The Plot Against America (miniseries)

This article is about the 2020 miniseries. For the 2004 novel by Philip Roth, see The Plot Against America.

The Plot Against America
Genre	Drama Alternate history
Created by	David Simon Ed Burns
Based on	The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Starring	Winona Ryder Anthony Boyle Zoe Kazan Morgan Spector Michael Kostroff David Krumholtz Azhy Robertson Caleb Malis Jacob Laval John Turturro
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	6 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Joe Roth Jeffrey Kirschenbaum Megan Ellison Sue Naegle Susan Goldberg Ed Burns Nina K. Noble David Simon
Producer	Claire M. Shanley
Cinematography	Martin Ahlgren
Running time	60 minutes
Production companies	RK Films Annapurna Television Blown Deadline Productions
Original release
Network	HBO
Release	March 16 (2020-03-16) – April 20, 2020 (2020-04-20)

The Plot Against America is an American alternate history drama television miniseries created and written by David Simon and Ed Burns, based on the 2004 novel of the same name by Philip Roth, that premiered on HBO on March 16, 2020.

Premise

The Plot Against America imagines "an alternate American history told through the eyes of a working-class Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, as they watch the political rise of Charles Lindbergh, an aviator-hero and xenophobic populist, who becomes president and turns the nation toward fascism."

Cast and characters

Main

• Winona Ryder as Evelyn Finkel, Bess's older unmarried independently minded sister
• Anthony Boyle as Alvin Levin, Herman's orphaned young adult nephew, who lives with him
• Zoe Kazan as Elizabeth "Bess" Levin, Herman's wife and stay at home mother
• Morgan Spector as Herman Levin, an insurance agent with a promising career, and an opinionated New Deal socialist
• Michael Kostroff as Shepsie Tirchwell, Herman's friend, who manages a newsreel theater and discusses politics with Herman
• David Krumholtz as Monty Levin, Herman's older brother, a successful fruit merchant
• Azhy Robertson as Philip Levin, the Levins' 10 year old son
• Caleb Malis as Sandy Levin, their rebellious teenage son, who is a talented artist
• Jacob Laval as Seldon Wishnow, a shy and awkward boy who lives in the downstairs section of the house. He wants to be Philip's friend, however Philip finds him strange.
• John Turturro as Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf, a charismatic leader and supporter of Charles Lindbergh

Recurring

• Ben Cole as Charles Lindbergh, a xenophobic populist who runs for President on a ticket of opposition to US involvement in the war
• Caroline Kaplan as Anne Morrow Lindbergh
• Billy Carter as Walter Winchell
• Ed Moran as Henry Ford
• Kristen Sieh as Selma Wishnow
• Lee Tergesen as Agent Don McCorkle

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Teleplay by	Original release date	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"Part 1"	Minkie Spiro	Ed Burns & David Simon	March 16, 2020 (2020-03-16)	0.407
June 1940. Herman is riled by the anti-war rhetoric of populist aviator hero Charles Lindbergh with its anti-Semitic overtones, but does not take the possibility of his running for the Presidency seriously. Herman is offered a promotion, but this would require them to live in Union where they would likely be the only Jews in the neighborhood. Disgusted by the patrons at a German-themed bar in Union, he decides to decline the offer. Alvin is fired from his job at a local Esso service station for stealing; he tells Sandy he took the blame for a friend. He moves out of the house after an argument with Herman. Bess's older sister Evelyn, who looks after their mother, is having an affair with a married man in New York; it soon becomes clear that he has no intention of divorcing his wife. Philip's friend Earl, whose mother has a scandalous reputation, is a corrupting influence on him. Evelyn and Bess meet Rabbi Bengelsdorf, who is sympathetic to Lindbergh's anti-war message; Evelyn is charmed. Alvin secretly stays with a friend whose father runs a candy store. At night, he and two friends wait outside the German bar in Union and beat up two drunk patrons on their way home, calling them fascists.
2	"Part 2"	Minkie Spiro	David Simon & Ed Burns	March 23, 2020 (2020-03-23)	0.395
October 1940. Sandy eagerly attends a speech by Lindbergh, with Evelyn and Bengelsdorf present. Evelyn and Bengelsdorf later enter into a relationship, and Evelyn introduces him to her mother. Bengelsdorf assures Evelyn he will attempt to sway her family to his side politically. With Herman's assistance, Alvin takes a job as a driver for a wealthy man named Abe Steinheim, but quickly grows to find him crass and corrupt. To aid her family financially, Bess takes a retail job at an upper-class store, though she soon becomes unnerved by Lindbergh-supporting customers. Philip continues to learn delinquent behavior from Earl, including theft and following strangers around the city. Speaking at a Lindbergh rally, Bengelsdorf lavishly endorses Lindbergh, with Evelyn by his side. Disgusted by Bengelsdorf and the direction of the country, Alvin quits his job and enlists in the Canadian Army. Lindbergh later wins the election and becomes President.
3	"Part 3"	Minkie Spiro	Ed Burns	March 30, 2020 (2020-03-30)	0.357
May 1941. A few months after Lindbergh's inauguration, anti-Semitic incidents have been rising in the United States. Lindbergh signs a neutrality agreement with Adolf Hitler. He also places Bengelsdorf in charge of a program called "Just Folks," as part of the Office of American Absorption, which temporarily places Jewish boys into rural families to make them "more American"; Evelyn signs up Sandy to participate. Philip begins to have nightmares about Nazis. Meanwhile, Evelyn and Bess's mother's dementia has been worsening. As Bess's concern for her family's safety grows, she places them on a waiting list to potentially emigrate to Canada. The Levins take a trip to Washington, D.C., where they experience anti-Semitism among both citizens and the police. Herman ultimately gives his permission for Sandy to travel to Kentucky as part of Just Folks. Alvin flourishes in Canada's military program, and is recruited by British intelligence to help steal a German radar device. However, he loses his leg in combat.
4	"Part 4"	Thomas Schlamme	David Simon & Reena Rexrode	April 6, 2020 (2020-04-06)	0.420
September 1941. Bess and Evelyn's mother passes away. Herman visits Alvin in the hospital and offers his support, but Alvin has grown aloof and disillusioned. Alvin is questioned by the FBI, after which he is discharged and returns to New Jersey. In synagogue, Sandy gives a presentation espousing Just Folks, after being designated a 'Recruitment Officer' by Evelyn. When Evelyn and Bengelsdorf join the Levins for Shabbat, Herman clashes with Bengelsdorf's views and upbringing, including his father fighting for the Confederacy. After Bengelsdorf proposes an expansion of Just Folks, Anne Morrow Lindbergh invites him and Evelyn to a state dinner with German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (as all other Jewish representatives refused). Evelyn also secures an invitation for Sandy, which enrages Herman and Bess, who refuse to let Sandy attend. He responds by calling his parents "ghetto Jews" and "worse than Hitler". Evelyn dances with the German official at the dinner, which appears later on the newsreels. The FBI, meanwhile, has been tracking Alvin after marking him a potential Communist. Earl leaves town to live with his grandmother after his mother is committed to a psychiatric hospital. Seldon's father dies. Philip, overwhelmed by everything happening around him, happily watches a Lindbergh newsreel, much to Herman's exasperation.
5	"Part 5"	Thomas Schlamme	Ed Burns	April 13, 2020 (2020-04-13)	0.433
April 1942. The Levins are forcibly signed up, by Evelyn, to participate in Homestead 42, Bengelsdorf's Just Folks expansion that relocates entire Jewish families. Bengelsdorf informs Bess that their participation will convince the FBI to take some heat off of Alvin. Philip expresses curiosity and concern about a Ku Klux Klan presence in Kentucky, and angrily asks Evelyn why his neighbor Seldon Wishnow, and Seldon's widowed mother Selma, weren't relocated instead. Misinterpreting this as a desire to be with his friend, Evelyn signs them up as well. Despite FBI threats, Herman intends to sue the OAA, but learns the legal process will take at least a year; instead, he quits his job to avoid the Homestead 42 obligation. Philip is overwhelmed with guilt when he realizes that he was the cause of Seldon's relocation to Kentucky, where he will almost certainly be unhappy. The FBI resumes tailing Alvin. Evelyn and Bengelsdorf marry in an extravagant ceremony unattended by the Levins. Outspoken radio host Walter Winchell escalates his anti-Lindbergh rhetoric; Bengelsdorf quickly gets him fired. Winchell announces a presidential run and Herman attends his rally, but violent Lindbergh supporters attack the attendees as the police stand aside. When Herman returns home bloodied, Bess threatens to leave him and take the children to Canada if he continues his resistance.
6	"Part 6"	Thomas Schlamme	David Simon	April 20, 2020 (2020-04-20)	N/A
September 1942. Violent anti-Semitic incidents continue to rise throughout the country. Winchell is shot and killed during an appearance in Louisville. At Winchell's funeral, New York Mayor Fiorello la Guardia eulogizes him and vehemently denounces Lindbergh. A concerned Bengelsdorf urges the First Lady to convince Lindbergh to issue a statement, but Lindbergh's ultimate statement is short and empty. Alvin is visited by Billy Murphy, a fellow soldier from his time in Canada, who coerces Alvin to join a secretive anti-fascism group that wants to overthrow Lindbergh; they need Alvin's radar expertise. They appear to be unsuccessful, but Lindbergh's plane vanishes. German radio spreads propaganda of a Jewish conspiracy, which quickly takes hold in the United States as the government declares martial law and begins indiscriminately arresting prominent Jewish figures, including Bengelsdorf. Seldon, hysterical, calls Bess when his mother doesn't return home. Herman and Sandy drive to Kentucky to pick up Seldon, where they learn Selma has been murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. They encounter more Klan members on the way back to New Jersey. A terrified Evelyn visits Bess searching for sanctuary, but Bess furiously tells her to leave and never return. The First Lady issues a statement calling for peace, releasing the Jewish detainees, and announcing an emergency Presidential election. Bengelsdorf, attempting to win back his colleagues, explains that Lindbergh's presidency was the result of a German blackmail operation which trained Lindbergh's son to be a Hitler Youth, but they do not believe him. Alvin visits the Levins with his new fiancee, but gets into an altercation with Herman about their actions regarding Lindbergh. In November, the emergency election goes through as scheduled - with fraudulent influence by the government - but the results are not revealed.

Production

HBO announced on November 8, 2018, that it had ordered a six-episode miniseries based on Philip Roth's novel The Plot Against America to be written by David Simon and Ed Burns and executive produced by Simon, Burns, Roth, alongside Joe Roth, Jeffrey Kirschenbaum, Nina Noble, Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, Susan Goldberg, and Dennis Stratton. Production companies involved with the series include Annapurna Pictures and Blown Deadline Productions. In April 2019, Winona Ryder, Zoe Kazan, Morgan Spector, John Turturro, Anthony Boyle, Azhy Robertson, and Caleb Malis joined the cast of the series.

Filming

Filming location in Greenville, Jersey City

Filming took place in 2019 at a number of locations, including:

• Jersey City at Temple Beth-El and in the Greenville shopping district there in May
• Downtown Paterson in May
• Newark in June
• New York City in May and June
• Baltimore, on June 13-14, including on the deck of the SS John W. Brown, a WWII Liberty ship docked at the Canton Dock
• Washington, D.C. on June 14-16

Distribution

In New Zealand, the series is distributed by Neon streaming service and SkyGo, which are owned by satellite television company Sky Network.

Reception

The miniseries has received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 87% "certified fresh" rating with an average score of 8.13 out of 10 based on 61 reviews. The website's critical consensus is, "A cautionary tale that hits close to home, The Plot Against America's handsomely realized revisionist history is disturbingly relevant, making it difficult, but essential viewing." On Metacritic, it has a score of 81 out of 100 based on 30 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Meghan O'Keefe of Decider wrote that it "is a bleak watch, but full of spectacular performances and masterful craftsmanship." Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly stated that "Simon and Burns craft their story with remarkable texture" and that "the final hour is one of the most breathtakingly tense episodes of television I've ever seen, carrying you on a dark journey through a country on fire."

External links

• Official website
• The Plot Against America at IMDb