“Manhattan” and WGN America aren’t being too subtle with the fantastic Season 2 key art for the 1940s drama about the Manhattan Project.
The new images show various characters as their skin appears to be turning to dust. The headline reads “The Fallout Begins,” which references not only the fallout from the top secret work to create the first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, N.M., but also from what the scientists and their wives have been up to in Season 1 of the excellent series.
Secrets, the art seems to be saying, lead to decay and destruction. The key art mimics what’s happening in this video teaser titled “Secrets” at the bottom of this post.
Season 2 premieres at 8 p.m. Oct. 13 on WGN America. I had the opportunity while visiting the Santa Fe set earlier this summer to see the second episode of the new season. If you haven’t watched the first season, catch up on WGN America or on Hulu. I’ve said this before and I stand by it: “Manhattan” is as good as any recent pay cable drama.
The new images pair Ashley Zukerman and Rachel Brosnahan, who play Charlie and Abby Isaacs, who in Season 1 moved to “The Hill” so Charlie could work on the Manhattan Project. John Benjamin Hickey and Olivia Williams appear together. They star as Frank and Liza Winter, longtime residents in Los Alamos who have weathered intrigue, disappointment and personal setbacks.
We also get an early look at William Petersen, who plays Col. Emmett Darrow in the new season. The “CSI” alum’s character is a no nonsense military man who takes over management of “The Hill.”
Mamie Gummer joins the cast as Nora, a member of the Women’s Army Corps assigned to a post at Los Alamos. Griffin Dunne plays Woodrow Lorentzen, a newspaper reporter who finds his way inside the gates of The Hill and discovers not only the scoop of a lifetime, but a chance to turn his life around. Neve Campbell appears in the recurring role of Kitty Oppenheimer, the formidable and mercurial First Lady of Los Alamos whose intersection with Abby Isaacs will affect both their husbands and the future of the project.
Other returning cast members include Katja Herbers as Dr. Helen Prins, one of the few female physicists working on the project; Christopher Denham as Jim Meeks, a former student of Frank Winter’s who (Spoilers!) has become an unlikely spy for the Soviet Union; Harry Lloyd as British physicist Paul Crosley; and Michael Chernus as scientist Louis “Fritz” Fedowitz—one of the few whose personal life has flourished in New Mexico’s city of secrets.
“Manhattan” was created and is written by Sam Shaw and is directed by Thomas Schlamme.
I’ll have some fun video interviews with many cast members in about a month, so come back after you watched or rewatched Season 1. In the meantime, check out the photos I took on the Santa Fe sets at my TV Show Patrol page on Facebook.