Manhunt (2024)

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.

The series is well furnished and costumed and moves with pep through its alternating scenes of action and reflection; it is various enough not to get dull. But it’s very much a TV show, with TV beats, made to entertain before it’s made to inform. The problem with any docudrama is that once you know a few things are wrong or fabricated, you begin to question the rest of it.

With the exception of Mr. Menzies and Lili Taylor as Mary Todd Lincoln—their acting being the best arguments for sticking with the show—the actors give broad performances; the racists are vicious cartoons and the ex-slaves are all cherubic. .... And yet, the story—and the bits of factual detail with which is adorned—will likely keep one watching.

Manhunt winds up being a mixed bag of thrilling revelation and tortuous tedium. The Apple TV+ show often loses its all its juice by trying to squeeze in as much historical embellishment as possible.

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.

Though the setting and costumes are beautifully showcased, misfiring guns, horseback chases and added dream sequences make the action and adventure a bit slow and stale for a 21st-century audience.

Using flashbacks to flesh out the seven episodes, the show lacks the narrative momentum the title would suggest, feeling a little too much like homework by landing in a no-man’s land that doesn’t find the sweet spot between politics and true crime.

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.

This is historical fiction at its most facile, too self-righteous to be persuasive about the historical parallels it’s trying to illustrate and too listless to make watching it feel like little more than required AP History homework.

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

It’s a skilfully put together drama yet its po-facedness and glum pacing makes for lacklustre viewing. Given the raw materials – political skulduggery, weird hats, magnificent mutton chops – Manhunt should be engrossing. Alas, I was bored.