If you don’t have HBO this season, I’m sorry.

It’s not because you’ll miss the crazy antics of those feisty bigamist Mormons in HBO’s Big Love, or the asinine drivel that spews from Bill Maher’s frothy mouth every Friday night (my hatred for Bill Maher is only rivaled by my disgust with Seth Rogen).

What you’re missing is the new HBO miniseries based on David McCullough’s biography of the nation’s second president, John Adams, as played by Paul Giamatti. It’s the nation’s revolution against its mother as seen through the eyes of one of its first leaders, a man who at one point successfully defended British troops accused of intentionally killing five defenseless men in a mob.

You’ll read reviews that draw similarities between this show and no other historic recount of the revolution; reviewers laud the series for its honest portrayal of John Adams and the events leading up to and surrounding America’s independence.

Because I’m no history buff and haven’t read McCullough’s book (or any sort of history book since senior year in high school), my review will focus on how completely awesome Paul Giamatti is.

I really started to notice the guy after his break-out lead role in M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water; Giamatti plays a wide-eyed, adorable but eternally grieving doctor-turned-apartment-manager who finds a naked woman/bedtime story character in the apartment pool.

After the movie, I began to realize that Giamatti was in a bazillion other movies; he was that guy whose face I always recognized but whose name always eluded me. Like David Morse, who plays George Washington in the HBO series and who I had to look up on the series website to be reminded who the hell he is.

Anyways, Giamatti was fantastic and endearing in Lady in the Water, hilarious and endearing in Sideways, striking and endearing in Cinderella Man and, now, as John Adams, strong, pissy, patient, intelligent, arrogant, pompous, articulate and, yes, endearing. He is a dependent lover, an imperfect but devoted father, an elitist, over-educated attorney with unwavering ideals and a strong sense of persuasion. He’s good, he’s bad, he’s oh-so-awesome.

Whether all of that accurately portrays John Adams, I don’t know. I hear that it does. For me, when I now think of our second president, I evoke Paul Giamatti’s face and his bald, bristly head covered by a funny, curly wig. And, I remember his name.

For those of you who don’t have HBO, cancel your worthless subscription to Cinemax and switch over to the right side, the HBO side. Then, set your DVR (you really should have digital cable by now) to Sunday nights at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. central) and enjoy the ride.

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