Plot Synopsis

Set in the 1940s in a town whose very existence is classified, MANHATTAN is a one-hour drama series that follows the brilliant but clandestine scientists and their families, as they attempt to build the world's first atomic bomb while co-existing in a world where secrets and lies infiltrate every aspect of their lives. Frank Winter, a bold and off-center American genius, is commissioned to help lead the Manhattan Project, which includes his team of scientists recruited to work on a project even they could know nothing about until their arrival. Frank, a self-destructive professor who prefers ideas to people, moves to Los Alamos with his wife Liza, a brilliant botanist, and their 16-year-old daughter Callie. If it weren't for his wife, Frank would have become a recluse years ago, and he becomes a man alone when military secrecy severs his lifeline of communication with Liza, leaving her feeling alone and conflicted. She is snubbed by the housewives, who think of her as a scientist, and shunned by the scientists, who think of her as a wife. Once Frank and his team are inside "The Hill," a middle-class bubble on a dusty foothill in the New Mexico desert, they begin to sense that this is no ordinary assignment. In fact, they are living in a town with the world's highest concentration of geniuses, yet it can't be found on any map -- a place where men and women are torn between duty and their moral values, husbands and wives conceal the truth from each other and their families, the military keeps secrets from the scientists they chaperone, and the scientists keep secrets from each other. The rest of the fictional Project team and their family include: Charlie Isaacs, a brilliant wunderkind previously spurned by Frank, who uproots his wife and young son to move from the East Coast; Abby Isaacs, a privileged girl from the Boston suburbs, who agrees to follow her husband Charlie to the middle of nowhere and remains a good, if indulgent, mother to their son; Glen Babbit, a former mentor to Frank, who keeps him out of trouble by helping him navigate the political minefield of Los Alamos; Helen Prins, one of the few female scientists assigned to the project; Paul Crosley, an ambitious Oxford-educated team member; Jim Meeks, one of the bright project members; and fellow scientists Fritz Fedowitz and Sid Liao. MANHATTAN premiered on Sunday, July 27, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT, with encore telecasts on Tribune stations in 33 markets nationwide on premiere night, including WPIX/New York, KTLA/Los Angeles, WGN/Chicago, WPHL/Philadelphia and WDCW/Washington, DC. MANHATTAN continued its 13-episode run on WGN America at its regular time: Sundays at 10pm ET/PT. MANHATTAN returned for its second season on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 at 9pm ET/PT on WGN America. In the season opener, "Damnatio Memoriae," Charlie is forced into a new leadership role in the race to build the world's first atomic bomb. New cast members for Season 2 include: Mamie Gummer as Nora, a member of the Women's Army Corps who undergoes a political awakening when she's assigned to a post at Los Alamos; William Petersen as Col. Emmett Darrow, the new ranking military officer; and Griffin Dunne as Woodrow Lorentzen, a tenacious and self-destructive newspaper reporter who finds his way inside the gates at Los Alamos and discovers not only the scoop of a lifetime, but a chance to turn his life around.
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On Tuesday, December 15, 2015 at 9pm ET/PT, WGN America premiered the Season 2 finale of MANHATTAN. In the season ender "Jupiter," a new era is ushered in with the first test of an atomic weapon.