklin, “Do we have an alliance?” “No,” replies Franklin, “We have a battle.”

Sleeper Star: Daniel Mays, who plays Edward Bancroft, is one of the few characters in the first episode that displays any sort of character traits beyond being officious and politically-motivated.

Most Pilot-y Line: After Franklin lets one rip at dinner, he and Bancroft joke that Franklin should study breaking wind. “What is electricity compared to a good fart?” Bancroft asks. The word “fart” was used back then, but it still seems a little weird in this context.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re recommending Franklin because we were pleasantly surprised with how well Michael Douglas slipped into the role of Benjamin Franklin. But the rest of the show left us mostly bored.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.