Purchased on Amazon pay to view: This series does not claim to be history, nor is it holding itself up as docudrama. While including precious little information about the Manhattan Project and "the Gadget", it freely uses fictional characters, situations and events to present a version of Peyton Place, Los Alamos, NM. I was frustrated by a story that goes round and round with ludicrous loopholes and twisted plotting. Fine production values and interesting players carry their parts well, but it goes and goes and goes with every possible plot hack and not too terribly much drama. Very sorry I bought it.

Buried deep in my Amazon Prime TV I found Manhattan and if it weren't for my morbid fascination with the Cold War I would have passed right over it. Expecting it to be moderately interesting just because of my interest I was blown away to discover that this is a deeply rich and engaging story of the whole Manhattan project taken from a most surprising angle - the effect of the project on the scientists themselves, their families and the army that surrounded them. This is a clever, well written and incredibly engaging take on what could be a very dry topic. I utterly commend the writers of this show for a fantastic and utterly original show and I command you to watch it. If you have Prime, the first series is free. If you don't... find a way to watch it!

Pure soap opera set in an isolated desert compound and the project to produce an atomic bomb during WWII. More than any television show or motion picture in recent memory, this plays fast and loose with the facts as if they don't matter at all. Fictional characters abound and those characters are drowning in personal problems and outrageous self- examination. Oh, the tortured souls and socially inept geeks that populate this forsaken outpost. Not one of them is in any way interesting, engaging, or likable. Miserable people and their miserable families in a miserable place. Badly directed with some sort of stab at artistry and stiff acting so terrible that it's no wonder few of these actors are even remotely familiar. This is television at its most pretentious, simple- minded, empty-headed, and comatose. Dramas like this make Dynasty look as if Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller were on the writing staff.

Viewed the first season over the past week on Hulu. Started out a bit boring, then a few sub plots were introduced that seemed pointless at first. But wow!! By the last 2-3 episodes I couldn't stop watching. The character development is very slow, and we are shown the worst of everyone first, it seems. As the show progresses, we see almost everyone has some redeeming humanity (and secrets, always secrets). The backdrop of all this is the cinematic paradise of the American Southwest circa 1940, and a war story that we all know how it ends. I feel like I was invited on a blind date, only to find by the end that I have made all kinds of new friends. I hope to hear WGN is going ahead with season 2.