Manhunt (2017 TV series)
Manhunt is an American drama anthology television series created by Andrew Sodroski, Jim Clemente, and Tony Gittelson, initially commissioned as a television miniseries. The first season, Manhunt: Unabomber, stars Sam Worthington and Paul Bettany, and depicts a fictionalized account of the FBI's hunt for the Unabomber. It premiered on Discovery Channel on August 1, 2017.[1][2] On July 17, 2018, Charter Communications was in advanced negotiations with the series' producers to pick up the series for two additional seasons to be aired on their Spectrum cable service. The show's second season follows the hunt for Eric Rudolph, who was the perpetrator of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing, after suspicion initially fell on security guard Richard Jewell.[3] The second season, Manhunt: Deadly Games, premiered on February 3, 2020.[4]
This article is about the 2017 TV series. For other uses, see Manhunt (disambiguation).Manhunt
Andrew Sodroski
Jim Clemente
Tony Gittelson
- Gregory Tripi (season 1)
- Harry Gregson-Williams (season 2)
- Stephanie Economou (season 2)
United States
English
2
18
Dana Brunetti
John Goldwyn
Troy Searer
Andrew Sodroski
Kevin Spacey (season 1)
Greg Yaitanes
August 1 –
September 12, 2017
February 3, 2020
Production[edit]
The working title for the series was Manifesto, and the series order was announced in March 2016 at a presentation by Discovery Communications president Rich Ross.[12] On May 15, 2016, Entertainment Weekly released several promotional photos, showing a first look at Paul Bettany's portrayal of Ted Kaczynski.[13]
Release[edit]
Lionsgate Home Entertainment released the entire miniseries on Blu-ray and DVD on December 26, 2017.[14]
Netflix secured the rights to the series in November 2017. It premiered on the site on December 12, 2017, in various territories.[15][16][17]
CBS acquired the broadcast rights to Deadly Games in August 2020, where it premiered on September 21, 2020.[18] In December 2020, Deadly Games was added to Netflix.[19]
Reception[edit]
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating and an average rating of 7.67/10, based on 29 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads: "Engrossing and affecting, Manhunt: Unabomber uses a taut, meticulously constructed narrative to uncover the facts behind the oft-exaggerated true story."[20] On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[21]
Historical accuracy[edit]
Season 1[edit]
Former FBI agent Greg Stejskal was involved in the UNABOM investigation, and he criticized the writers of the show in TheWrap, accusing them of making "a minor member" of the FBI investigative team "into the star player who won the game," referring to the show's portrayal of Jim Fitzgerald. He said that Fitzgerald never met Kaczynski, was not in Lincoln, Montana, during the time of Kaczynski's arrest (although the show does not place Fitzgerald in Lincoln at the time of Kaczynski's arrest), had no part in the search of Kaczynski's cabin, and never interviewed him.[22][23][24]
Fitzgerald told Bustle Magazine in August 2017 that the show is in the "high 80 percentile" of accuracy, though "the Fitz character is a composite." He also stated that he had not interviewed Kaczynski, although he said that he was on his way to do so in 2007 when Kaczynski changed his mind.[25]