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.

Based on James L. Swanson's bestseller Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, the story begins on the day of Lincoln's assassination, but it deliberately sets its cat-and-mouse detective story against the backdrop of an America in crisis, a fragile union only recently reformed and a skittish nation unsure of its next steps in the wake of a war that frequently set families against one another. Without Lincoln, the nation's most vital voice for equality for the formerly enslaved, the future of Reconstruction was left in the hands of his successor, Andrew Johnson (Glenn Morshower), a man who favored the quick restoration of seceded states and generally opposed federally protected rights for the newly freed Black Americans. 

It is Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, who is left to both get justice for his death and finish the work he started. Through flashbacks sprinkled liberally throughout the show's seven episodes, we see not just the pair's plans for reunifying the country take shape but the genuine friendship that is forged between them over their many late-night conversations and spirited debates. Linklater's Lincoln is a bit more careworn and dorky than our pop culture generally likes to remember him as, but he and Menzies have excellent chemistry with one another. Stanton's touchingly evident love for his friend ultimately gives the show a profoundly personal, emotionally propulsive feel, particularly as his obsessive search for John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle) begins to take a significant toll on his own health and personal life.

However, his search for Booth is not just the hunt for a single man. It's clear almost immediately that Lincoln's killer did not act alone and that the original plot of April 14 involved several more assassinations. (Secretary of State William Seward was also stabbed in the face that night and severely injured, while Vice President Johnson's life appears to have been spared because his would-be killer got cold feet.) As Stanton's men track Booth toward Virginia, his investigation expands to New York and Montreal, both well-known hubs of Confederate money laundering and espionage, where he hopes to find the co-conspirators who funded and perhaps even planned the attack on the president and his immediate successors.

Booth spends most of the series on the run, often missing being caught thanks to favors from Confederate sympathizers or simple blind luck. Struggling with a broken leg and an exceptionally bad sense of direction, he's assisted by his hapless sidekick and lackey David Herold (Will Harrison), as well as co-conspirators like Dr. Samuel Mudd (Matt Walsh) and Lewis Powell (Spencer Treat Clark). As Booth slowly makes his way toward Richmond, creator Monica Beletsky (Fargo) deserves no small amount of praise for creating a series of events with a very well-known outcome that still feels so incredibly tense and uncertain. 

Boyle, who also stars in Apple TV+'s other big historical drama of the spring, Masters of the Air, does a remarkable job of making Booth utterly loathsome and deeply human, a man whose behavior is driven by grievance and insecurity, fueled by a life lived in the shadow of his more popular father and brother. Seemingly desperate for celebrity, there are moments when it feels almost as though Booth wants to get caught, and he's certainly not subtle about announcing his identity and crime to anyone and everyone he encounters. (So stealthy!) Boyle's performance infuses the character with an eager sort of monstrousness, which is both mesmerizing and deeply uncomfortable by turns. 

Though Menzies and Boyle technically never share the screen, their presences and performances wind around one another, giving Manhunt a genuine sense of gravitas and urgency. The pair are perfect — and strangely familiar — foils for one another: Stanton as the forward-looking, forward-thinking abolitionist who embraces technology (the show points out how an essential element of his war strategy was his use of the telegram); Booth as the virulent racist whose performative machismo reflects his own backward ways of thinking. These men are the poles around which the rest of the series turns, the center that makes the rest of the show hold true. 

Though Menzies and Boyle are worth the price of admission by themselves, Manhunt boasts many strong supporting performances across its canvas. Lili Taylor is particularly excellent as Mary Todd Lincoln, and her layered, restrained performance does its best to complicate our pop culture's traditional assumption that she was mad or otherwise mentally ill. (One of Manhunt's few flaws is that this fabulously complex version of the First Lady doesn't get more screen time.) Patton Oswalt (The Sandman) plays decidedly against his normal comedic type as Union spymaster Lafayette Baker, and Lovie Simone's performance as Mary Simms, one of Mudd's formerly enslaved Black servants, is so warm and hopeful that you'll immediately forget that her involvement in much of the events of this series is a bit of polite historical fiction. (Though she was a key witness and testified against Mudd during the trial.)

Manhunt isn't perfect. It's a rare limited series that feels a smidge too short and likely could have used one more episode to flesh out some of the more complicated subplots that weren't tied directly to Booth. Its free use of time jumps will likely frustrate some viewers, as they don't happen in chronological order, and the show occasionally switches between multiple time periods in a single episode (or sometimes even between scenes). And its wide array of supporting characters — particularly the various white male conspirators who are chased or charged at various points in the show — can be difficult to distinguish from one another if you, as a viewer, don't have a basic understanding of who all the major players involved likely were. 

But Manhunt isn't just a historical retelling, and its moving, human portrayal of these world-changing events helps set it apart from so many other dramas of its ilk. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln is one of the great what-ifs of history — what would America have become if he had lived to finish his second term? — but Manhunt is more concerned with who was left to pick up the pieces and what they forged in their place. And that makes all the difference.

Manhunt premieres globally on Apple TV+ with two episodes on Friday, March 15. Additional installments will debut weekly through April 19, 2024.