HBO's alt-history miniseries The Plot Against America is the perfect weekend binge

Prime Video’s 2015 adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castleimagines what America would be like if the Nazis won World War II by nuking Washington, DC, and invading the country. While the series found lots of dramatic and poignant ways to play with that premise over the course of four seasons, HBO’s spin on World War II alt-history was even better because it relied on far subtler changes. It’s also only six episodes, making it the perfect weekend binge.

The 2020 miniseries The Plot Against Americamight feel like a commentary on Donald Trump’s America, but it’s a faithful adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2004 novel of the same name. The show from David Simon and Ed Burns, who previously collaborated on The Wire, imagines if Franklin D. Roosevelt had lost the 1940 presidential election to the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, who ran on the promise to keep America out of World War II. The antisemitic Lindbergh builds close ties with the Nazis, but the creep of fascism at home is far more insidious.

The miniseries mostly focuses on the Levins, a Jewish family living in Newark, New Jersey, as they grapple with the country changing around them. The show makes it clear how many Americans were sympathetic to Nazi views in the ‘40s as Lindbergh’s election emboldens the Ku Klux Klan and antisemitic attacks rise across the country. The Levins are in many ways an all-American family, but they face pressure to fully assimilate as Lindbergh creates a “Just Folks” program meant to send Jewish children to live with rural families.

Photo: Michele K. Short/HBO

The always-phenomenal John Turturro delivers the show’s best performance as Lindbergh’s token Jewish advisor Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf. He’s perfectly slick as he argues for Lindbergh’s vision of “real America,” and it’s delicious to watch him get what he deserves as he realizes that he’ll never have a true seat at the table.

It’s one of the many elements of the story that can make The Plot Against America feel like it hits a little too close to home. Another standout moment is a rally for Walter Winchell, an outspoken political opponent of Lindbergh. When Lindbergh’s supporters start attacking the attendees, the police stand back and only intervene when Winchell’s fans defend themselves. The scene felt prescient just a few months later, when the police didn’t take action against Kyle Rittenhouse, and it resonates even more in 2026 after we’ve witnessed ICE attack and kill protesters.

Yet beneath the horrors, The Plot Against America is also a story about resilience and faith in the version of the American dream that allowed generations of immigrants to come to the country and build better lives for their children without abandoning all of their traditions. Family patriarch Herman Levin (Morgan Spector) refuses to join friends and neighbors in fleeing to Canada, which seems foolishly stubborn given how often he's threatened. Herman is adamant in his belief that the country he loves is simply gripped by a fever that must eventually break, even as the new normal becomes impossible to ignore when he’s confronted with antisemitism on what’s supposed to be a fun trip to Washington, DC.

Photo: Michele K. Short/HBO

The show’s true heroes are those with the courage to take a stand for what they believe in, even when it’s easier to look the other way or be actively complicit in a system that will hurt their neighbors. That can mean literally fighting, as is the case of Herman’s nephew Alvin (Anthony Boyle) who goes to Canada to enlist to fight the Nazis. But equal weight is given to the smaller acts of defiance like the many people who try to help and protect the Levins. Simon and Burns also show the cost of doing nothing as one of Herman’s sons buys into Bengelsdorf’s propaganda.

In that way, The Plot Against America is oddly the perfect thing to binge this 4th of July weekend as the country celebrates its 250th birthday. It is a story of the best and the worst of America, of a man who believes profoundly in baseball, free speech, democracy, and multiculturalism and is trying to hold onto that faith as his compatriots become insular and intolerant. It’s a series that mirrors the inflection point the country finds itself in now as the post-World War II order breaks down. But most importantly, it shows how the war against fascism is a never-ending battle in every version of history — and it’s far more likely to be lost with elections than nukes.