By JOHN BARTLITOn Sunday evening, a crowd joined the Los Alamos Historical Society at Time Out Pizzeria near the Bradbury Science Museum to watch and discuss the first episode of the Manhattan Project TV series.
The series has potential. The show is a serious effort, the production values are good, it captures the times in national feeling and even cars and music, it begins to tell many stories humanly, and the first episode effectively raises conflicts of the times.
The initial conflicts are the tensions between civilians and the military; the deserty, rudimentary setting; the intense race to get the bomb first while so many people die per week in the war; and morality, both of creating super bombs and of defending the nation and families.
We will see where the stories go.
Editor’s note: The Los Alamos Historical Society will again join the public at 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 3 at Time Out Pizzeria for part 2 of the 13-part series (the premiere began at 7 p.m.). Historians will lead a discussion and answer questions about the program following Sunday’s showing.
