Apple TV's 'Manhunt' Is a Timely, Character Driven Historical Thriller With Surprising Heart

The great American author William Faulkner once said, "The past is never dead. It's not even the past." But rarely has that saying felt more true or timely than while watching Apple TV+'s new historical thriller Manhunt, a story of the search for Abraham Lincoln's assassin that's really about how fragile the bonds that hold America together once were (and sometimes still are).

Look, we all know the basics: The ill-fated trip to Ford’s Theater to see Our American Cousin on April 14, 1865. The gunshot that interrupted the performance. The scuffle in the president’s box before John Wilkes Booth leaped to the stage to declare the South avenged. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? But, as Manhunt so deftly demonstrates, there's so much more to the story of Lincoln's death and the days that followed afterward than many of us likely ever realized (or learned about in school). And given the state of, well... literally everything happening around us at the moment, it's probably not the worst time to remind everyone watching that the future of democracy is not guaranteed and how necessary those who risk everything to fight to hold it together are.

One part historical deep dive, one part true crime investigation, and one part legal procedural, with a healthy dollop of political intrigue on top, Manhunt tells the story of Lincoln's death by exploring the events that came after it, and how the nationwide search for the man who killed him revealed a much broader and more dangerous conspiracy at work. But what makes the series shine is its rich character work, anchored by a career-best performance from star Tobias Menzies (The Crown) and the unexpectedly warm central relationship between his Edwin Stanton and Hamish Linklater's (Midnight Mass) Lincoln that imbues the series' central hunt with genuine emotional weight.