What’s Worth Watching: Racist Neighborhood Watch

Matt Roush June 25, 2015, 3:00 am

Aquarius - 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' - David Duchovny as Sam Hodiak and Michaela McManus as Grace Karn — Vivian Zink/NBC

AQUARIUS -- "A Whiter Shade of Pale" Episode 106 -- Pictured: (l-r) David Duchovny as Sam Hodiak, Michaela McManus as Grace Karn -- Photo by: (Vivian Zink/NBC)

Aquarius, “A Whiter Shade of Pale” (Thursday, June 25, 9/8c, NBC)

The age of Aquarius was also a period of racial turmoil, as the evocative 1960s-set Los Angeles crime drama reminds us when undercover cop Brian Scafe’s (Grey Damon) home is vandalized in an apparent hate crime aimed at his interracial family. While Sam Hodiak (David Duchovny) confronts—some might say harasses—the neighbors to get to the bottom of this racist incident, the idealistic and ambitious officer Charmaine Tully (Claire Holt) learns a lesson in the sexism of the times when she attempts to expose and bring down a USC football star accused of beating his cheerleader girlfriend.

Lurking throughout is the man who will one day put the entire city on alert: Charlie Manson (Gethin Anthony), whose past ties to runaway Emma’s dad Ken Karn (Brian F. O’Byrne) become more troublingly clear. Charlie also gets the most haunting line of the episode: “You can be afraid, or you can be the thing that makes people afraid.” And we all know how that turned out.