The Plot Against America

Great writing. Very well acted. As for the review about the pledge, the words "under God" were not added until 1954, so it is historically accurrate.

The user review posted is ridiculous and asinine. "Mostly boring with many pointless scenes" ?? Is Siddhartha14 even watching the same miniseries? Every scene is revealing, powerful, and beautifully moves the story and characters forward. Also, the concept is not only riveting but incredibly timely, considering what's going on in the US (and, in fact, much of the western world) at this time. Highly recommended.

A lot of Reviewers seem to be complaining about the pace of Series. I have not read the book, I don't know how the series sends but I think the slow pace is precisely the point. If the end is something akin to the "Nazis take over America" by definition it isn't something that would happen quickly. Say what you will about the USA in 1940, while there was antisemitism, hostility to Jews had never reached levels present in Europe or, specifically, Germany prior to the Nazi takeover there. It follows that the build up wouldn't be the same. The changes have to be ordinary enough that most folks wouldn't notice them.

Demagoguery that preys on intolerance is not a concept foreign to those who lived in the 20th century, and also the 21st, and it often tiptoes in amongst us before we're aware of it. In relation to other reviews here, the methodical pacing of the series is entirely the point, the characters slotted into largely contrasting points of view as the ground seismically yet almost imperceptibly shifts below them. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" is an old saw, but recycled often for good reason; think it couldn't have happened here? Well crafted, well acted and well paced, anxieties build slowly as this series shines a stylistic but sharp light on precisely how easily it can happen, and how a society allows it to happen.

My dad read Philip Roth's novel "The Plot Against America", depicting a hypothetical version of US history in which aviator - and Jew-hating demagogue - Charles Lindbergh gets elected president, causing the situation to become increasingly hostile for the country's Jewish population.

To my knowledge, Roth didn't intend the novel as any sort of analogy. When the HBO miniseries got announced, a lot of people saw it as an allusion to the current state of affairs. The point is that the moment a leader starts exalting a country's dominant population over the "other", you have fascism.

The miniseries doesn't pound this point in our faces. It's merely a warning about what could happen (is happening?) to the US. Be aware.