Woody Allen once referred to his decision to take on his first TV series as a “catastrophic mistake,” but he may have been exaggerating. Amazon released the first full trailer for Crisis in Six Scenes on Wednesday and it does not give any indication of the disaster he described.
Centered in the turbulent 1960s, the series explores the decade’s social tensions through the lens of a suburban family. Allen both wrote and directed the series and he stars in it as well, playing the family’s patriarch. He is joined by a cast that includes Miley Cyrus, Elaine May, Rachel Brosnahan, and John Magaro.
As we see in the trailer, Allen plays a creative type whose idea for a TV series — as his barber guesses — mirrors his own life: “the usual dysfunctional family with the wise-crackin’ wife and kids and much-harassed husband.” However, Crisis in Six Scenes involves much more than that. The family ends up with a surprise house guest who shakes up their lives.
The historical context also plays a role in the series. The trailer shows characters discussing controversial issues like the Vietnam War, campus protests, and the Black Panthers. We also get a snippet of Cyrus talking to Allen about marijuana and the two of them highlight the wide generational gap throughout the preview.
“I don’t dislike you … just everything that you stand for,” she tells him at one point.
The young are not the only progressive ones, though. The trailer also shows us a book club comprised of older women looking to get involved in social progress. They get excited about activities like bringing pigs’ blood to the draft board and bra burning.
Crisis in Six Scenes is executive produced by Erika Aronson. The series is set to consist of six 30-minute episodes and will premiere on Amazon on September 30.
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