Web of hate

Jessica Chastain goes undercover online to stop extremist terror threats

- WORDS: CAREN CLARK JUDY EWENS, ELAINE REILLY

The sinister inner workings of American hate groups are on display in new eight-parter The Savant, starring Academy Award-winner Jessica Chastain as a suburban mother leading a dangerous double life from a backyard office.

The series is inspired by a 2019 Cosmopolitan article about a real-life, anonymous online investigator, and Chastain portrays Jodi Goodwin, an unassuming mum living in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her army-medic husband Charlie (Nnamdi Asomugha) and two children. Yet outward appearances belie Jodi's undercover work for the Anti-Hate Alliance, which prevents violent plots by domestic extremists.