Aquarius (American TV series)

Aquarius is an American period crime drama television series. The series begins in 1967 Los Angeles. The story is inspired by actual people and events, but it is also made up of fictional characters and stories.

Aquarius was created by John McNamara for NBC. It aired from May 28, 2015, to September 10, 2016. It was one of eight series to receive the Critics' Choice Television Award for Most Exciting New Series in 2015. On October 1, 2016, NBC canceled the series after two seasons.

Overview
The series begins in 1967 Los Angeles. The story is inspired by actual people and events, but it is also made up of fictional characters and stories. Sam Hodiak is a LAPD detective investigating the case of a missing teenage girl named Emma Karn, along with his younger colleague undercover narcotics officer Brian Shafe. Hodiak finds himself coming up against Charles Manson and his infamous "family", a ragtag group of hippies who follow Manson, and Hodiak discovers that the missing girl is with them. The first season revolves around Manson's increasing influence, while the second season focuses on the Tate murders and Manson's belief in a coming race war he called "helter skelter".

Main cast

 * David Duchovny as Sam Hodiak
 * Grey Damon as Brian Shafe
 * Gethin Anthony as Charles Manson
 * Emma Dumont as Emma Karn
 * Claire Holt as Charmain Tully
 * Michaela McManus as Grace Karn
 * Brían F. O'Byrne as Ken Karn
 * Chance Kelly as Ed Cutler
 * Ambyr Childers as Susan "Sadie" Atkins
 * Madisen Beaty as Patty Krenwinkel — Beaty reprised this role in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
 * Cameron Deane Stewart as Tex Watson

Recurring cast

 * Jason Ralph as Mike Vickery
 * Beau Mirchoff as Rick Zondervan
 * Tara Lynne Barr as Katie (season 1)
 * David Meunier as Roy Kovic
 * Shaun Duke as Art Gladner


 * Gaius Charles as Bunchy Carter
 * Jodi Harris as Opal Hodiak
 * Milauna Jemai Jackson as Kristin Shafe
 * Spencer Garrett as Hal Banyin
 * Chris Sheffield as Walt Hodiak


 * Brian Gattas as Rue Fisher
 * Don Luce as Sal Dunphy
 * Leah Bateman as Janet


 * Clare Carey as Lucille Gladner
 * Lobo Sebastian as Guapo
 * Jade Tailor as Rachel


 * Marshall Allman as Robbie Arthur
 * Michael Drayer as Jimmy "Too" Butano


 * Abby Miller as Mary "Mother Mary" Brunner
 * Alex Quijano as Joe Moran


 * James Martinez as Ruben Salazar
 * Gabriel Chavarria as Juan


 * Tim Griffin as Ron Kellaher
 * Omar J. Dorsey as Ralph Church
 * Alison Rood as Meg Frazetta
 * Amanda Brooks as Sharon Tate
 * Mark Famiglietti as Jay Sebring
 * Johnny Kostrey as Wojciech Frykowski
 * Andy Favreau as Dennis Wilson
 * Calum Worthy as Steven Parent
 * Jennifer Marsala as Abigail Folger
 * Chase Coleman as Terry Melcher
 * Mark L. Young as Bobby Beausoleil
 * Jefferson White as Gary Hinman
 * Olivia Taylor Dudley as Billie Gunderson

Production
Series creator McNamara calls his show "historical fiction" as it is inspired by Manson but not historically accurate. This is also expressed in the episodes' opening slate. It also contains completely fictional storylines in a period setting and involves historical events, politics, music, and social issues of the era. NBC has published a blog of events from 1967 to provide context.

The soundtrack consists of songs from the 1960s. The episode titles are names of famous songs, or Manson Family songs. These songs are included in the episode itself. The title of the series is a song from 1967 (from the cult musical Hair), which gave its name to the era in which the series is set. Season 2 episode titles are names of Beatles songs.

The series broadcast by NBC is TV-14. It was planned to release an unrated version through other markets. The DVD released in September 2015 contains nudity and language that was left out of the broadcast version to maintain its TV-14 rating. The Netflix release in 2023 includes these scenes.

The original vision was for the show to span six seasons. NBC announced the renewal of Aquarius for a second season on June 25, 2015.

Season 2 (2016)
Season 2 debuted on June 16, 2016, with a two-hour, commercial-free event that constituted the first three episodes.

Webisodes
The Summer of Love is a series of four short webisodes. They are set in San Francisco in 1967 during the Summer of Love, before the events of season 1, where Charlie gathers his first followers Mary, Katie, and Sadie.

Broadcast
Aquarius premiered on May 28, 2015. Following the premiere's broadcast, NBC released all 13 episodes of the first season on its website, the NBC mobile app, and Hulu for a four-week period. The episodes were also televised in their normal weekly timeslot.

In Australia, the series premiered on May 29, 2015 on streaming service Presto, with all 13 episodes being released for 28 days. Its later television debut on the Seven Network (which co-owns Presto) aired on August 26, 2015. Season 2 aired on the same day as the U.S., on Presto in Australia.

Critical response
Metacritic gives season 1 of Aquarius a score of 58/100 based on reviews from 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Glenn Garvin of Reason praised the series for being more than just another retelling of the Manson story, noting "The epic battles over race, gender, drugs, and the Vietnam war are all on display here." He also praises the "killer 1960s soundtrack".

Additionally, the show was nominated for and won Most Exciting New Series at the Critics’ Choice Television Awards in 2015.

Ratings
These Nielsen ratings reflect the regular TV broadcast, but do not include the online binge-watching that was made possible by releasing the complete series on demand even before the TV broadcast. Those online view numbers, however, are not publicly available. NBC claims they helped gaining insight into online viewing behavior.