Article first published as TV Review: MANHUNT: UNABOMBER on Seat42F.
Discovery Channel’s newest series,
MANHUNT: UNABOMBER, premieres this week. Unlike most of the programming
on the network, this one is completely scripted, with a cast of familiar
actors playing the roles of actual people, rather than interviews with
experts and historians. I’m not sure why Discovery needs scripted shows,
but given the focus on forensic linguistics, a practice largely
dismissed at the time of the events depicted, this makes sense as the
type of program that their core audience will likely be interested in.
Sam Worthington (Avatar, Clash of the
Titans) stars as Jim ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald, the FBI agent who gets inside
the head of serial killer Ted Kaczynski (Paul Bettany, The Avengers
movies) and brings him to justice. Fitz is a loner himself, smarter than
most people, and he comes to understand Ted in a deep way that is, at
times, disturbing. As Ted complains about how society is changing, Fitz
can’t help but see his point, which does allow him to save lives, but
screws up his own pretty completely in the process.
Worthington’s performance, full of
complexity and nuance, is worthy of a feature film, and the style and
tone of the program seems to bend that way as well. While watching the
two-hour premiere, I couldn’t help but feel like I was at the theatre,
similar as MANHUNT: UNABOMBER is to films in the genre. In fact, other
than its clunky title, it seems like a pretty quality feature.
The supporting cast helps, too, with
Keisha Castle-Hughes (Game of Thrones), Chris Noth (Sex and the City),
Elizabeth Reaser (Twilight), Jeremy Bobb (The Knick), Brian F. O’Byrne
(Aquarius), Mark Duplass (Togetherness), Brian D’Arcy James (Smash),
Lynn Collins (John Carter), and Jane Lynch (Glee) making for a pretty
formidable ensemble. And that’s not even a full roster.
But where MANHUNT: UNABOMBER suffers is
where it differs most from a feature film: the running time. At eight
hours, it is too long, telling a story that would have been hard to cram
in two, but isn’t interesting enough for a full miniseries. Yes, I make
that claim after having only watched twenty-five percent of it, but the
amount of wasted screen time in those initial two hours is why I feel
comfortable saying it.
A lot of time is given over to Fitz
begging his bosses to let him use his talent, do his thing, and his
bosses refusing him, telling him to just follow orders. Now, I like the
point this makes, as Ted’s whole thing is about not being blindly
obedient to the system. But it could have been told in one scene, not
many. It started to feel pretty repetitive by the third time it
happened. And it’s not like seeing it over and over built much suspense
because, given the framework story, even those who didn’t follow the
case as it was playing out know that eventually the higher ups will
listen to Fitz.
I didn’t care for the framework story in
general, either. Showing us what happened to Fitz later on, starting
just before he goes to talk to Ted, who is awaiting trial, could be an
interesting tale. But it’s a different tale than most of the rest of the
episodes are telling. It gives away an ending unnecessarily, and is
actually quite a bit less interesting than the investigation itself.
Maybe it would have worked if it was saved for the conclusion, showing
the arc of growth over time, rather than revealing it right away. But
what’s here just doesn’t feel all that well planned out.
So, I like MANHUNT: UNABOMBER for its
cast, performances, and style. But I probably won’t finish it because
the pacing and story just doesn’t engage the way it should.
MANHUNT: UNABOMBER premieres this Tuesday at 9/8c on Discovery.
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