Plot

A gritty 1960s cop drama about LAPD detective Sam Hodiak and his trainee, who must deal with gangs, brutal crimes, changing times, family crises and unhinged manipulative small-time crook Charles Manson, who's slowly building his cult.

Los Angeles, 1967. Welcome to the Summer of Love. Aquarius stars David Duchovny as Sam Hodiak, a seasoned homicide detective whose investigations dovetail with the activities of real life cult leader Charles Manson in the years before he masterminded the most notorious killings of a generation, the Tate-LaBianca murders. A small time but charismatic leader with big plans, Manson has begun to build up his "family", recruiting vulnerable young men and women to join his cause. Teaming up with a young cop who will help him infiltrate Manson's circle, Hodiak is forced to see things through the questioning eyes of someone who came of age amongst the current anti-establishment counterculture. Edgy, addictive and visually stunning, the Age of Aquarius is here.

Los Angeles of 1967 is only 2 years after the Watts Riots and in the midst of the Vietnam War. Street violence, curfews, counterculture, anti-Establishment protest, hippies, riots and tear gas, sit-ins, illegal drugs (and those yet to be scheduled), free love, anarchy and a deep, abiding hatred of "pigs" were a few of the issues faced by fictitional Detective Sam Hodiak and the harried LAPD. Then, in March, Charles Milles Manson was paroled from jail to enjoy a reign of terror that has been scorched into the annals of American crime.—LA-Lawyer