The Plot Against America

The show depicts how Charles Lindberg defeats FDR in the 1940 elections and how a country, in this case the US, can gradually slide into fascism and totalitarism. The show depicts a struggle between America's ideals and racism/bigotry/intolerance and shows is how fragile our liberties and freedoms really are.

The cast is amazing. Every main character seems real and fleshed out. Morgan Spector and Zoe Kazan are brilliant as Herman and Bess. The kid actors are wonderful and every supporting actor is perfectly cast. I really felt like I got a unique perspective into the Jewish community in the 1940s.

The dialogue is engaging and insightful. Characters debate about issues and you feel invested in the arguments. The shows beauty and horror is how the scenarios in these arguments don't remain distant possibilities for long and start to materialize. What the show really excels at is how an atmosphere of uncertainty and dread starts to creep in and it really shows how suddenly you can lose your country.

This show is shot beautifully and it really transports you to the 40s. The lighting is soft and creamy and the color palette really captures the era. The details are meticulous: the costumes, old cars, locations and even pinball machines. I haven't really seen a show shot like this and it feels more like a movie than a mini series.

It seems crazy that we still need to be reminded about equality and human rights in the 21st century. We are all human. We are all created equal. We all have the same rights. Anyone who tries to divide a country and claim otherwise should not be in charge. I will fight for your freedom and I hope you will fight for mine.

I urge you to watch this show. I maybe a more patient viewer but I never felt like the show was moving slowly. The plot moves quickly through time and I felt like almost each scene sets up relevant plot points that are payed off later, just like in the Wire.

I have watched all five episodes so far and I wanted to write a review and recommend the show to others. Can't wait to see how the show continues.

Demagoguery that preys on intolerance is not a concept foreign to those who lived in the 20th century, and also the 21st, and it often tiptoes in amongst us before we're aware of it. In relation to other reviews here, the methodical pacing of the series is entirely the point, the characters slotted into largely contrasting points of view as the ground seismically yet almost imperceptibly shifts below them. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" is an old saw, but recycled often for good reason; think it couldn't have happened here? Well crafted, well acted and well paced, anxieties build slowly as this series shines a stylistic but sharp light on precisely how easily it can happen, and how a society allows it to happen.

A lot of Reviewers seem to be complaining about the pace of Series. I have not read the book, I don't know how the series sends but I think the slow pace is precisely the point. If the end is something akin to the "Nazis take over America" by definition it isn't something that would happen quickly. Say what you will about the USA in 1940, while there was antisemitism, hostility to Jews had never reached levels present in Europe or, specifically, Germany prior to the Nazi takeover there. It follows that the build up wouldn't be the same. The changes have to be ordinary enough that most folks wouldn't notice them.

The user review posted is ridiculous and asinine. "Mostly boring with many pointless scenes" ?? Is Siddhartha14 even watching the same miniseries? Every scene is revealing, powerful, and beautifully moves the story and characters forward. Also, the concept is not only riveting but incredibly timely, considering what's going on in the US (and, in fact, much of the western world) at this time. Highly recommended.

I've been waiting for this movie or series for about 15 years. Philip Roth is one of my favorite writers and from the moment I read 'The Plot Against America' I visualized the film in my imagination and I knew that someone would come to make it. Roth's book is his last great novel. It was followed by four more (the cycle 'Nemesis'), which are more personal meditations on life, old age, death, far from the scope of this book. 'The Plot Against America' instead belongs to a popular genre (alternative historical fiction), has a solid narrative structure and suspense, and a social and political message that remains valid for much of American history of the last century until the present. Paradoxically, it is the least Roth-esque novel of Roth and at the same time the book with the clearest autobiographical touch, the writer himself being one of the heroes of the book, as a boy at the age of 7 to 9. The HBO series largely met expectations. I can't say I heard Roth's 'voice' in the movie as when reading the book, but that's not what I was looking for. On the other hand, I experienced a dense, authentic cinematic version, with political and emotional impact, of the topic approached by the novel. Some of the characters have a different weight than the one in the book, but paradoxically, for the better, being developed intelligently and interestingly. The format chosen by the producers (a mini-series of 6 episodes) was appropriate, with an excellent final episode, even if it offers an ending that is a debatable variant of the one in the book.

Philip Roth's novel includes a well-articulated warning about the dangers of the encounter between ethnic and racial prejudice and populism in the American political system. The book was written at the beginning of the millennium, and does not imply any direct reference to the immediate American political reality, intending to be more general and metaphorical than the solution chosen in the screenplay. There is a tension in this production between a few direct references that borrow words from contemporary political discourse and the precise location of the action in the early 1940s in a Jewish-populated district in New Jersey. The alternative historical fiction that describes Charles Lindberg's conquest of power in 1940, and America's reorientation toward an isolationist policy and sympathizing with Nazi Germany followed by gradual adoption of anti-Jewish policies, includes a clear dystopian note about the fragility of democratic systems. Philip Roth appears in the credits as a producer and he was consulted in the initial discussions related to this project, but the political nuances and the imagined ending no longer belong to him. We can only speculate whether he would have agreed or not. To me, the historical part and the one related to the identity dilemmas and conflicts within the Jewish community seemed to me the best made and most authentic. However, I accept that other viewers may conclude differently after watching the six episodes.

Ed Burns and David Simon, the creators of 'The Plot Against America' are the authors 'The Wire' which in my opinion is to this day the best series ever created by HBO. Their achievement here is close to the same high level of quality. America and New Jersey in the years 1940-1942 are unfolding before our eyes. The Jewish community and the people belonging to it, the identity conflicts that exist in almost every such group in the Jewish Diaspora, the diverse individual responses to political developments and social and economic threats from outside are excellently rendered. Some of the acting performances are exceptional. Herman Levin (played by Morgan Spector) is a father who evolves from a deep trust in American values and institutions to a late awareness of the totalitarian degradation that is happening around him and the fact that the system betrays him. His wife Bess is his partner in this evolution, which offers to Zoe Kazan the opportunity for perhaps the most memorable role in the series and in her career so far, that of a Jewish mother who fights the external pressures and the centrifugal tendencies in the family. Her sister Evelyn (Winona Ryder) and Rabbi Bengelsdorf (John Turturro) represent that part of American Jewry willing to go much further on the path of compromise, blinded and later deceived by the demagoguery of the politicians, avoiding any form of resistance and confrontation, endangering the whole community and finally themselves. The combination of fictional and documentary scenes, including newsreels, newspapers and radio shows, is perfect. The story flows smoothly, with rhythm and suspense, and there is enough time for both action and character development. The series 'The Plot Against America' has some debatable moments and aspects, but overall it is an impressive achievement, a production that invites reflection and debate.