He’s Going on a ‘Manhunt’

Manhunt on Apple TV+ is a great show if you like fantastic acting, cool 19^th century military fashion, and adding fire to the pit of fear in your stomach during an election year. The show follows Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle), and his confederate co-conspirators as Secretary of State Stanton (Tobias Menzies) hunts him down. The show portrays Booth as a wannabe influencer, seething with rage and ego, and the portrayal is chilling.

We watch the assassination unfold, and Lincoln lays dying with honestly the grossest sounds of blood I’ve ever heard. We learn that Booth has a deep network of sympathizers, and a lust for fame. In the opening of episode three, he literally dreams of his swearing-in as the next Confederate President. The world knows him for his acting career as a stunt man in Ford Theater, but he seeks more recognition. He wants his portrait on the walls and his name in our mouths and is obsessed with how others perceive him, flailing around trying to take power in any way he can, by abusing servants, lackeys, slaves, and freed people. He is petty, small minded, the main character starring in his own show, becoming whiny and incensed when others don’t take his stage directions. It’s gives incel vibes, a man exploding into violence when he thinks society is robbing him of this just rewards.

“Has Booth ignited a new civil war where we have to prepare for attacks from civilians?” This is the question in the wake of Lincoln’s assassination. The modern mind, used to mass shootings, screams “YES!”. But by episode three, there is no general consensus on how to treat the traitors, “former” Confederate leaders, or even a white policeman who murders a black teenage Union officer, saying “he looked like a man”. The show illuminates the roots of modern American violence without much hope for healing and growth.

OK, now that we’re all worried and smelling blood in the water, let’s look at the fun parts. Tobias Menzies is so good as Stanton, impossibly smart, addicted to the cause, and so sick that I wish I could hand him my inhaler through the screen. He is the lead detective on this manhunt for Booth, and feels that the future of the fragile democracy depends on it. If they don’t stop men like Booth and the Confederate Secret Service, will the rebellion ever truly end? How deep are the coffers of the terrorists, and can we even trust our own President? Is anyone thinking about how to stop violence and build a better society, or are we simply seeking new forms of vengeance and punishment?

Manhunt is definitely fantastic and I’m hooked, but viewers, beware! It’s not a fun watch. Branded as a thriller, it’s giving vibes of terror and dystopia. Go vote, and be kind to your neighbors!