Manhunt

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TELEVISION | Thriller series about the hunt for Lincoln’s assassin is exciting but tries too hard to make history cool

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➤Rated TV-MA
➤Apple TV

APPLE TV has beefed up its historical drama inventory with titles like Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon. Its latest is a conspiracy thriller series about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Hamish Linklater) and the subsequent hunt for his murderer. Manhunt presents some answers to how the most wanted man in America managed to evade capture for almost two weeks, but it’s hard to take Manhunt seriously, mostly because the show takes itself too seriously.

The series begins with crowds cheering as Union soldiers march through Washington, D.C., under banners that announce, “Victory is ours.” Not everyone is thrilled about how the Civil War ended, including actor John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle). Booth sympathizes with the Confederacy, and he joins a plot to undermine the newly victorious Union. At a theater performance of Our American Cousin, Booth shoots the president and jumps onto the stage shouting, “Sic semper tyrannis!” (“Thus always to tyrants!”) Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Tobias Menzies) feels responsible for Lincoln’s death and determines to track down Booth.

Thanks to Booth’s successful career on stage, everyone recognizes him, so it’s all the more astounding that it’s difficult to find him. With the help of Detective Lafayette Baker (Patton Oswalt), Stanton learns that Lincoln’s death might have been part of an elaborate Confederate ploy. With the president gone, the fate of the patched-up Union hangs in the balance. The series has a TV-MA rating for some strong language, violence, and brief sexual content. (In the first episode, Booth gets fan mail with a picture of a nude woman.)

Edwin Stanton is one of the most believable characters in the show. He’s always been a workaholic, and his feverish commitment to finding Booth nearly kills him. Booth’s own backstory isn’t as convincing and tends to undermine the series. He comes from a long line of actors, and the show makes him out to be both a theater superstar and an overlooked sidekick, desperate for one brief moment in the limelight. Boyle does his best to portray Booth’s inner turmoil, but the overlooked-sidekick narrative doesn’t really land if you’re the equivalent of an antebellum Taylor Swift.

The biggest problem with the show is that the creators tried too hard to make history seem cool, making some of the dialogue awkward. Characters say things that might sound edgy in 2024 but don’t really work in the 1860s setting: “You mess with New York City, you mess with me.”

For all its inconsistencies, the show sticks to the idea that the South seceded over the issue of slavery. Manhunt rightfully acknowledges Lincoln’s role in abolishing slavery, so it was nice to see a heroic American portrayed in a positive way for a change.