Television series
The Plot Against America
A tense, meticulous six-part adaptation of Philip Roth's novel, imagining an America where Charles Lindbergh's isolationist celebrity carries him to the presidency. Told almost entirely from inside one Jewish family's Newark kitchen, it's less interested in spectacle than in the slow, sickening realization that neighbours, institutions and even relatives can rationalize almost anything. Patient, well-acted, quietly devastating — for viewers who want dread delivered through dinner-table arguments rather than set-pieces.
If you liked this
Show Me a Hero2015
David Simon's other slow-burn miniseries about ordinary people crushed by American housing politics — the same patient, unglamorous camera, the same faith that bureaucracy can be as terrifying as any thriller.
But It's dry and procedural, with committee meetings instead of visible villains — a hard sell if you want obvious drama.

Watchmen2019
HBO's other alt-history swing: costumed vigilantes and a buried white-supremacist plot ask what fascism looks like once it's already woven into American institutions, not arriving from outside them.
But It's stranger and pulpier — masks, superhero mythology and time jumps demand more genre patience than Plot Against America ever asks for.

The Handmaid's Tale2017
The dystopia-through-domestic-detail template turned up to full volume — authoritarianism closing in on one household, one small humiliation and rule at a time.
But It's grimmer and runs much longer, with fewer of the small hopeful notes that keep Plot Against America bearable.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
A Face in the Crowd1957
Both dissect how a charismatic, broadcast-famous outsider — Lindbergh's aviation fame here, a folksy radio drunk there — gets reshaped by mass media into political power nobody saw coming.
Andy Griffith, in a career-defining dramatic turn, plays a drifter-turned-broadcast-star whose folksy charisma curdles into political menace — a sharp, still-startling satire decades ahead of the term 'media populism.'
But It's black-and-white 1950s filmmaking with a stagier, more theatrical acting style — some will find it dated rather than prescient.

More like this (8)
Chernobyl2019
Another meticulous HBO miniseries about ordinary lives overtaken by a slow-moving catastrophe nobody in charge will admit is happening — same dread, entirely different disaster.
But It's about a nuclear meltdown, not politics — the connection is tonal and structural, not a match of subject matter.

Mrs. America2020
A sharp ensemble miniseries about the real 1970s battle over the Equal Rights Amendment, showing how fast a fringe political idea can be normalized into the mainstream — Lindbergh's playbook, different decade.
But It's about feminism and backlash politics, not fascism — a real fight, but a much less frightening one.

The Man in the High Castle2015
The famous other alternate-history America: the Axis wins WWII and occupies the States. Same premise family, pulpier execution, considerably more genre thrills.
But It leans hard into spy-thriller plotting and multiverse mechanics that Plot Against America deliberately avoids — less character study, more plot machine.

Fatherland1994no page yet
A half-forgotten HBO original from the '90s: Nazi Germany won the war, and a detective investigates a cover-up inside a Reich that never fell. Same what-if DNA, told as a thriller.
But It's dated, made-for-TV production values with a much pulpier detective plot than Roth's family drama.
Hunters2020no page yet
Amazon's trashier, pulpier answer to the same anxiety — Nazis hiding in plain sight in 1970s America, hunted down by a ragtag vigilante crew.
But Tonally it's a different animal entirely — comic-book violence and camp where Plot Against America stays restrained and domestic.
The Americans2013
A family living a lie under enormous political pressure, forced again and again to choose between loyalty and survival — same tension, Cold War flavor instead of 1940s fascism.
But It's a spy thriller first and a family drama second — the political dread mostly stays background noise to the marriage plot.

The Wave2008
Roth's family watches a nation slide into authoritarianism one comfortable rationalization at a time; this film compresses the identical mechanism into a single week of a high-school experiment.
A German teacher's classroom experiment in authoritarianism spirals into genuine fanaticism within days, showing exactly how ordinary, bored teenagers become true believers — chillingly fast and entirely plausible.
But It's foreign-language, contemporary and set among teenagers rather than 1940s New Jersey — a blunter, more didactic parable than Roth's slow-burn family portrait.

Cabaret1972
Same historical moment, same insistence from ordinary people that normal life will resume, but delivered as a glittering, decadent musical instead of a domestic drama — proof the dread can wear a wholly different costume.
Berlin's cabaret scene glitters right up until it doesn't — Liza Minnelli unforgettable, the Nazis creeping into the margins of every frame until they're no longer in the margins.
But It's a musical — song-and-dance numbers sit right alongside the political dread, a tonal swing that won't work for everyone.

People
Cast
Writing
- David SimonCreator
- Ed BurnsCreator
Production
- Ginger MarleyAssociate Producer
- Virginia McCollamAssociate Producer
- Dennis StrattonCo-Executive Producer
- Philip RothCo-Executive Producer
- Will RalstonCo-Producer
- Karen L. ThorsonConsulting Producer
- David SimonExecutive Producer
- Ed BurnsExecutive Producer
- Jeffrey KirschenbaumExecutive Producer
- Joe RothExecutive Producer
- Megan EllisonExecutive Producer
- Nina Kostroff-NobleExecutive Producer
- Sue NaegleExecutive Producer
- Susan Nessanbaum-GoldbergExecutive Producer
- Joe GuestLine Producer
- Claire M. ShanleyProducer