When dealing with alternate history, there’s often the notion that something major or fantastical has to happen. In the realm of TV, we think of recent series like HBO’s Watchmen that creates a world where costumed vigilantes run rampant, growing morally ambiguous with each passing year. There’s something fun about answering the question “What if?” with a world that is unlike our own, and that’s what makes time travel narratives especially exciting. We want the world to be different, whether in big or small ways. Some of us dream about spending more time with our loved ones while others have the more conventional Adolf Hitler assassination fantasy. Would that really keep World War II from happening? Well, it can’t hurt to try.
So much thought goes into making a story that goes against what we know, and it’s interesting to find David Simon at the center of the Phillip Roth adaptation The Plot Against America. When looking at the rest of his work, he has existed to dramatize reality. In recent years he’s taken on political campaigns (Show Me A Hero), New Orleans (Tréme), and even the adult film world (The Deuce). He has a fascination with exploring society at its most organic, notoriously relying on diegetic sound to make a moment play like a documentary.
His magnum opus The Wire took the city of Baltimore, MD, and made us understand it on such a personal level. There hadn’t been TV like this before, managing to be more compared to a novel than anything that the boob tube had produced. We are dropped into every facet of society in order to better understand the value of one life. Everyone does their part to make the world what it is, and there are as many triumphs as there are disappointments in the world. Fate has a funny way of showing up at weird times and giving us unexpected news.
What makes The Plot Against America especially strange in collaboration with his career is that it is the closest he came to making a conventional drama. There is no literal basis for this story in history. While there have been ambiguous political figures in history, the conceit of this story shares more in common with the Hulu miniseries 11.22.63 than The Wire, presenting a fantasy that we all have. All it takes is changing one variable and the whole world is different. In both cases, the story reflects the value of a leader and how it shapes the future, though Simon and co-creator Ed Burns (Generation Kill) don’t have a convenient plot device to fix their problems.
In 2020 (hell, even 2016), there’s something that seems prophetic about Roth’s story (first published in 2004). The story takes place during World War II and finds a timeline where President Franklin D. Roosevelt never got to that fourth term. Instead, amid his noble effort, there was a rogue candidate who came out of nowhere and riled up the nation. His name is Charles Lindbergh, and among his platform is a strong Anti-Semitism that plays into his fascistic views.
Our central characters, all Jewish, watch with initial disbelief that a fascist could ever win the presidency. After all, America is morally just and we’re moving towards a more tolerant future. That’s something that now plays like painful irony when recognizing our current administration, whose xenophobia hates immigrants so much that they’ll keep them out to avoid spreading COVID-19 but wants citizens in the most diagnosed nation in the world to open back up and risk undoing the positive change. There are small ways that The Plot Against America feels vital at this moment, reflecting a cautionary tale of a past that never was.
Suddenly you understand what attracted Simon and Burns to this novel. It’s not just an excuse to make cheap parallels. It’s a chance to grapple with a history where America confronted this issue during a more vulnerable time of history. In the 1940s, there was a unity to defeat Nazism globally and it feels like patriotism came at a price. It allowed figures like Lindbergh to be seen as heroes for speaking their minds, willing to put their careers on the line just to spread a very exclusive mantra. It couldn’t happen, right? Well… in this case, it did and there are now six more hours of dealing with the results.
It’s difficult to watch this and not immediately find things in the modern era. Even if one can argue that Lindbergh is more charismatic, his inevitable power is his capability to have the animosity rollout slowly. It starts with a slur or a look, normalizing Anti-Semitism on even a juvenile level. It spreads like a virus, unseen by the world except by those being immediately impacted by those decisions. What do you do? Do you fight back in anger, or do you try and change their mind, doing everything in your power to make them see the follies of their ways?
These are the questions that are had in houses around the suburbs of this series. Children are seen with Nazi propaganda, reading about a man who would do everything to kill them. He doesn’t know the power of opening that book and reading about the hate. The fact that his parents don’t know only makes things worse. In the dining room, there’s this underlying sense that they’re seeing problems start to arise at work, and the economy begins to shift.
After all, Lindbergh is the president. He is supposed to be our role model and lead us to a more patriotic future. We’re supposed to see the president as a figure to admire, as the great unifier in our nation. That is the sadness that comes with expecting that child with a Swastika-covered book to understand what’s wrong with the scenario. He doesn’t intend to be racist, and yet there is this pressure to do things that he doesn’t understand. Similarly, the nation must bond together for the simple fact that they need to finish WWII and get on with life. There’s no room for divide, and that’s what draws the story to its most interesting core.
Despite the sensationalism, Simon has managed to divert any melodrama into a serious conversation into what it means to be American. Do we discriminate, or do we try to work together? This is a land made on the back of compromise, so one has to accept the scars with the healing if they want to see tomorrow.
The scope of the series is in typical David Simon fashion expansive and never discredits any side to the argument. On the one hand is Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf, who becomes a figure of controversy because of his desire to join forces with Lindbergh. He reports back to the temple with every new advancement, and there’s this sense that these conversations will make a difference. Anyone familiar with modern negotiation tactics may think that Bengelsdorf would’ve sat at the table, watching Lindbergh walk out the room in a tantrum. Still, he shows up with this optimism that things will change, and he becomes a wonderfully complex figure, serving as the middle-man to both sides.
Even if any progress is made, it comes with the moral fiber of every character changed. In the home life, there’s a divide between everyone as the pressure of work and social backlash begin to tear at their morality. There’s even the war movement, which finds a soldier sacrificing his leg in combat to better a war. The final episode features these sides colliding at a table, with one frustrated at having witnessed a hate crime while the other feels that patriotism involves sacrificing for the betterment of society.
It’s a compelling moment and one that gets to the heart of having a divisive leader in a time of war. Those who aren’t at home having to witness the rise of the KKK may not understand how severe the problem is. The very idea of being American is changing, and not everyone is on the same page. Hate is boiling to the surface and Jewish businesses burning to the ground in tragic fashion as children finally notice what it’s like to be marginalized and hated. The slur has evolved into action and The Plot Against America proves that nobody is capable of escaping this scenario without having something changed, whether personally or in reputation.
The only thing that can happen is to put aside differences and change. The final episode ends in a post-war environment. Whatever damage (home and abroad) has been done, for as much despair as the series has unleashed, there is this reality that an election is coming up. Much like how Lindbergh has risen up four years prior and inspired this change, there is a chance to change things. It’s a bittersweet note for the series to end on as crowds flood into the voting polls only to find that some things have changed. There are voters who may or may not be ignored altogether.
Still, all we can do is vote. In 2020, an election year, this is a perfect endnote. The ambiguity allows the viewer to question how they want to see the future of America. The final notes find “an early lead” for one candidate, but no clear winner yet. There is that uncertainty that remains in the characters as the credits roll for the last time. Simon and Burns ask us to consider how our personal future will look. Even with this fictionalized series from a novel written 16 years ago, there’s something that feels urgent about America’s identity.
The flourishes may seem unlike Simon’s previous work, but don’t get it twisted. This is another series questioning the Jewish identity. Looking at recent shows like Hunters, Unorthodox and the film Uncut Gems (2019) shows a new generation coming to terms with their identity. This may be because the world around them has become less kind, where to be yourself isn’t as encouraged as they once thought. Some things need to be put into a richer context, and that involves looking at the past. From the gorgeous cinematography to brilliant costume designs, every character feels rich with deeper meaning, showing diversity in a society that deserves to have empathy. It’s more than a religion, it’s an entire piece of the American pie.
Of course, every Simon series comes with this meticulous effort to make it a grander statement. Even in his more stylized work, he finds the humanity inside. Like The Wire, this is an understanding of how government and society function, where every small decision informs the big picture. The fact that it’s a gradual build never makes anything feel sensationalized and instead makes it feel shocking, biting, and makes us care for the struggle. He asks us “Is this the America that we want?” and hopes that we’re smart enough to look at this and shout a healthy “No!”
I don’t know that this is as essential as The Wire, but it does rank as another hit for the filmmaker. The entire cast is star-studded with excellent performances whether they be John Turturro, Winona Ryder, or Zoe Kazan. There is something essential about the series managing to drop us into these living rooms and make us hear even the smallest of frustrating gripes. By doing this, we see the Jewish-American experience not as an other, but as something familiar. We may not personally be victims of Anti-Semitism, but we can now see it and have it pointed out. We understand what we’re looking at, and Simon wants us to change that.
The Plot Against America is sure to please fans of David Simon, especially with its gradual build that refuses to fit nicely in a box. The story plays out as its own strange beast, and as a result reflects the way that hatred evolves both as a cultural force, and as a catalyst for self-doubt. This is an alternate history that’s about 80 years too soon. Roth’s novel was more than a cautionary tale, but a deeper understanding of how the world works. This isn’t just a story meant to rattle up audiences. It’s meant to inspire change and recognize what our problems are. Then and only then can we work towards a future that feels safer, happier, for every last one of us.
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