The Plot Against America: David Simon Imagines a Fascist USA in First Teaser for HBO's Alt-History Drama — Watch

Dave Nemetz
·1 min read

It can’t happen here… or can it?

HBO has released the first footage from its six-part limited series The Plot Against America, from The Wire mastermind David Simon, which imagines an America that elected national hero Charles Lindbergh instead of Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II — and then took a hard turn towards fascism. We hear crowds cheering wildly as Lindbergh asserts that Roosevelt and “the Jewish people” are pushing America into an unnecessary war against Hitler. “There’s a lot of hate out there,” a Jewish father played by Homeland‘s Morgan Spector observes, “and he knows how to tap into it.”

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The story, based on the Philip Roth novel, centers on Spector’s character and his working-class New Jersey family, along with a rabbi played by John Turturro, who’s encouraged by a pro-Lindbergh Jewish woman played by Winona Ryder to endorse Lindbergh and ease the fears of American Jews. (Meanwhile, books are being burned, and swastikas are being scrawled on headstones.) But Spector’s character isn’t convinced, noting that Hitler has attacked Jews all over Europe, and may well do the same in America: “What will our President do then?”

The Plot Against America premieres Monday, March 16 at 10/9c on HBO.

Press PLAY above for a first look at The Plot Against America, and then hit the comments below to share your first impressions.

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