The stakes in Manhunt couldn't be higher. Within minutes, the central characters question if the republic is being overthrown. Not just any republic. Our republic. The writing is taut and merciless, subtle, and if you know your Reconstruction history and beyond, brimming with exactitude. Each episode feels like justice more than a long time coming. In many ways, it is an expression of an American ideal that was crushed in part because of enduring and unfortunate myths - the Lost Cause - monuments built to honor insurrectionists - the rise of supremacist hate groups in the north - and one of Hollywood's first true sins - Birth of a Nation - the abysmal glorification of lynching and paranoia. What Manhunt does, through Tobias Menzies' masterful, bass-voice authority as Edwin Stanton, is take on the ghosts of a past. Ghosts who rewrote Civil War history to elevate the side who defined freedom as being free to enslave who they wish. The series takes on this national divide head on: the definition of freedom is at stake, the meaning of the pursuit of happiness, of equality, and ultimately, of justice. Andrew Johnson, played by Glen Morshower, receives an overdue pillory in Manhunt. Johnson murdered Lincoln as much as Booth did - in the redaction of Reconstruction policies - and by doing so - setting our nation up for a one hundred year delay in enacting American Civil Rights. The entire cast is fully committed, brilliant and present at every turn, and led by a showrunner who clearly wields the power of the pen among the best in television. Monica Beletsky never falls into the trap of dehumanizing the killer and his accomplices. In fact, the writer's gift comes in humanizing a narcissist in Booth - played with unforgettable nuance by Anthony Boyle- not in reviling him - but in threading a narrative needle - revealing a delusional young man who could have chosen a better path. Manhunt is a timely story in that it illustrates the delicacy of preserving our Union at any time, preserving and building our liberty - through characterization and screen-craft that should be studied in film schools: the writer makes human relationships and connections count at every seemingly expositional turn. It's a marvel. The dream / nightmare sequences are effective and human - it's a wonder Beletsky hasn't been given the reigns to show-run before. There are many ways to divide a nation. Manhunt explores why the Union is worth fighting for - and that committing civil violence against ourselves - in a fort, or a battlefield, or a theater - is an act of cowardice and familial betrayal. The final episode of Manhunt will take place in a courtroom. The justice long sought by Stanton may or may not come. But justice has been served in the writing and telling of this American story.
