Hunters – TV Review
3 weeks ago I managed to break my toe, so I got rather a head start on the lockdown binge watching that many people are now starting to get into. One of the shows that made my list was Amazon Prime’s Hunters. The review ahead does include some mild spoilers in terms of characterisation and plot details. Don’t read on if you want to go in completely fresh.
Synopsis
In 1977, in New York City, a troubled young Jewish man bent on revenge is taken in by a secret group of Nazi hunters fighting a clandestine war against the cabal of high-ranking Nazi officials in hiding who work to create the Fourth Reich.
Hunters is a taut, tense drama centered on one young man, Jonah Heidelbaum (Logan Lerman). After his grandmother (and sole guardian) is murdered, he finds himself caught up in a secret war being waged in the streets and suburbs of America. The central plot is based around the infamous Operation Paperclip, which involved high ranking Nazi scientists being brought to the US by the government and given new identities. Central among these are Dylan Baker who plays Biff Simpson, the highest placed Nazi in the US government. Pulling the strings is the mysterious Colonel, played by Lena Olin.
The Players
Jonah gets involved with the titular group, led by Meyer Offerman (Al Pacino), and finds out a great deal about himself, his family and history.
I absolutely loved the main group. My favourites were definitely Murray and Mindy Markowitz, played by Saul Rubinek (Warehouse 13) and Carol Kane (The Princess Bride). Their story was both heartbreaking and so heartwarming. To see how their love had endured such terrible hardships and still overcame, it was brilliantly done. I really hope that we do get a second season, as the others have so much promise that was only just beginning to be explored. Especially Joe (Louis Ozawa) and Sister Harriet (Kate Mulvany). I felt like Roxy (Tiffany Boone) was criminally underused though, apart from one stellar scene in episode 5.
Josh Radnor’s cock-sure actor Lonny Flash is a world away from Ted Mosby. It took me a couple of episodes before I realised who I was watching!
The third side of the triangle is maverick FBI agent Millie Morris, played by Jerrika Hinton.
She finds the disturbing link behind a number of strange deaths and finds herself caught between those who want to keep the presence of the Nazis secret, and the Hunters. Morris is also a lesbian, in a steady relationship but not openly out. This presents her with a further set of issues, as her secret relationship is pressured from inside and out.
Review
I really enjoyed Hunters, as far as the content allowed. It is brutal and graphic and unflinching in its depictions of violence, both in the present day and in flashbacks. It has a Tarantino-esque feel at times, although in my opinion was far better at building and maintaining tension.
Jonah’s journey to find himself is, in some ways, paralleled by that of Travis Leich (Greg Austin – Class) who is a foot soldier for the nascent Fourth Reich. Both young men go through something of a journey. Neither one questions much about their life to begin with, but by the end of the season both have found a new position.
The plot is fairly straight-forward up until the last couple of episodes but there are a couple of stonking twists at the end that left me absolutely stunned. One was a tad more predictable than the other, but both were delivered very well.
Not Perfect
I had a couple of gripes, things that bugged me about the show. The first, and most annoying, was the handful of “commercials” that are dotted sporadically throughout the episodes. They annoyed me as they broke the tension. I’m quite sure that’s what they were intended to do, but they yanked me out of the flow so completely that it was hard to take whatever happened immediately afterwards seriously.
The second of my bugbears was the insistence on having the Nazi characters drink milk at celebrations. Milk is not racist. It’s good for your bones.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the show. If you like period set dramas, with a twist of Tarantino-esque violence and a slightly edge at times, then Hunters is definitely for you. It is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
Stay tuned as we will have an interview with one of the stars of Hunters, Greg Austin, coming up shortly.
