The new WGN America series Manhattan was one of the series spotlighted at this year’s Cable portion of the Television Critics Association press tour. The series premieres July 27, and will also be seen on over 30 Tribune-owned stations on its premiere night.
Here is how they describe it:
MANHATTAN is a one-hour drama that is set against the backdrop of the greatest race against time in the history of science: the mission to build the world’s first atomic bomb. The series follows the brilliant but flawed scientists and their families in Los Alamos as they attempt to coexist in a world where secrets and lies infiltrate every aspect of their lives. Fueled by mystery and suspense, “Manhattan” is set in the 1940s in a town whose very existence is classified. Frank Winter and his team have been recruited to work on a project even they could know nothing about until their arrival. Once inside “The Hill,” a middle-class bubble on a dusty foothill in the New Mexico desert, they begin to sense that this is no ordinary assignment. In fact, they are living in a town with the world’s highest concentration of geniuses, yet it can’t be found on any map — a place where men and women are torn between duty and their moral values, husbands and wives conceal the truth from each other and their families, the military keeps secrets from the scientists they chaperone, and the scientists keep secrets from each other. “Manhattan” depicts the wonder, danger and deceit that shadowed the first “nuclear” families.
Glen Babbit mentors the younger scientists and helps them navigate the political minefield of Los Alamos. Charlie Isaacs, a wunderkind, becomes as adept in deception as he is in math and his wife, Abby, emerges as an unlikely leader among the other wives. Frank’s wife, Liza, is a scientist in her own right – a botanist who has put her own career on hold to move to the desert with her husband and their rebellious 17-year-old daughter Callie, and in the process begins to uncover unsettling changes in their environment. Ambitious British scientist Paul Crosley takes advantage of every opportunity for upward mobility, even at the expense of the man who recruited him for the Manhattan Project. Helen Prins is one of the few female scientists assigned to the project and remains a complete mystery to her male colleagues, including Jim Meeks, Louis “Fritz” Fedowitz and Sid Liao.
The ensemble cast of “Manhattan,” the second original series from WGN America, includes John Benjamin Hickey (“The Big C,” “The Good Wife”) as Frank Winter; Olivia Williams (“Rushmore,” “The Ghost Writer”) as Liza Winter; Daniel Stern (“Home Alone,” “Home Alone 2”) as Glen Babbit; Ashley Zukerman (“Rush”) as Charlie Isaacs; Rachel Brosnahan (“House of Cards”) as Abby Isaacs; Katja Herbers (“De Storm”) as Helen Prins; Alexia Fast (“Jack Reacher”) as Callie Winter; Christopher Denham (“Argo,” “Shutter Island”) as Jim Meeks; Harry Lloyd (“Game of Thrones”) as Paul Crosley; Michael Chernus (“The Big C,” “Orange Is The New Black”) as Louis “Fritz” Fedowitz; and Eddie Shin (“Men of a Certain Age”) as Sid Liao.
Created and written by Sam Shaw (“Masters of Sex”) and directed by Emmy Award-winning director Thomas Schlamme (“The West Wing”), “Manhattan” is executive produced by Sam Shaw, Thomas Schlamme, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Marcy Ross and Dustin Thomason. Filmed on location in New Mexico, the series is produced by Lionsgate Television, Skydance Television and Tribune Studios.
Here are some photos of the show’s cast:
