Manhattan: Season 1

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 99 Ratings

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7.8

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7.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 99 Ratings

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Season Details & Credits

WGN America | Season Premiere Date: July 27, 2014

Summary: A group of scientists including Frank Winter (John Benjamin Hickey), Charlie Isaacs (Ashley Zukerman), Col. Alden Cox (Mark Moses), and Glen Babbit (Daniel Stern), along with their wives, settle in the New Mexico desert to begin work on the Manhattan project in this drama created and written by Sam Shaw.

Creator: Sam Shaw

Genre(s): Drama, Science

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Season 1 Episodes

tbd
S1:E13. Perestroika
Air Date: October 19, 2014
tbd
S1:E12. The Gun Model
Air Date: October 12, 2014
tbd
S1:E11. Tangier
Air Date: October 5, 2014

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Metascore

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

100

Jeff Korbelik

Aug 11, 2014

This is the best new show of the summer. Read full review

Uncle Barky Ed Bark

Jul 29, 2014

John Benjamin Hickey’s point man performance leads the way, with his character’s demons and dilemmas already etched like fissures in his face. Carrying the weight of the world can be heavy lifting. Manhattan so far shows every sign of being able to shoulder the load. Read full review

Kevin Fallon

Jul 27, 2014

In a summer that’s offered new programs that pretty much all sit on the spectrum from “silly, but still curious” (Extant, The Strain) on one end to “just plain silly” (Dating Naked) on the other, Manhattan is the most grown up, worth-watching new series we have. Read full review

Sara Smith

Jul 27, 2014

Every time the 1943 of Manhattan begins to feel like 2014, it returns to the nostalgia of movies like “The Right Stuff,” where brains and grit make the peace, back to a time when America trusted its fate to the smartest guys we could find. Read full review

Matt Roush

Jul 27, 2014

WGN America's bold new period drama Manhattan goes even further [than AMC's Mad Men], eschewing the romantic veneer altogether in a gritty story of scientific mavericks operating in extreme circumstances. Read full review

David Wiegand

Jul 27, 2014

Manhattan brings legitimate class to WGN's nascent original content project. Read full review

David Hiltbrand

Jul 27, 2014

Manhattan is awfully overwrought, stocked with personalities as volatile as the radioactive isotopes they're trying to tame. Its melodramatic tone makes it resemble Lifetime's Army Wives more than it does A Beautiful Mind. Read full review

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User Score

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7.8

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User Reviews

podaddy

Sep 18, 2014

Favorite show to come along in quite sometime. The negative that expected some sort of "Smithsonian" feel to Manhattan are way off base. Great writing and solid acting carry this show. No complaints here. It doesn't sell itself as a real portrait of those times. It's quite clear it'sFavorite show to come along in quite sometime. The negative that expected some sort of "Smithsonian" feel to Manhattan are way off base. Great writing and solid acting carry this show. No complaints here. It doesn't sell itself as a real portrait of those times. It's quite clear it's fictional, but everything I've read regarding many of the storylines in "Manhattan" are closely, perhaps loosely, tied to many of the things that actually went on at Los Alamos. From the competing scientific teams, to paranoia about spies (and the actual existence of them) to some of the radioactive related sicknesses on site, poor health services, and frustration among families with the secretiveness of everything that went on. Superb show.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

Planck56

Sep 19, 2014

There will always be the naysayers but generally this show is fun and exciting and I am looking for season 2. I love the competitive nature and the conflicts between characters. I also like the irreverent parts that give the characters a more believe quality. .

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

jgrimmster

Aug 13, 2014

Manhattan is easily one of, if not the, best new dramas out. The characters have depth. The acting is superb and the cinematography is great. It also revolves around one of the most captivating secret projects in the history of the United States of America. I highly recommend the show.

5 of 6 users found this helpful51

BogKid

Jul 28, 2014

Though it is obvious that we all know how this story works out in the end, that in no way reduces the suspense and tension in this show. In fact, I feel I must comment that the tension level is so high throughout most of the pilot episode that it cannot be described as a very "enjoyable"Though it is obvious that we all know how this story works out in the end, that in no way reduces the suspense and tension in this show. In fact, I feel I must comment that the tension level is so high throughout most of the pilot episode that it cannot be described as a very "enjoyable" experience. Claustrophobic, dark, a constant air of anxiety all help to describe how I viewed this show. Production values are high. Acting is entirely competent to excellent. WGN has certainly turned in a different direction away from its initial schlocky offering of "Salem".

Did I like "Manhattan"? YES. Did I enjoy it. Not really.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

EludiumQ36

Aug 3, 2014

Sorry, I can't recommend this show except to chicks because it has much more in common with a show like "Army Wives". There are so many problems with this show, the latter being just one: it starts in 1943 so the setting is one in which your father or grandfather grew up, and it's not at allSorry, I can't recommend this show except to chicks because it has much more in common with a show like "Army Wives". There are so many problems with this show, the latter being just one: it starts in 1943 so the setting is one in which your father or grandfather grew up, and it's not at all colorful; in fact, they might as well filmed this in black-and-white because the muted grays and browns are just as bad. Next, the story starts after the project has begun, so there's no exposition of the Manhattan Project at all; in fact, the characters aren't even really named. That means this show is going to lean heavily on flashbacks which just adds to confusion, especially at the outset. It's also leaning heavily on family relationships which is more distracting and FF bait. I was hoping the show would focus more on the science, the policy and ethical debates but instead we're getting splashes of Army Wives and Mad Men's misogyny. Deleted and removed from DVR's timer.… Expand

6 of 15 users found this helpful69

YorkMan

Dec 3, 2015

Quite possibly the most disappointing (new) television series I've watched in the last 10 years.
The show revolves around the 'lives' of a group of scientists (plus their wives/girlfriends) in what is a completely fictional narrative, using the backdrop of Los Alamos and the drive of eachQuite possibly the most disappointing (new) television series I've watched in the last 10 years.
The show revolves around the 'lives' of a group of scientists (plus their wives/girlfriends) in what is a completely fictional narrative, using the backdrop of Los Alamos and the drive of each 'group' to exist in a world hidden from the rest of the country.
There are some good points, the acting is top drawer, as is the score and photography... But the producers have fallen into the 'modern' trap of trying to offer up 21st Century values on a show set in 1943. I understand that rampant sexism, constant smoking, blatant racist slurs, and the fact that most people at Los Alamos seemed to spend pretty much all their off time having sex... Don't make for what is, ostensibly, a TV show which follows modern guidelines on acceptability.
No one swears, there's not a 'lived in' sense to any of it...
But, it's also incredibly dull.
The Manhattan Project was one of America's greatest achievements of the Twentieth Century, having that as the driving foreground to a weekly television show would have been fantastic.
But... As the series progresses, the narrative switches from the scientific/moralistic dilemmas of the 'men', to the banal, incessant sniping of the 'women'. OK, the last episode of the first series does (because it has to) switch back to the more 'important' plot elements of the creation of the atom bomb...
Yet, I suspect I won't be looking to tune into the second series, which is currently airing as I write this review.
Definitely a show to avoid!… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

JamesIrish68

Feb 13, 2016

I was misled it into thinking this was a show based on real characters and events. Not even close. A Mad Men esque soap opera with overwrought cliched veneer characters. There is the maverick scientist , the morally conflicted scientist, the mean scientist, proto big bang nerd scientistsI was misled it into thinking this was a show based on real characters and events. Not even close. A Mad Men esque soap opera with overwrought cliched veneer characters. There is the maverick scientist , the morally conflicted scientist, the mean scientist, proto big bang nerd scientists ,the usual bureaucratic stupid army types, a demonic proto CIA and vapid wifes'. All shot in bloodless sepia to bring us back to the 40's. Apparently there is lots of pointless sex too but I gave up after 2 episodes so I thankfully avoided that. I visited friends in Hiroshima last summer and hope they never get to see this. Not only garbage but insulting… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

SEE ALL 25 REVIEWS

Seasons & Episodes

79

Series Overview
Season 2

80
- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: October 13, 2015
Season 1

78
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: July 27, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E13. Perestroika
  Air Date: October 19, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E12. The Gun Model
  Air Date: October 12, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E11. Tangier
  Air Date: October 5, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E10. The Understudy
  Air Date: September 28, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E9. Spooky Action at a Distance
  Air Date: September 21, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E8. The Second Coming
  Air Date: September 14, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E7. The New World
  Air Date: September 7, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E6. Acceptable Limits: Part One
  Air Date: August 31, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E5. A New Approach to Quantum Cosmology
  Air Date: August 24, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E4. Last Reasoning of Kings
  Air Date: August 17, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E3. The Hive
  Air Date: August 10, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E2. The Prisoner's Dilemma
  Air Date: August 3, 2014
- tbd
  S1:E1. You Always Hurt the One You Love
  Air Date: July 27, 2014