The Plot Against America: Episode 1 Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out The six-episode miniseries The Plot Against America debuts Monday, March 16 on HBO. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Some silver lining news for those who may be practicing "social distancing" these days: there's a great new series starting on HBO from the creator of The Wire, Treme, and The Deuce. The downside, however, is that it's a rather glum watch, and that might not be your cup of tea in these troubling times. It's a great series, for sure, but The Plot Against America holds no prisoners when it comes to delivering a harrowing "alternate history" series that is meant to eerily mirror modern-day machinations. Whereas Amazon's The Man in the High Castle landed four seasons of a sinister story depicting an occupied America that was spilt up and controlled by the Axis Powers after the villains in that timeline were victorious in World War II (and yes, that series had a big sci-fi bend), The Plot Against America offers no such multiverse reprieve. It's very much a grounded, character-oriented look at how close we come in this country, in times of fear and peril, to tipping over into fascism. And then it pushes us all the way in. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-plot-against-america-gallery&captions=true"] The show opens in 1940, a year(ish) before the attack on Pearl Harbor and America's choice to join in the global struggle against powerful and evil aggressors, and brings us into the Levin family - a middle-class Jewish clan in suburban New Jersey who are about to face a tragic, tumultuous turn of events in this timeline thanks to the rise in political popularity of one Charles Lindbergh, an American hero pilot being groomed by the Republican Party to run against Roosevelt. Lindbergh is a xenophobe who is committed to keeping America out of another World War, and his constant dog-whistling creates stealth strife for a Jewish community that is already being ostracized. The Big Sick's Zoe Kazan and Homeland's Morgan Spector, as Bess and Herman Levin, are the heads of a household that seems to be on the uptick. Herman sees a big promotion in his future, one that could lead them all into a single-family home in a more affluent neighborhood, while Bess, whose childhood has taught her about petty prejudices, worries about being the only Jewish family in a WASP township. Winona Ryder plays Bess' sister, Evelyn, who's currently carrying on an affair with a married man, while hothead cousin Alvin (Anthony Boyle) is wrapped up in local conflicts with the German community. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/14/westworld-season-3-episode-1-review"] Based on Philip Roth's bludgeoning book, for which he used his own childhood in Newark as a jumping-off point, The Plot Against America is very much a slow-burn. The first episode doesn't do much to hook you, as much as it simply lays the groundwork for the doom and gloom to come. It sets up the family dynamic in a way that lets you peek inside a world that's about to be turned upside down. This miniseries isn't available to binge so you really do have to stick with the series for it to devilishly blossom into - well - awfulness... If that suits you in this day and age. The Levins' young son, Phillip (Azhy Robertson), acts as the author's surrogate, watching his world slowly unravel in small ways. Hearing the anger in his father's voice when discussing Lindbergh; listening to his mother try to calm his dad, for fear of frightening a boy who's already anxious. Meanwhile, Phillip's brother, Sandy (Caleb Malis), shows slight signs of being a fascist sympathizer. The story unspools at an extremely methodical pace and, barring time jumps, it could take a while to fully find itself. It's a lot to ask people, these days, to stick with a great-but-extremely weighty series that drops its episodes weekly, but if you're already checking this series out because of the creators/writers --  David Simon and Ed Burns (The Wire) -- then you're probably aware what kind of pace to expect and what your particular burden is as a viewer. You're going to be let into a world that's not going to wholly explain itself to you.

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