''Manhattan'' (sometimes styled ''MANH(A)TTAN'') is an American drama television series based on the project of the same name that produced the first atomic weapons. While some historical figures appear in ''Manhattan'', most characters are fictional, and the show is not intended to maintain historical accuracy. The show was the first drama production for

WGN America WGN America was an American subscription television network that was owned by the Nexstar Media Group, and was the company's only wholly owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel in its final form under the WGN branding ra ...

since the revival of Tribune's production arm as Tribune Studios. The series premiered on WGN America on July 27, 2014. The series earned critical acclaim throughout its run, but failed to secure adequate ratings. As a result, it was canceled on February 2, 2016, after its second season, becoming the first WGN America original series to be canceled.

Plot

Set in 1943 and 1944 at the time of the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project ...

, the series focuses on the scientists at

Project Y The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. R ...

and their families in the newly created

Los Alamos, New Mexico Los Alamos is an census-designated place in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, United States, that is recognized as the development and creation place of the atomic bomb—the primary objective of the Manhattan Project by Los Alamos National Labor ...

, a town the outside world knows nothing about. The federal government tells the scientists only what they need to know, while the scientists keep secrets from their families. The TV show is not intended to be historically accurate, but inspired by history. The show does reference many aspects of the actual Manhattan Project, and some historical figures such as head scientist

Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is often ...

. Other contributors to the Manhattan Project, such as

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and t ...

(who moved to the site in September 1944) and

Emilio G. Segrè Emilio may refer to: * Emilio Navaira Emilio H. Navaira III (August 23, 1962 – May 16, 2016) was an American singer-songwriter of Tejano and country music. He is the winner of one Grammy Award and one Latin Grammy Award. Known to most by th ...

, do not appear.

Cast

Main

John Benjamin Hickey John Benjamin Hickey (born June 25, 1963) is an American actor with a career in stage, film and television. He won the 2011 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Felix Turner in '' The Normal Heart'' ...

as Dr. Frank Winter, leader of an initially small group of scientists working on an implosion design weapon (loosely based on

Seth Neddermeyer Seth Henry Neddermeyer (September 16, 1907 – January 29, 1988) was an American physicist who co-discovered the muon, and later championed the Implosion-type nuclear weapon while working on the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos Laborator ...

and the E-5 Group at the Los Alamos Laboratory) *

Olivia Williams Olivia Haigh Williams (born 26 July 1968) is a British actress who has appeared in British and American films and television. After studying drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for two years followed by three years at the Royal Shakespe ...

as Dr. Liza Winter, Frank's wife and a

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

* Ashley Zukerman as Dr. Charlie Isaacs, a rising young star of the Project *

Rachel Brosnahan Rachel Elizabeth Brosnahan (born July 12, 1990) is an American actress. She stars as aspiring stand-up comedian Miriam "Midge" Maisel in the Amazon Prime Video period comedy series '' The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'' (2017–present), for which she ...

as Abby Isaacs, Charlie's wife * Daniel Stern as Dr. Glen Babbit, mentor to other scientists (season 1; special guest season 2) *

Katja Herbers Katja Mira Herbers (born 19 October 1980) is a Dutch actress. She is best known for portraying Dr. Helen Prins on the WGN America drama series ''Manhattan'' (2014–2015), Emily Grace in the HBO science fiction drama series ''Westworld'' (2018� ...

as Dr. Helen Prins, one of the few women scientists *

Harry Lloyd Harry Charles Salusbury Lloyd (born 17 November 1983) is an English actor. His performance in the Channel 4 miniseries '' The Fear'' (2012) earned him a British Academy Television Award nomination. He gained prominence through his roles as Will ...

as Paul Crosley, a British scientist who wants to advance at any cost *

Alexia Fast Alexia Fast (born 12 September 1992) is a Canadian actress who began her career at the age of seven when she wrote, directed and starred in the short film ''The Red Bridge,'' which premiered at the 2002 Atlantic and Reel to Reel Film ...

as Callie Winter, Frank and Liza's rebellious teenage daughter (season 1; guest season 2) *

Christopher Denham Christopher Denham is an American actor, screenwriter and director. He is perhaps best known for supporting roles in ''Argo'', '' Being the Ricardos'', '' Shutter Island'' and his role in the Sundance Film Festival cult phenomenon, ''Sound of My ...

as Jim Meeks, a scientist *

Michael Chernus Michael Louis Chernus (born August 8, 1977) is an American actor. He has acted on film, television, and the stage. He is perhaps best known for his role as Cal Chapman on the Netflix original comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013 ...

as Louis "Fritz" Fedowitz, a scientist *

William Petersen William Louis Petersen (born February 21, 1953) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his role as Gil Grissom in the CBS drama series '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' (2000–2015), for which he won a Screen Actors Guild A ...

as Colonel Emmett Darrow (season 2), a United States military officer

Recurring

David Harbour David Kenneth Harbour (born April 10, 1975) is an American actor. He has played supporting roles in films such as ''Brokeback Mountain'' (2005), ''Quantum of Solace'' (2008), '' State of Play'' (2009), '' The Green Hornet'' (2011), ''End of ...

as Dr. Reed Akley, lead scientist for the Thin Man bomb design * Eddie Shin as Dr. Sidney "Sid" Liao, a

Chinese-American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

scientist *

Daniel London Daniel London (born 1973) is an American actor, best known for his roles in '' Patch Adams'', '' Rent'' and '' Old Joy''. Life and career Born and raised in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, London began writing and acting in plays in high school. W ...

as Professor

J. Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is often ...

, the melancholic, somewhat reclusive, world-renowned

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimen ...

, and scientific director of the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in ...

Mark Moses Mark W. Moses (born February 24, 1958) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Paul Young in the ABC comedy-drama ''Desperate Housewives'' (2004–2011) and as Herman "Duck" Phillips in the AMC period drama ''Mad Men'' (2007–2014). ...

as Col. Alden Cox * Carole Weyers as Elodie, a French switchboard operator. *

Richard Schiff Richard Schiff (born May 27, 1955) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on ''The West Wing'', a role for which he received an Emmy Award. Schiff made his directorial debut with ''The West Wing'', directing ...

as Mr. Fisher (aka "Occam") *

Jefferson White Jefferson White is an American actor. He plays Jimmy Hurdstrom on the Paramount Network series ''Yellowstone'' and Sean O’Neil on '' Chicago P.D.'' on NBC. Career White made his television debut on ''The Americans'' in 2014, and further televis ...

as Private First Class Cole Dunlavey (aka "Iowa") *

Peter Stormare Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm (born August 27, 1953), better known as Peter Stormare (), is a Swedish actor who holds both Swedish and American citizenship. He played Gaear Grimsrud in the film '' Fargo'' (1996) and John Abruzzi in the television seri ...

as Lazar *

Josh Cooke Joshua Gregory Cooke is an American actor, songwriter, comedian and musician. Personal life Cooke was born in Philadelphia and attended Harriton High School, a small public high school in suburban Rosemont. He was a member of Harriton Theater ...

as Lancefield *

Neve Campbell Neve Adrianne Campbell (born October 3, 1973; ) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her work in the drama and horror genres. She has appeared on ''People'' magazine's list of "50 Most Beautiful People" twice. Following a series of minor ...

as Kitty Oppenheimer (season 2) *

Mamie Gummer Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer (born August 3, 1983) is an American actress. She starred in the title role of The CW series '' Emily Owens, M.D.'' (2012–2013), and played the recurring role of Nancy Crozier on ''The Good Wife'' (2010–2015) and its ...

as Nora (season 2) *

Griffin Dunne Thomas Griffin Dunne (; born June 8, 1955) is an American actor, film producer, and film director. Dunne studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. He is known for portraying Jack Goodman in '' An Amer ...

as Woodrow Lorentzen, a reporter and old friend of Liza Winter (season 2)

Production

Television network

premiered its first scripted show, the historical drama '' Salem'', on April 20, 2014. Peter Liguori, CEO of WGN's parent,

Tribune Media Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...

, emphasized a strategy of original content production as a way to improve the channel's prestige and profile. TV companies producing the show include

Lionsgate Television Lionsgate Television is the television division of Lionsgate, which is a Canadian– American entertainment company. History The company was established in July 1997 as Lions Gate Television, Inc. with the establishment of Lionsgate Films. It ac ...

Skydance Television Skydance Media, LLC (formerly known as Skydance Productions) is an American production company based in Santa Monica, California, Santa Monica, California. Founded by David Ellison in 2006, the company entered a five-year partnership to co-produce ...

and Tribune Studios, a WGN affiliate. When announced in April 2014, 13 episodes were ordered. The series began filming in mid-March across in New Mexico. On October 14, 2014, ''Manhattan'' was renewed for a second season. Production on season 2 wrapped on July 24, 2015. David Saltzberg, a physicist at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, acted as the scientific consultant for the show, and Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science at

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a Private university, private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely ded ...

who studies the history of nuclear weapons and secrecy, acted as a historical consultant for the show for Season 2, providing period detail to the writers. Creator Sam Shaw said although that at first the show seems to be about World War II, and the development of the atomic bomb, it was about two eras: the development of the atomic bomb, and after dropping of it on Japan. Speaking about a potential third season Shaw said "the most complicated and morally fascinating and dramatic aspects of the history don't come until after the end of World War II." Shaw noted that only Fritz, Meeks, and Winters knew exactly what happened at the end of season 2 and that going forward he hoped he would get to write that story. Shaw also said "I hope we'll get to follow characters in this moment when Los Alamos goes from being the best kept secret in the world to being the most famous city on the planet."

Episodes

Season 1 (2014)

Season 2 (2015)

Reception

Critical reception

Season 1 of ''Manhattan'' received highly positive reception from television critics and has a

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc D ...

score of 78 out of 100, based on 23 "generally favorable" reviews. The review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reports a 90% "certified fresh" critics rating, with an average rating of 8.3/10 based on 30 reviews; the site's consensus reads: "Though slow to start, ''Manhattan'' is a top-notch drama thanks to a talented cast, beautiful cinematography, and a keen eye for period detail." Season 2 received further acclaim, scoring an 80 out of 100 based on nine reviews on Metacritic. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 92% approval rating, with an average rating of 8.5/10 based on 13 reviews, and the site's consensus reading, "''Manhattan''s slow-building intrigue and sense of impending doom deepen in season two, further enriching an already well-acted period drama."

Accolades

The series won the

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design This is a list of the winning and nominated programs of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design presented for the best main title sequence in television programming. Prior to 1997, the award was presented for Outstanding Individ ...

for the

67th Primetime Emmy Awards The 67th Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in U.S. prime time television programming from June 1, 2014 until May 31, 2015, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was held on Sunday, September 20, 2015 at the Mi ...

and also won the award for Excellence in Title Design at the 2015

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, T ...

festival.

Justin Kirk Justin Kirk (born May 28, 1969) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Prior Walter in Mike Nichols's screen adaptation of ''Angels in America'', for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting ...

received a nomination for the

Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series The Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series is one of the award categories presented annually by the Critics' Choice Television Awards (BTJA) (US) to recognize the work done by television actors. It was introduced ...

for the

6th Critics' Choice Television Awards The 21st Critics' Choice Awards were presented on January 17, 2016 at the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport, honoring the finest achievements of filmmaking and television programming in 2015. The ceremony was simulcast on A&E, Lifetime ...

References

External links

* * {{EmmyAward MainTitleDesign 2010s American drama television series 2014 American television series debuts 2015 American television series endings English-language television shows Historical television series Lesbian-related television shows Television series about the Manhattan Project Serial drama television series Television series based on actual events Television series by Lionsgate Television Television series by Skydance Television Television series by Tribune Entertainment Television series set in the 1940s Television shows set in New Mexico WGN America original programming