The Plot Against America (TV)

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While David Simon’s drama series The Deuce was just renewed for a third and final season, the talented The Wire creator is already setting up another project at the pay cable network. Per THR, HBO has made a production commitment to Simon’s adaptation of the Philip Roth novel The Plot Against America, which will be a six-episode miniseries. This is expected to be Simon’s next project after he wraps The Deuce.

The novel was published in 2004 and imagines an alternate history in which Franklin D. Roosevelt was defeated in the 1940 presidential election by Charles Lindbergh, a xenophobic populist, whose tenure brings about a wave of anti-Semitism. So, you know, a completely outlandish, science-fiction premise that has no relevance to the America of 2018 whatsoever.

The story is told through the eyes of a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey and plays out through the 1940s as World War II reaches a turning point. Simon will co-write the script with longtime collaborator Ed Burns (The Wire, Generation Kill), and the two will also executive produce.

This story doesn’t stray too far from the truth, as Lindbergh was a strict isolationist and Nazi sympathizer who was a believer in eugenics and expressed strong views about preserving “European blood.” There are certainly some similarities to Amazon Prime’s alternate history The Man in the High Castle, but it’ll certainly be something to see Simon put his stamp on this kind of material.

Simon has been with HBO for years and previously waded into miniseries territory with 2015’s Show Me a Hero starring Oscar Isaac. Simon is also developing a new TV series set during the Spanish Civil War, but it appears The Plot Against America will be next up.

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ah yes, it doesn't work again

can someone fix it pls

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aight cool

I think this looks great btw, didn't watch the whole trailer but still. The Deuce was amazing, loved the ending

The Plot Against America debuts on HBO on March 16th

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This starts next Monday and reviews are pretty positive so far. David Simon is god...

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Nobody else watching this? It's damn good and sadly relatable in Trump's America.
David Simon is the GOAT of peak television..

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Oh I thought it was getting mixed reviews for the first three episodes. Mainly because Simon seems to stall and continues world-building instead of amping up the plot or something idk

But I'll watch it, think I'll wait until it's finished so I can binge it lol

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Oku
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This show is absolutely amazing.

A thought like "it's too slow, too much focus on world-building and not enough on plot" never entered my mind, and I was baffled to see such sentiment online.

It's a gripping, fascinating, terrifying look into how fascist America would have looked like, how close it came to it, and how alluring and enticing fascism can appear to be.

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It is a slow burn, and depending on one's politics one may find the allegory to the current American leadership a bit heavy-handed. But I think it masterfully builds tension by showcasing the effect the slowly demonizing of one group of people by political leaders can have on a nation, and how quickly others are to make excuses for the behavior or even justify it.

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It's incendiary, explosive, fascinating, super compelling. Folks are missing out if they're not watching this. And it also looks stellar, production values are super high, the performances and writing are superb.

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