WGN has released the debut Manhattan trailer for the network’s upcoming drama series about the making of the world’s first atomic bomb.  While I was initially as skeptical of a WGN drama series as you probably are, this trailer actually doesn’t look half-bad.  Moreover, the show has veteran director Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing, Parenthood, Sports Night) at the helm and Masters of Sex alum Sam Shaw as the creator and writer.  The story takes place in 1940s Los Alamos, New Mexico and revolves around the men working secretly on the Manhattan Project as well as the toll it takes on their lives and family.  The Manhattan Project is really one of the most fascinating stories in modern history, and while there are a few moments of melodrama in this first trailer, it looks like a pretty promising take on the subject matter.

Hit the jump to watch the first Manhattan trailer.  The series stars John Benjamin Hickey, Olivia Williams, Daniel Stern, Ashley Zuckerman, Rechel Brosnahan, Katja Herbers, Alexia Fast, Christopher Denham, Harry Lloyd, Michael Chernus, and Eddie ShinManhattan premieres on WGN America July 27th.

Here’s the official synopsis for Manhattan:

Fueled by mystery and suspense, “Manhattan” is set in the 1940s in a town whose very existence is classified. Frank Winter and his team of brilliant but flawed scientists have been recruited to work on a project even they could know nothing about until their arrival.  Once inside “The Hill,” a middle-class bubble on a dusty foothill in the New Mexico desert, they begin to sense that this is no ordinary assignment.  In fact, they are living in a town with the world’s highest concentration of geniuses, yet it can’t be found on any map—a place where men and women are torn between duty and their moral values, husbands and wives conceal the truth from each other and their families, the military keeps secrets from the scientists they chaperone, and the scientists keep secrets from each other.  “Manhattan” depicts the wonder, danger and deceit that shadowed the first “nuclear” families.

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