Sluggish new series ‘Manhunt’ tracks Abraham Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth
On April 14, 1865, itinerant actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC — jumping from Lincoln’s box, breaking his leg and shouting “Freedom for the South!” and “Sic Semper Tyrannus!” (“Thus always to tyrants!”)
The ensuing all-hands-on-deck search for Booth (Anthony Boyle, “Masters of the Air”), and for those who aided and abetted him, is the focus of “Manhunt,” a new seven-episode Apple TV+ drama premiering March 15 and starring Tobias Menzies as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s confidant who led the search for his killer.
It’s adapted from James L. Swanson’s book, “Manhunt: the 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer.”
What “Manhunt” does well is to contextualize Lincoln’s (Hamish Linklater) assassination within the framework of what the US was experiencing in 1865 — the end of the Civil War, Reconstruction and strong emotions on both sides of the Mason/Dixon line. In short, the country was still torn apart — and healing the breach would not be easy as witnessed by the slain president.
Toward that end, the arc of “Manhunt” flashes back and forth in time, both prior to Lincoln’s death — where he shares his feelings with Stanton over what course to chart as the country moves forward — and after his murder and the failed assassination attempt on Secretary of State William H. Seward (Larry Pine).
That’s when Stanton, who’s battling bad asthma and a shaky marriage, enlists a fleet of government investigators, led by Lafayette Baker (Patton Oswalt), to track down Booth and his co-conspirators.
“Manhunt” also dives deeply into the conspiracy to murder Lincoln — everyone from collaborators including John Surratt to New York newspaper owner George Sanders to the Confederate’s tentacles that stretched throughout the US and all the way north to a bank in Montreal, Canada — supporting Booth and others and hoping to fund the rise of the post-War South.
In between, though, the action, such as it is, tends to get bogged down in wordy dialogue and the pace is often sluggish in what feels, at times, like a series of re-enactments from a History Channel documentary.
In the early portion of “Manhunt,” Booth is seen only intermittently after shooting Lincoln and fleeing with accomplice Davy Herold (Will Harrison) for what’s left of Richmond, Virginia, where he hopes to meet Confederate president Jefferson Davis and receive a hero’s welcome. Still, his character is sharply drawn and Boyle delivers the goods as the vainglorious, grandstanding assassin known mainly for his onstage stunts — and who is insecure about his place in his famous acting family. (His brother, Edwin Booth, personally apologizes to the grieving Mary Todd Lincoln, played nicely by Lily Taylor.)
The onus of “Manhunt” falls squarely on the shoulders of Menzies, as Edwin Stanton spearheads the search for Booth. While Stanton is earnest — and is himself the target of a botched assassination attempt — Menzies plays him in an understated fashion, which might hew to Stanton’s stately demeanor but doesn’t add much oomph in pushing the narrative wheels forward.
Glenn Morshower is excellent as Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson — who doesn’t fully embrace his predecessor’s agenda and needs to be briefed on Reconstruction by an astounded Stanton — as is Lovie Simone as Mary Simms, a former slave of Booth conspirator Dr. Samuel Mudd (who set Booth’s broken leg). She encounters both Booth and still-pervasive racism/hostility even after acquiring her own plot of land, and there’s much more to her story as “Manhunt” unfolds.
The series plays as a well-intentioned, earnest, in-depth study of the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln and its far-reaching ramifications and intricacies — but falls short of molding this into a compelling edge-of-your-seat thriller that will grab your attention.
