Not that one is necessary, but there’s a timely reason to award this BBC-WGBH miniseries co-production, originally shown on PBS’s American Playhouse in 1982, a TV Worth Watching Seal of Approval. That’s because the central plot of this brilliant seven-part drama, concering theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s efforts to lead the top-secret Manhattan Project team of scientists developing the world’s first atomic bomb, is being revisited yet again. WGN America, having recently launched Salem as its inaugural stab at a weekly drama series, has announced July 27 as the premiere date for its new Manhattan series, created by Sam Shaw (Masters of Sex) and directed by West Wing TV director Thomas Schlamme. It sounds good – but has a long way to go to be as good as Oppenheimer, which starred Sam Waterston in the final role, and featured David Suchet, several years before he starred in and as Poirot for PBS’s Agatha Christie series on PBS’s Mystery!, as Edward Teller. Oppenheimeris as gripping as it is smart, and covers 15 years in Oppenheimer’s fascinating, often controversial life. – David Bianculli

Leave a Comment: (No HTML, 1000 chars max)

Name (required)

Email (required) (will not be published)


Type in the verification word shown on the image.

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

1957: Julie Andrews Stars in 'Cinderella'

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption