Manhunt (2024)

The series illuminates details left out of other standard Civil War stories, and it will have you looking up the real history on Wikipedia. A special emphasis on the Wall Street tycoons who supported the Confederacy (and became rich from the slave trade) illustrates parallels with modern-day politics. Good art tells a story you can't stop thinking about, but great art tells a story that makes you think about real life.

Well-played and strikingly made, Manhunt is part crime potboiler, part political thriller, part historical overview — and each strand works a treat.

It's in many ways a subtle drama, but is also highly emotionally charged. What it lacks in pace, and there are times at which this drags the show down, it does thankfully make up for in powerful character drama.

It is all quality stuff. But it takes itself very seriously and the insistent detailing makes you yearn for the leaner, keener beast buried within this lumbering one to break free.

This show manages to invoke this feeling of perilousness and adrenaline when it can get past its two worst compulsions: to invoke contemporary resonances whenever it gets a chance, and to pack in detail through copious and confusing flashbacks.

With seven episodes and too little narrative, it feels as if the writers are dragging a shorter project out, and a languid pace just doesn't work for a story that only took place over the course of twelve days.

It’s just unfortunate that the whole series isn’t as lively and provocative as its most memorable moments.

Should have been good. It's a history drama-series for people who don't like history. And it's not focused, and the creative choices are questionable at best. Like having Edwin Stanton be clean-shaven. But there's an irrefutable reason for this. In the showrunners own words - That freedom to make Stanton's story accessible for a modern audience is key to Manhunt's goals. "At a time when there's a quite consequential election in November, a story that speaks to the sort of fragility of these institutions and how they must be maintained and defended," Menzies says, "felt like quite an important story to be retelling at this juncture." If that is the kind of logic and historical compromise (It's not even for narrative purposes!) the showrunner openly admits to having, it speaks volumes of the approach towards this disappointing show.

Embarrassing. The portrayal of Abraham Lincoln looked like they'd pulled an actor from a high school play. Actually, let me take that back. I've seen people play Lincoln in amateur plays that were better than this portrayal of Lincoln. Clearly this was a cheap cash in on a very grave moment in U.S. history. Apple handled it like any corporation would: Throw up **** on the screen and see what sticks for $$$.