If someone told you Charles Manson might be the most intꦆriguing ficti𓄧onal character on summer TV, you wouldn’t believe them.
But on “” — a stylish new NBC cop show that debuts Thursday on both NBC and its website — Manson (Gethin Anthony, a sexy snake) is the central figure in a 1967 💛kidnapping plot involvingꦰ an underage girl, Emma (Emma Dumont). Her father had a previous relationship with Manson, the future mastermind behind the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.
Emma’s mother is also the ex-girlfrien😼📖d of LAPD Detective Sam Hodiak, a laconic, wiseass role custom-built for “Aquarius” star David Duchovny.
Hodiak is a World War II veteran and old-school cop who’d r⛦ather trick a suspect into confessing than read him his Miranda rights. After he agrees to look for Emma, he realizes his badge and bad attitude are going to get him nowhere with the local hippies, who openly call him “pig.” He realizes he might make some progress if he joins forces with undercover vice cop Brian Shafe (Grey Owen), whose beard and grown-out hair give him cachet with the counterculture.
While the charismatic Manson inculcates Emma in the ways of his female entourage “Family” — including a freaky free-love sexual initiation — Hodiak and Shafe eventua🔯lly connect the missing girl to the cult figure by running a background check on Manson. His police record dates back to childhood, and includes convictions for drug possession and rape.
The twist in the case comes when the cops discover that his lawyer (Brian F. O’Byrne) is also Emma’s fathe�෴�r.
T🧸he deadpan Hodiak has bad news for his ex: “I don’t think this is about Manson and your daughter. I think this is about Manson and your husband.”
“Aquarius” draws cunningly on the facts of Manson’s life. He refers to being sold by hi𝓀s mother to a waitress for a bucket of beer, and his adolescent rape of another boy while in juvenile detention is vividly re-enacted.
But the producers also remind us that 💯Manson was an aspiring songwriter who was once able to convince Beach Boy Dennis Wilson to buy time in the recording studio for him.
Even if we know how Manson’s story eventually ends, t��his is one cop show that will chart a tantalizing path ꦚto that grim conclusion.