'Manhattan' is the sort of show, actually scratch that, there is no show truly like Manhattan out there. This is a show that is attempting to say something deeply profound about the most important, most dangerous bit of technology that mankind has ever produced and (given incremental improvements over the last 70 odd years) will likely not be surpassed for centuries.
And that profound message is this, any argument of the necessity of the creation of the A-bomb, was just that, merely an argument. The bomb was created by scientists who felt they were doing their part to end the war, doing their part to save lives, but it was funded by a military and government that believed itself to be "the most noble civilization in human history", a government that sought to bring peace, justice and democracy to the world through fear. Make no mistake, the network may have 'America' in its label, but this is no patriotic propaganda piece.
The shows starts off bombarding the audience with the depth of the secrecy surrounding the Manhattan project, then demonstrates (albeit in a largely fictional manner) the cost of that secrecy in both human sanity and actual lives. Each scene, each character is as complex as the 'gadget' they are all part of constructing, this show is a total mess, but in a good way.
Its a TV show with completely unpredictable story lines, with characters who jump back and forth between ideals, motivations and needs. It beautifully catalogs what it means to be human, to live in a complex world packed full of both sympathy and ruthlessness. Where conflicting emotional and rational forces comes at odds with each other, sometimes for better, sometimes for the worst.
This is slow painful television, like 'Breaking Bad', 'The Wire' or the 'Sopranos', but where as those shows avoided the actual (or official) politics of the world around them, Manhattan thrives off its context. And that is not to say there are much scenes depicting the war itself, but rather the dirty, gritty, morally questionable side to keeping a nation and its individual citizens motivated in a time of all out war (there is heaps of spy-craft to be encountered here).
A patient watcher of this show will learn a lot, not about the history or science that this show is steeped in (although I imagine those interested in the history of Physics will relish much offered here), but rather that that our greatest enemies aren't the monsters abroad, but those we create in our own backyards, in our own minds, in our own hearts to cope with the fear, the guilt, the crumbling pride. I hope that the lessons this show has to offer will never need be used in your life, but if you are to find yourself in a situation where manipulation, threat of force and the illusion of duty and righteousness are used as a regular means to get people to dismiss the moral objection to killing, this show may just help you avoid the same mistakes the flawed and believable characters of this show so readily make.
One last point, if the visuals and soundtrack of the opening sequence doesn't work for you (as it pretty much encapsulates how the show feels), or if the endpoint of the series being a very well known historical event is some sort of plot spoiler, then perhaps you should rightly move on. Im not saying there aren't any jaw dropping surprises, the first few episodes of season 2 are wondrously packed with them, its only that's not the point of this majestic drama.
