Most Shocking Moment from 2-Hr Premiere of Aquarius (NBC)

NBC kicked of its new series “Aquarius” on Thursday, May 28th, with two 1-hour episodes. Set in the late 60’s, it stars David Duchovny as a cynical cop named Sam Hodiak, with no respect for the rules, whose now married ex-girlfriend’s daughter, Emma, has disappeared and guess who has her? Charles Manson!

Yes! Hodiak gets teamed up with an undercover narc named Brian Shafe who dresses like a hippie to blend in with the druggies,a lthough he apparently likes his hair long. He is more by-the-book than Hodiak but doesn’t know the new Miranda Warning too well yet either.

The girl’s father is a lawyer who knows the Police Commissioner and the mayor and, it turns out, unsuccessfully represented Manson resulting in a jail sentence. So, of course, when Hodiak finds all that out, he knows that is the reason Manson took the kid. He doesn’t know yet that Manson’s burning desire at this point is to have a hit record and to be bigger than the Beatles.

The 2 hours were filled with some distractions and revelations: Hodiak’s son returns from Vietnam under false pretenses, so he is AWOL, and ex-wife Opal is behind it; a dance instructor murders his wife and confesses when he finds out she was going to take him to see Margot Fonteyn for his birthday; a member of the Nation of Islam was planning to relocate to Africa but after Hodiak uses him to get that murder confession, he decides to stay in the United Slave States and change things. But the most shocking moment came near the end of the two hours when we found out that Emma’s father is in sexual thrall to Charles Manson. OMG! And Emma almost walked in on that. Well, the mother, Grace, told Hodiak that she married “Ken-Ken” because she was pregnant, but she didn’t say by whom. Emma is gonna turn out to be Hodiak’s daughter, right?

The second most shocking moment was when Manson sent Emma in to rob a store and they were playing the Parliaments’ 1967 song “All Your Goodies are Gone.”

We love it when they resurrect all-but-forgotten songs. This one was released in 1967, the same year as the more recognizable song that immediately followed it, “Daydream Believer” by the Monkees.

Other Notes: The Nation of Islam dude is named Bunchy, also the name of the one of the brothers in Showtime’s “Ray Donovan.” Another “Ray Donovan” connection: Ambyr Childers plays one of Manson’s girls.

In the Cast:
David Duchovny – Sam Hodiak
Grey Damon – Brian Shafe
Gethin Anthony – Charles Manson
Brian F. O’Byrne – Ken Karn
Michaela McManus – Grace Karn
Emma Dumont – Emma Karn
Chris Sheffield – Walt Hodiak
Jodi Harris – Opal
Gaius Charles – Bunchy