Tweed

Henry Kissinger once said that, “academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small.” In Tweed, the academic politics are vicious, but the stakes are, quite literally life and death. In the opening scenes, ROBINS, the elderly and beloved classics professor at Malmesbury College is bludgeoned to death on the leafy campus. The murder sets off a series of events that end up pitting two bull-headed men against each other: The junior Machiavelli scholar, SEBASTIAN and his department head, the world-famous Platonist, QUENTIN LONGFELLOW. Sebastian’s life is complicated. He has to show a new job candidate around campus, and in the process discovers that he’s being denied tenure, and is in fact giving a tour to the man who’s supposed to replace him. Meanwhile, a boozy undergrad Sebastian helped out of a jam got the wrong idea and keeps texting naked pictures of herself to him. When he finds out that his best friend on campus has been killed, he uncovers a paper he was working on and he begins to piece together the sinister motive behind the murder. In one of the first scenes, Sebastian’s fighting with his wife LIYA about who’s going to drive the car. Sebastian’s got a DUI and isn’t allowed to drive, but who’s going to know? This is what LIYA, a big city journalist who’s not too happy to be stuck in the sticks, has to deal with every day. That, and her autistic son, BARACK. She’s at loose ends, until she decides to join the local paper and pursue that murder mystery that her husband is about to get caught up in. Longfellow, for his part, both charming and intimidating, is cool as a cucumber when Sebastian accuses him of being involved in Robins’ murder. Instead of defending himself, Longfellow steers the police in Sebastian’s direction. As the first season unfolds, Longfellow weaves a web of intrigue worthy of the greatest political philosopher – drawing more and more of the faculty into his net. Sebastian must contend with endless undergrad problems, academic misfits, and obtuse deans as he tries to keep his head above water, and his wife by his side, long enough to prove his suspicions.