Enthralling ‘Plot’ chillingly relevant
Having previously delved into Baltimore’s institutions, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, postHurricane Katrina New Orleans, and the rise of New York’s adult entertainment industry, David Simon is back with another entertaining and engrossing drama.
Like The Wire, Generation Kill, Treme and The Deuce, The Plot Against America (9.30pm, Tuesdays from March 17 on SoHo, as well as streaming on Neon) benefits greatly from Simon and regular cowriter Ed Burns’ sharp writing, as well as their ability to create an immersive sense of place and space.
In this case, it’s Newark, New Jersey, in the summer of 1940. You can almost feel the breeze, as the opening shots wind through the children’s games and adult conversations being had in the relaxed streetscape that’s home to the Finkle family.
The joviality on display belies the fact that, half a world away, a global conflict rages.
America is yet to enter World War II, but President Franklin D Roosevelt is coming under increasing pressure to end the country’s neutrality. Newsreel footage, playing at local cinemas, shows clearly Hitler has the upper-hand, something that unnerves Jewish families like the Finkles.
But with head of the household Herman (Morgan Spector) having recently been promoted, their prospects are actually looking up. Thanks to the housing prices deflated by the recent Depression, he’s been able to buy a ‘‘whole house’’ in a much better neighbourhood.
However, a visit to view the property brings back bad memories for his wife Elizabeth (Zoe Kazan). The Waspdominated area reminds her of her childhood, when she was the only Jew in the class, and a drive-by of the local bierhaus results in the need for an awkward discussion about antiSemitism with their boys.
That proves sadly timely when poll results reveal that
53 per cent of Americans think their Jewish population should have restrictions placed on them, and 10 per cent think they should all be deported. Those are troubling statistics, especially with a general election looming, but there’s surely no-one who could challenge Roosevelt, the man who got the country through the tough time in the 1930s?
Enter Charles Lindbergh. The first man to fly solo from
New York to Paris, he achieved further notoriety after his infant son was kidnapped and murdered in a case dubbed ‘‘the crime of the century’’.
After the resulting publicity drove his family into European exile, he’s just returned, claiming that ‘‘Britain, Roosevelt and the Jewish people are pushing America into a war’’ it doesn’t need.
As the drums beat louder for him to run for the White House, Herman Finkle and others worry that ‘‘the airline pilot with an opinion’’ might just upset ‘‘the professional politician’’.
Plot is a fascinating (and frightening) slice of alternative history. Based on Philip Roth’s 2004 book of the same name (which, at the time, was seen as a thinly-veiled allegory for the then ruling George W Bush administration), the story feels even more relevant and chilling in these Trumpian times.
Enthralling, essential viewing.