Imagine a U.S.A. that’s ruled by an anti-Semitic, xenophobic, and isolationist leader who enthralls the people. Some might roll their eyes and say this is a product of the imagination of terrified Democrats in 2020, but it’s actually the plot of菲利普·罗斯的2004年的小说，ThePlot Against America —which is about to become a limited series on HBO.
Judging from the first bone-chilling two-minute teaser of the show, the star-studded six-episode series is going to be just as dark and arresting as its source material.
If you’ve never read剧情…,这部小说叙述了一个虚构的版本的罗依th, in a fictionalized version of 1940s America. In Roth’s version of events, instead of nominating the moderate Wendell Wilkie as the 1940 candidate for President, the Republicans tap aviation hero Charles D. Lindbergh — who is also an isolationist sympathizer of Adolf Hitler — to run against Franklin D. Roosevelt (who, at that point, was on his third presidential run).
In the teaser for the show, we see Lindbergh, played by Ben Cole — who is also about to star in an episode of Amazon’sHunters, another upcoming dystopic series about Nazis in America — telling voters that their choice is “between Lindbergh and war.” With this simple, captivating slogan, Lindbergh wins the presidency.
David Simon, the much-lauded creator of电线和杀人：生活在街道, is at the helm of the series. Simon, like Roth, has deep Jewish roots in in New Jersey; his grandparents even owned a grocery store in Jersey City. Simon got the author’s祝福他在2018年去世前创建的节目。
制作团队现在的工作罗斯的“暗算美国”不知不觉卷起我的球探面包车杰克逊大道（现在MLK），杂货由爷爷奶奶来看，在伯纳德•西蒙，我的父亲，长大后的现场。我，在泽西市，fahrklempt的一部分曾经说。pic.twitter.com/wxpE3NW8jP
大卫 - 西蒙（@AoDespair）March 10, 2019
该系列明星摩根·斯佩克特（中Homeland成名）的赫尔曼和Zoe喀山作为他的妻子，伊丽莎白。他们有两个孩子，桑迪（马里迦勒）和菲利普（演员Azhy罗伯逊，谁也年轻的亨利Marriage Story!). There’s also Alvin (Anthony Boyle, from哈利·波特与被诅咒的孩子），赫尔曼的理想主义的侄子和蒙蒂，赫尔曼的务实的商人兄弟（由多产犹太演员戴维·克兰霍尔茨发挥Numb3rs). Young Jewish actor JacobLaval(Jessica琼斯，约翰·马拉尼＆麻袋午餐Bunch) plays neighbor Seldon Wishnow.
可是等等！还有更多！犹太女演员薇诺娜·赖德扮演伊芙琳芬克尔，伊丽莎白的姐姐：两个重要的角色是由两个我们最喜爱的银幕明星的出场。她爱上了纽瓦克的拉比莱昂内尔Bengelsdorf，谁是约翰图图罗播放。
该节目是围绕着新泽西和纽约地区拍摄的，包括在那里西蒙的父亲吧mitzvahed会堂位置！
First day of filming on HBO’s “Plot Against America” at Beth-El synagogue in Jersey City, where by notable coincidence, my father, Bernard Simon, was a bar mitzvah in 1933. PIctured: Two Hebrews and a Sicilian and of course, the Sicilian plays the learned rabbi.#ThePalermoGaonpic.twitter.com/DO01MGoZwJ
大卫 - 西蒙（@AoDespair）April 10, 2019
For many of us, the dialogue in the two-minute teaser seem familiar to conversations we may have had during the run-up to the 2016 elections — especially for those of us who’ve gone to holiday dinners with our Jewish families during (and since) that time.
拉比Bengelsdorf是林德伯格的犹太支持者。ios下载beplay“不可否认，林德伯格先生取得了反犹太人的陈词滥调接地声明，”拉比在传情说。“但是，他这样做是出于无知。”
“What if Lindbergh does win?” a worried Elizabeth asks her husband. But Herman, channeling your neighborhood Hillary Clinton supporter circa October 2016, insists that Americans will see through him, and therefore will not vote for him.
但是，随着对犹太人的暴力上升，犹太家庭 - 和国家 - 是林德伯格的人气动摇。
“There’s a lot of hate out there and he knows how to tap into it,” Herman says about Lindbergh.
然而,桑迪,方形石柱n’s eldest son, is captivated by Lindbergh, whom he views as a national hero. And so, apparently, is Evelyn, who winds up marrying Bengeldorf in a beautiful outdoor Jewish ceremony.
“Maybe it’s too early to leave, but it’s not too early to have a back up plan,” the pragmatic Elizabeth tells her husband at one point in the teaser. (They would be fleeing to Canada, of course. Sound familiar?)
We also see Elizabeth and Herman cleaning what appear to be desecrated Jewish graves, a sight that has become familiar in recent years, as Jewish cemeteries get desecrated across thecountry和the世界。
“我们只是认为我们是美国人，”伊丽莎白还说感人再次担心犹太人在美国（在欧洲）似乎被永远被消耗。（这里在Kvell苹果beplayer，我们已经发布piecesabout these fearsmany时。）
碰巧，的情绪剧情…are also deeply personal for Kazan, who is not Jewish. She is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, the Greek-American actor who was once on the Hollywood Blacklist for his alleged involvement with the Communist party — which led him to inform on his同事to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Kazan herself说过这个节目让她觉得“有很多关于我们的国家的历史是如何影响我的家庭的历史，这是什么意思我的祖父作为移民到这个国家有他的美国性测试，他从做出的选择。”
So what does this series mean for those of us today who are anxiously awaiting November’s election? After all, one doesn’t need to look hard to see the parallels between Lindbergh and Trump. Trump is known for re-popularizing the “America first!” chant, which the actual Lindbergh was known to espouse. As my colleague atJTA乌列海尔曼，写in 2016: “Lindbergh, like Trump,说过他谁没有被充满敌意的媒体给出的声音沉默的大多数美国人的支持。早在1941年，林德伯格手指犹太人的罪魁祸首，称他们是通过自己对媒体的控制推动美国走向战争。在今年的竞选活动，特朗普认为媒体对他不利，太 - 不是因为他们是犹太人，但他说，因为他们是骗子“。
罗斯也很快之间画等号剧情…特朗普：“查尔斯·林德伯格，在生活中我的小说，可能是一个真正的种族主义和反犹太主义者和白人至上主义者同情法西斯主义，但他也是......一个地道的美国式英雄13年之前，我让他赢得了总统，”他告诉纽约时报in 2018. “Trump, by comparison, is a massive fraud, the evil sum of his deficiencies, devoid of everything but the hollow ideology of a megalomaniac.”
Simon, too, is known for criticizing Trump. He called the president a “racist moron” after he calledBaltimore“a disgusting rat and rodent infested mess.” And with the release of the trailer for剧情…他写道Twitter的：“好，我们的共和国和他们的基本制度检查和-余额保持不变，我们不受民粹主义上，本土主义和恐惧政治叛乱交易的猖獗过激行为。否则，这样的叙述将失败，因为光转向，我们打算。”无讽刺检测，对不对？
然而，这将是既愚蠢的，和简单化地说，剧情…is simply a critique of the Trump presidency — it has greater ambitions. “I think it’s fairly apparent that the political paradigm is now — not only in America but internationally — going towards populism, nationalism, and the rise of xenophobia and the fear of the other… The reason to do this is not merely because of the current administration, but because of the forces that are now in play politically,” Simon说过at a recent Television Critics Association panel.
所以真正的，这个节目有a lotto say — and it’s in good company, too. HBO’s lineup has been full of poignant political commentary in recent years. There’sYears and Years, the British Channel 4 dystopian show that takes on Brexit and isolationism, as well as Damon Lindelof’s brilliant守望者其中面对种族主义，治安维持，和美国历史的黑暗的方面。
As with剧情…, these innovative shows urge us to think of what we should do as humans, as a nation, and as Jews, when faced with these terrible forces. And maybe, they also show us how we can triumph over them.
剧情Against America在HBO总理3月31日。
