Manhattan takes a closer look at our Nuclear Past.
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WGN America is following in the footsteps of many other networks in creating their own original series. After their maiden voyage into series creation, Salem, I believe WGN has found their niche. Manhattan is an ensemble historical drama devoted to the scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, which created the first nuclear bombs.
The pilot episode starts in 1943, 776 days before Hiroshima and centers around a group of scientists located in a compound in Los Alamos, N.M. This location is known only as P.O. Box 1663, Site Y, or The Hill. The military is keeping the instillation and it’s inhabitants under close guard and even closer scrutiny because Soviet spies are trying to steal the plans and beat the US to creating the first nuclear weapon.
While the show could easily focus on just the two scientific teams that are racing to be the first to find a viable plan for the government, they instead widen their scope to encompass everyone who works and lives at Site Y. They take their fictionalized characters through every nuance of what it must have been like to live and work at such a high pressure, high-stakes environment that was overrun by paranoia. Frank Winter, easily my favorite character, is a gruff physicist who is running the underdog team that we all root for. He is under the gun, literally, to create the perfect design, keep his team intact, all the while keeping everything from his wife. His wife, Liza, is an accomplished botanist who has walked away from her own career to be with her husband and raise her daughter in this secret installation far from everyone. Liza and Frank seem to be on the outside of the crowd looking in, not truly fitting in anywhere. The rest of this vast cast includes the scientists of both teams, the “Computer” ladies (a room of accountants and typists), the military, and even a female physicist (a small nod to real-life women like Maria Goeppert-Mayer and Leona Woods).
If you have a love of history, this show will draw you in and hold you tight. The storyline promises to give us a look at much more than what your average classic movie. With just a few episodes I’ve already seen hints of the future: mental and physical illnesses from bomb testing, espionage, environmental contamination, family feuds, bi-sexual fantasies and scientists questioning the morality of their work. You might think with this many people in one cast and subplots abounding, that you’ll get lost. You won’t. The show stays in such clear focus of it’s goals that you are pulled into their world completely. The cinematography is beautiful, deep, and fully expresses the emotions of the characters. The colors and lighting give you the impression that you’ve stepped back into your favorite classic movie. Check out Manhattan and get drawn into their world for on hour a week.