The Big Picture
Manhunt
delivers a more intimate portrayal of Abraham Lincoln, focusing on his private life over political achievements.
The cast is made up of several strong performances, with Tobias Menzies, Anthony Boyle, Hamish Linklater, and Lovie Simone as particular standouts.
The series’ pace slows after the initial chase, but the ensuing courtroom drama remains compelling thanks to skilled direction.
When it comes to on-screen portrayals of Abraham Lincoln, most stories tend to spotlight the same details — his monumental political achievements, his dedication to abolishing slavery, and his impressive stature. The most widely recognized adaptation of his life, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, featuring Daniel Day-Lewis’ Academy Award-winning performance, revolves around a very specific period, primarily focused on the president’s efforts to pass the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and concluding with the heavily foreshadowed tragedy of his assassination. Along those same lines, very few depictions of Lincoln have focused on the events that played out in the wake of his death, and how the hunt for the man who pulled the trigger became the investigation into a broader conspiracy plot than anyone could have imagined.
Enter Apple TV+’s Manhunt, which hails from showrunner Monica Beletsky and takes its name from James L. Swanson’s bestseller, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. The series’ title alone implies a ticking clock — once Abraham Lincoln (Hamish Linklater) meets his fateful end at Ford’s Theatre, it’s up to his secretary of war and longtime friend, Edwin Stanton (Tobias Menzies), to track down the assassin John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle). What becomes increasingly clear over the course of their cat-and-mouse chase is that Booth hadn’t acted alone and that the number of people involved in the plot were aiming not only to kill Lincoln but several seated members of the U.S. presidential cabinet. There’s also the possibility that Booth’s orders came from the very top — as in, from Jefferson Davis himself — although Stanton’s ability to prove the scope of the Confederacy’s involvement becomes more difficult even as he uncovers more answers.
‘Manhunt’ Is a More Intimate Portrayal of Abraham Lincoln
As a political figure, Lincoln has become more of a legend in contemporary recollection, but Manhunt isn’t content to rely on showcasing the president’s more grandiose traits when it can pull back the curtain on the man’s private life. With all seven episodes provided for review, and each installment of the series solely written or co-written by Beletsky, the showrunner (having worked previously on shows like Fargo and The Leftovers) strips away the sheen of legacy and offers up a mere flesh-and-blood man. Manhunt isn’t about Lincoln as president, as an orator, or as a myth; instead, we get Lincoln as a husband, as a father, and as a friend. The success of this depiction can be attributed, in large part, to Hamish Linklater’s performance. Although the Midnight Mass actor is somewhat concealed behind prosthetic makeup — which becomes less distracting and more naturally integrated as the series goes on — there’s no mistaking the dimensions he brings to the role of Lincoln, deftly evoking gravitas and playfulness in a manner that certainly rivals other acclaimed portrayals.
Manhunt also makes the smart choice of illustrating its historical events in a non-linear format, jumping back periodically to several dates before the assassination and allowing us to spend even more essential time with Linklater in the role. There are intense political conversations held behind closed doors, to be sure, the various moments when Lincoln is plainly wrestling with the weight of the country’s persistent divide. The series affords us a look into the grief he experiences at facing down the inevitable loss of his third son, Willie, who died of a fever during Lincoln’s tenure in the White House, as well as his ongoing conflict with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln (Lili Taylor), over whether to let their eldest son Robert enlist in the Union Army. We’re also in a position to witness the quiet camaraderie between Lincoln and Stanton, adding a layer of significance to their friendship that creates a deeper understanding of why the secretary of war shoulders the burden of investigating the president’s death — even at the cost of his own physical well-being. While all of these instances could have run the risk of stagnating the series’ pace too much, they ultimately succeed at infusing the assassination itself with more emotion, a reminder of the real human tragedy that’s often become a meme or a punchline in the years since.
‘Manhunt’ Is Made Even Stronger by Its Cast
Even if Lincoln’s death looms over the story, Manhunt holds the distinction of being a landmark performance for Menzies, best known for big-name shows like The Crown and Outlander. The role of Edwin Stanton requires him to juggle the pain of a man who has lost one of his closest friends to an act of violence alongside the necessary authority of a cabinet member who has to take charge in the crisis that follows. As the series’ plot unfolds piece by piece, it becomes apparent that the country has been plunged into disarray in the wake of Lincoln’s death, and that all the progress the president fought so hard to make a reality during his lifetime is at risk of being undone if enough dissenters speak up. It’s a sobering reminder that, regardless of how much forward momentum has been achieved since this particular presidency, there will always be those who are openly resistant to advancement. Yet Stanton isn’t about to allow Lincoln’s efforts to go to waste, even as his deteriorating health wages war on his physical ability to persist in the hunt for Booth.
If Menzies plays the series’ moral compass, willing to stop at nothing in his pursuit of justice, then Anthony Boyle has the hefty task of playing the show’s most controversial figure in John Wilkes Booth. It’s very much a far cry from his role as a more noble navigator in the streamer’s other historical drama, Masters of the Air, where Boyle also, quite literally, is the voice of the series as Maj. Harry Crosby recounts crucial events. Here, in Manhunt, Booth is no hero, even though the man responsible for killing Abraham Lincoln unquestionably considers himself to be one. An actor best known for his stuntwork — which explains his dramatic leap down from the theatre box at Ford’s after pulling the trigger — Booth’s role in the assassination came as a surprise to many at the time, although he’d been gradually expressing more anti-Union sentiments in the months leading up to that fateful April evening. In the days following, however, the broken leg Booth sustains while fleeing hinders his traveling pace, much to his increasing frustration, and prevents him from immediately finding refuge in the arms of the Confederacy. It also puts him and his unwitting accomplice, David Herold (Will Harrison), in the path of local doctor Samuel Mudd (Matt Walsh), as well as Mary Simms (Lovie Simone), a former slave of Mudd’s who is still trapped under his roof while eagerly awaiting the first opportunity she has to escape those circumstances.
Alongside Beletsky’s scripts, Simone brings welcome depth to a woman who has a significant role to play in later events but whom history has largely ignored in its retellings. Meanwhile, Walsh, primarily known for his comedic roles, effectively captures Mudd’s conflicting reputation, a public-facing congenial physician who may have held much more insidious views in private. His casting isn’t the only surprise audiences might be met with in Manhunt’s ensemble; Patton Oswalt also steps into the role of Union investigator Lafayette Baker, though that pairing seems just as fitting since the real man was, according to the history books, something of an eccentric. While Oswalt doesn’t really lean into the character’s more sinister qualities, the question of just how much Baker might have tampered with the investigation around Lincoln’s assassination does cast a subtle shadow over his integrity. Other cast members make for compelling supports, like Betty Gabriel as the First Lady’s longtime dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley, or Anne Dudek as Stanton’s long-suffering wife Ellen, but can only do so much with their limited screentime. Similarly, while Taylor’s Mary Todd Lincoln is afforded more thought and care rather than being swiftly dismissed as a hysterical widow, she fades out of the story altogether in the latter half of the series with an inexplicable lack of resolution compared to Stanton’s arc.
‘Manhunt’ Slows Down After the Initial Chase, But Still Remains Intriguing
Manhunt’s pacing arguably slows down once the chase it’s named for reaches its well-known end, but the series then shifts gears to becoming more of a courtroom drama — which manages to be uniquely compelling. Once the accused conspirators are rounded up and put on trial for their respective roles in planning or supporting the plot to kill Lincoln, the real question isn’t whether Stanton and the rest of his team are going to catch their man, but whether they can prove how far the origins of the scheme truly run within the Confederacy itself. Those who have more than a passing familiarity with historical events may not be surprised by the outcome. However, Eva Sørhaug (Yellowjackets, Let the Right One In) infuses the trial scenes with the right amount of suspense needed to make the episode a gripping viewing experience, following the template expertly laid out by fellow directors Carl Franklin (Mindhunter, The Leftovers), who helms the series’ aesthetically defining installments and serves as executive producer, and John Dahl (Yellowstone, For All Mankind), who delivers pivotal episodes at the midway point.
Apple TV+ has already made a name for itself by releasing several acclaimed sci-fi shows— among them Constellation, Silo, and Foundation, just to name a few — but with titles like Manhunt, it’s also demonstrating that it can expertly enter the historical genre sphere and produce series that are undoubtedly worth your time and attention. Although this show doesn’t boast any bombastic special effects or fantastical alternative worlds, it doesn’t need them. Instead, Manhunt is compelling television by virtue of being both a riveting political thriller and an intimate human drama. Whatever you think you know about the Lincoln assassination already, be prepared to walk away with a reshaped understanding of events — or, at the very least, an appreciation for this new examination of one of the most infamous crimes in history.
Manhunt
Manhunt, led by Tobias Menzies, Anthony Boyle, and Hamish Linklater, is a gripping conspiracy thriller about the Lincoln assassination.
ProsManhunt offers a more intimate portrayal of Abraham Lincoln than other adaptations, with Linklater and Menzies’ scenes serving as distinct standouts.The cast is made up of strong performances and unlikely faces, from Lovie Simone’s fearless portrayal of Mary Simms to Patton Oswalt’s Lafayette Baker.Directors Carl Franklin, John Dahl, and Eva Sørhaug infuse the series with necessary suspense. ConsThe series slows down after the hunt for Booth concludes, but the courtroom scenes still provide their own drama.
Manhunt premieres March 15 on Apple TV+ with its first two episodes, followed by new episodes releasing weekly every Friday.
Watch on Apple TV+