# Manhattan (2014)

> Scientists and their families in wartime Los Alamos struggle to keep the secret of the atomic bomb from consuming their private lives.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/54507

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 23
- Episode runtime: 43 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: drama, history
- Created by: Sam Shaw
- Network: WGN America
- Cast: John Benjamin Hickey, Olivia Williams, Ashley Zukerman, Rachel Brosnahan, Daniel Stern, Harry Lloyd, Katja Herbers, Michael Chernus
- TMDB rating: 7.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3231564/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: tense, contemplative, paranoid, melancholic

## What critics say

Audiences rated the series positively, praising its tense period drama about the Los Alamos scientists and their families.

## Synopsis

Manhattan (2014-2015) is an American period drama series created by Sam Shaw for WGN America. Set in wartime Los Alamos, New Mexico during World War II, it follows flawed scientists and their families who are racing to build the world's first atomic bomb. John Benjamin Hickey plays Frank Winter, a physicist whose household is pulled into the project's secrecy, alongside Olivia Williams as his wife Liza Winter, Ashley Zukerman as physicist Charlie Isaacs, and Rachel Brosnahan as Abby Isaacs. The engine of the series is the tension between the clandestine mission and the private lives around it: marriages strain, loyalties shift, and every household must hide what it knows from neighbors and from each other. Across two seasons and twenty-three episodes, the story unfolds as one continuing thread in a military base where surveillance and restriction shape everyday life. The tone is tense and contemplative, with a mood of paranoia and quiet dread beneath the domestic scenes. Its focus on ordinary people living beside extraordinary secrets gives it a grounded, character-driven feel. Fans of The Americans and Turn: Washington's Spies will find resonance in its espionage-tinged family drama and its period atmosphere. The series was canceled after its second season, leaving its story unfinished.

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- [Counterpart (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/56474)
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- [The Game (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/55075)
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- [The Saboteurs (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55079)
- [Project Blue Book (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/68484)

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