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Airdate: The Plot Against America

HBO "alternate history" with Winona Ryder & John Turturro series premieres in March.

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Six part miniseries The Plot Against America has now been confirmed for a March premiere on FOX Showcase.

The “alternate history” HBO series stars Winona Ryder, Zoe Kazan and John Turturro and is based on the novel by Philip Roth. The cast also includes Morgan Spector, Anthony Boyle, Azhy Robertson, Caleb Malis.

The Wire‘s David Simon and Ed Burns are creators and executive producers along with Nina K. Noble, Joe Roth, Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, Susan Goldberg and Jeff Kirschenbaum; co-executive produced by Philip Roth and Dennis Stratton.

This screens same day as the US.

Based on the acclaimed novel by Philip Roth and created by the team behind The Wire, The Plot Against America imagines an alternate American history told through the eyes of a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey in 1940. The story follows the family as they watch the political rise of Charles Lindbergh, an aviator-hero and xenophobic populist, who becomes president and turns the nation towards fascism.

The stunning ensemble cast includes Academy Award nominee Winona Ryder as Evelyn Finkel. Evelyn is unmarried, her plans arrested by 10 years of caring for her infirm mother and is hungry to find her own place in life. The sudden attentions of a key Lindbergh supporter – the politically ascendant clergyman, Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf – are exhilarating and transformational for her.

Zoe Kazan portrays Elizabeth “Bess” Levin, younger sister to Evelyn. An insightful mother and homemaker, who fears for the future as she tries to protect her family from the escalating political climate and plan a possible escape from the forces that seem to be threatening her world.

Emmy winner John Turturro stars as Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf, a conservative rabbi from South Carolina where he gained his first synagogue pulpit and became a widower with the death of his affluent wife. Bengelsdorf seizes the reins of history to become a key figure in the emergent Lindbergh administration, despite growing opposition within the Jewish community.

Tuesday, March 17 at 8.30pm on FOX Showcase.

One Response

  1. I like alternate history shows though the beginning of the story is usually better than the end as the story quickly uses up its original ideas. Making a show about a potential fascist America is not that far fetched, the admirers of Adolph Hitler was getting a following from the political far right and among anti-British lobbyists during the period leading up to WWII.

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