Manhunt on Apple TV+ is one of the most sophisticated historical miniseries I have had the pleasure of sitting down and enjoying every Thursday for the past 7 weeks.
If you're like me you probably thought Lincoln was assassinated and that his killer Booth was most likely caught the same night and not taken alive. After all, if a president is killed in a public theater wouldn't he simply be shot on site? Isn't that what most of us intuited without saying so?
I didn't know this wasn't the case. I didn't know about the Great Confederate Conspiracy. I didn't know about War Secretary Edwin Stanton's lifelong mission to avenge Lincoln. I didn't know about the ten Black witnesses that testified against a confederate doctor, Dr. Mudd that aided Booth's escape during a nationwide manhunt. I didn't know about Andrew Johnson's despicable behavior and potential knowledge of the conspiracy beforehand, as he stood to gain power in the event of Lincoln's death.
I watched rapt every Thursday and do not regret watching who some of you might recognize as Edmure Tulley from Game of Thrones turn into a last standing sentry against a mounting stead of "easy does it" northerners who have given up the fight despite seemingly having won.
Jefferson Davis makes an eerie appearance in the end before Stanton locks himself in the war cabinet for three months to protect reconstruction from being completely obliterated by southern sympathizers and Johnson loyalists. Jefferson Davis sagely tells Stanton that the South has secretly won, because the American flag will always represent confederate values and interests for as long as it stands.
As history has it, Stanton went on to be the only member of the Supreme Court to confirmed but never serve. He would not live to see Black people get the vote. The land parcels he tried to deliver to former slaves were forcibly taken away from any one he managed to give them to during the brief time any of them managed to get it. On his death bed of course, he thinks of Lincoln and the time he spent working instead of mourning his own deceased child.
A beautiful and thoughtful mini series that touches on the founding of Howard University, the futility of labor, and the differences we may have seen had the confederacy ever been brought to heal. Not the glorified Civil War movie that frequently plays Yankee Doodle, or the silly both sides garbage Americans toy with often. We see some people hang for their crimes, but not enough, and we learn that justice would have required a true accounting for.
I would watch the whole thing again with pleasure and I hope you do too because it demands to be seen.
If you're like me you probably thought Lincoln was assassinated and that his killer Booth was most likely caught the same night and not taken alive. After all, if a president is killed in a public theater wouldn't he simply be shot on site? Isn't that what most of us intuited without saying so?
I didn't know this wasn't the case. I didn't know about the Great Confederate Conspiracy. I didn't know about War Secretary Edwin Stanton's lifelong mission to avenge Lincoln. I didn't know about the ten Black witnesses that testified against a confederate doctor, Dr. Mudd that aided Booth's escape during a nationwide manhunt. I didn't know about Andrew Johnson's despicable behavior and potential knowledge of the conspiracy beforehand, as he stood to gain power in the event of Lincoln's death.
I watched rapt every Thursday and do not regret watching who some of you might recognize as Edmure Tulley from Game of Thrones turn into a last standing sentry against a mounting stead of "easy does it" northerners who have given up the fight despite seemingly having won.
Jefferson Davis makes an eerie appearance in the end before Stanton locks himself in the war cabinet for three months to protect reconstruction from being completely obliterated by southern sympathizers and Johnson loyalists. Jefferson Davis sagely tells Stanton that the South has secretly won, because the American flag will always represent confederate values and interests for as long as it stands.
As history has it, Stanton went on to be the only member of the Supreme Court to confirmed but never serve. He would not live to see Black people get the vote. The land parcels he tried to deliver to former slaves were forcibly taken away from any one he managed to give them to during the brief time any of them managed to get it. On his death bed of course, he thinks of Lincoln and the time he spent working instead of mourning his own deceased child.
A beautiful and thoughtful mini series that touches on the founding of Howard University, the futility of labor, and the differences we may have seen had the confederacy ever been brought to heal. Not the glorified Civil War movie that frequently plays Yankee Doodle, or the silly both sides garbage Americans toy with often. We see some people hang for their crimes, but not enough, and we learn that justice would have required a true accounting for.
I would watch the whole thing again with pleasure and I hope you do too because it demands to be seen.