Manhattan 1.6
Sep. 2nd, 2014 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which your faithful reviewer is driven to google the WWII German nuclear weapon project, because some of the content of this episode made her say "hang on, that can't be right", but her memory of the dates of said project was vague.
To wit: at one point, we see a calendar behind Frank, revealing we're in November 1943. By November 1943 , the German project was already seen as unable to come up with a bomb in time to be useful in the war and instead expected to come up with a cheap energy source, to wit, to quote Wiki: On 4 June 1942, a conference initiated by the "Reich Minister for Armament and Ammunition" Albert Speer regarding the nuclear weapon project, had decided its continuation merely for the aim of energy production. Also, because of the heavy bombardment of German cities, most of the the project had already transferred from the Berlin suburb labs to the South German countryside near Hechingen. Heisenberg, it's true, was one of the few leading scientists still left in the Berlin area in the autumn of 1943 before he, too, moved south. But it's very unlikely that the remainder of the German project would have looked anything like the glitzy superlab we see in the opening teaser, especially with the big rooms and big windows. It would have looked more in shambles (since so much equipment was being transferred). As for windows, to my knowledge, and German wiki backs me up, the Berlin lab was in a bunker at that point, because, again, nightly BOMBS. As for how advanced, or not, the German project was: in February 1943 the Norwegian Operation Gunnerside managed to get into the factory in Norway producing heavy water for the project and severely damage it. In November 16th, British bombardment managed to destroy the Norsk Hydro plant altogether. Since the German project, as opposed to the American one, didn't bet on graphit (their big mistake) but on heavy water, it meant the Germans didn't have enough material left to get a reactor going. (Let alone a hypothetical bomb.) So how there were supposedly bomb tests in November 1943 is beyond me.
Now, this would not matter if the show did what the movie Fat Man and Little Boy (about Leslie Groves, played by Paul Newman, and Robert Oppenheimer, played by Dwight Schultz) has done. In said movie, there's a scene where Groves learns via military intelligence that the German project isn't anywhere near a nuclear bomb, and immediately tells his superiors they must not share this news with any of the scientists because the idea to save the world from a German nuclear bomb in Hitler's hands was key to their motivation. And indeed in a later scene we see him repeat to Oppenheimer how important it is to beat the Germans in the bomb race. However, Manhattan, by the openening teaser scene giving us a glimpse at the mole Magpie and the German nuclear programm (in an airy glitzy superlab), tells the audience that what the Colonel later says to Frank re: the German programm is actually the truth. Considering that the episode is very much about the exposure (and lack of same) of lies and the erosion of trust, I find this ironic.
Now, on to the episode proper: I keep hearing the larger scientist's name as "Fritz", but that can't be right, except as a nickname? Or is it "Freds"? Anyway, looks like he's our regular character destined to die gruesomely of radiation poisoning (you knew there would be at least one, didn't you?) during the course of the show, given the accident in this episode and the emphasis on his likeability and naivete. But beyond that, his accident and the consequences serve to make Frank discover the medical program at Los Alamos is actually a sham. Another show would have left it there. But no, Frank, horrified both for Fritz (?) in particular and the rest of them in general, is still made to go along with it by the reminder of the German project and the Colonel handing him proof of bomb tests by same. (To which I say, see above.) And again, we're not left there. Frank is in a sympathetic role for most of the episode, seeking the truth, being protective of poor Fritz, but in the last scene, he not only lies to Liza, who has been seeking her own truths in a parallel plot, but actively gaslights her re: her suspicions fueled by the bees and the chrystanthium. Which swings the sympathy pendulum around. Gaslighting your wife: even worse than cheating on her, Frank.
Charlie is also lying to his wife, with his bad conscience re: the plagiarisation in his doctoral thesis not letting up since now she's actually reading it, and then about being alone on his secret mission when he's been sent with Helen, which Abby knows via Liza. This, btw, seems more a soap opera type of misunderstanding compared to Frank gaslighting Liza at the end of the episode, since Charlie reallyis just being omissive, and he and Helen could not be less interested in each other.
Speaking of Helen, the show continues to flesh her out. Including, this time, with a very nuanced scene which could have been a cliché very easily, when Helen is being patronized as a woman at the reactor while Theo is being patronized as a black man, and Helen notices and goes after Theo. A lesser show would have made them easily bond. This show has Theo point out he doesn't need her to be his white saviour (thereby rejecting an easy equation of what are different discriminations/oppressions), and Helen pragmatically but impolitely returning no one else gives a shit for his opinions so if he wants them to be noticed he'd better tell her, as opposed to reassuring him about her beliefs. Which feels both period accurate and true to Helen as a straight-to-the-point character.
Helen and Charlie, after spending the episode needling each other, presenting a united front re: the water (for all the good that does them) because of their concerns makes a counterpoint to Frank, presented with a reminder of the German project, deciding their lives need to be sacrificed for the greater good. They're both younger; I would say "more idealistic" but that depends on how you define "idealistic", because Frank IS driven by a (world saving) ideal and it's often the idealists who are capable of making the human sacrifices.
Historical trivia: the DDT! I remember that. Poor Liza. It'll be decades before it gets outlawed. (The kids being sprayed and jumping up and down cheerfully was a great visual.)
Frank talking about Marie Curie and her death with a fellow scientist was the type of exposition about radioactivity that really works as a good character scene as well.
To wit: at one point, we see a calendar behind Frank, revealing we're in November 1943. By November 1943 , the German project was already seen as unable to come up with a bomb in time to be useful in the war and instead expected to come up with a cheap energy source, to wit, to quote Wiki: On 4 June 1942, a conference initiated by the "Reich Minister for Armament and Ammunition" Albert Speer regarding the nuclear weapon project, had decided its continuation merely for the aim of energy production. Also, because of the heavy bombardment of German cities, most of the the project had already transferred from the Berlin suburb labs to the South German countryside near Hechingen. Heisenberg, it's true, was one of the few leading scientists still left in the Berlin area in the autumn of 1943 before he, too, moved south. But it's very unlikely that the remainder of the German project would have looked anything like the glitzy superlab we see in the opening teaser, especially with the big rooms and big windows. It would have looked more in shambles (since so much equipment was being transferred). As for windows, to my knowledge, and German wiki backs me up, the Berlin lab was in a bunker at that point, because, again, nightly BOMBS. As for how advanced, or not, the German project was: in February 1943 the Norwegian Operation Gunnerside managed to get into the factory in Norway producing heavy water for the project and severely damage it. In November 16th, British bombardment managed to destroy the Norsk Hydro plant altogether. Since the German project, as opposed to the American one, didn't bet on graphit (their big mistake) but on heavy water, it meant the Germans didn't have enough material left to get a reactor going. (Let alone a hypothetical bomb.) So how there were supposedly bomb tests in November 1943 is beyond me.
Now, this would not matter if the show did what the movie Fat Man and Little Boy (about Leslie Groves, played by Paul Newman, and Robert Oppenheimer, played by Dwight Schultz) has done. In said movie, there's a scene where Groves learns via military intelligence that the German project isn't anywhere near a nuclear bomb, and immediately tells his superiors they must not share this news with any of the scientists because the idea to save the world from a German nuclear bomb in Hitler's hands was key to their motivation. And indeed in a later scene we see him repeat to Oppenheimer how important it is to beat the Germans in the bomb race. However, Manhattan, by the openening teaser scene giving us a glimpse at the mole Magpie and the German nuclear programm (in an airy glitzy superlab), tells the audience that what the Colonel later says to Frank re: the German programm is actually the truth. Considering that the episode is very much about the exposure (and lack of same) of lies and the erosion of trust, I find this ironic.
Now, on to the episode proper: I keep hearing the larger scientist's name as "Fritz", but that can't be right, except as a nickname? Or is it "Freds"? Anyway, looks like he's our regular character destined to die gruesomely of radiation poisoning (you knew there would be at least one, didn't you?) during the course of the show, given the accident in this episode and the emphasis on his likeability and naivete. But beyond that, his accident and the consequences serve to make Frank discover the medical program at Los Alamos is actually a sham. Another show would have left it there. But no, Frank, horrified both for Fritz (?) in particular and the rest of them in general, is still made to go along with it by the reminder of the German project and the Colonel handing him proof of bomb tests by same. (To which I say, see above.) And again, we're not left there. Frank is in a sympathetic role for most of the episode, seeking the truth, being protective of poor Fritz, but in the last scene, he not only lies to Liza, who has been seeking her own truths in a parallel plot, but actively gaslights her re: her suspicions fueled by the bees and the chrystanthium. Which swings the sympathy pendulum around. Gaslighting your wife: even worse than cheating on her, Frank.
Charlie is also lying to his wife, with his bad conscience re: the plagiarisation in his doctoral thesis not letting up since now she's actually reading it, and then about being alone on his secret mission when he's been sent with Helen, which Abby knows via Liza. This, btw, seems more a soap opera type of misunderstanding compared to Frank gaslighting Liza at the end of the episode, since Charlie reallyis just being omissive, and he and Helen could not be less interested in each other.
Speaking of Helen, the show continues to flesh her out. Including, this time, with a very nuanced scene which could have been a cliché very easily, when Helen is being patronized as a woman at the reactor while Theo is being patronized as a black man, and Helen notices and goes after Theo. A lesser show would have made them easily bond. This show has Theo point out he doesn't need her to be his white saviour (thereby rejecting an easy equation of what are different discriminations/oppressions), and Helen pragmatically but impolitely returning no one else gives a shit for his opinions so if he wants them to be noticed he'd better tell her, as opposed to reassuring him about her beliefs. Which feels both period accurate and true to Helen as a straight-to-the-point character.
Helen and Charlie, after spending the episode needling each other, presenting a united front re: the water (for all the good that does them) because of their concerns makes a counterpoint to Frank, presented with a reminder of the German project, deciding their lives need to be sacrificed for the greater good. They're both younger; I would say "more idealistic" but that depends on how you define "idealistic", because Frank IS driven by a (world saving) ideal and it's often the idealists who are capable of making the human sacrifices.
Historical trivia: the DDT! I remember that. Poor Liza. It'll be decades before it gets outlawed. (The kids being sprayed and jumping up and down cheerfully was a great visual.)
Frank talking about Marie Curie and her death with a fellow scientist was the type of exposition about radioactivity that really works as a good character scene as well.
