The Hunters
By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62277966
Created by David Weil
Starring Logan Lerman, Jerrika Hinton, Lena Olin, Saul Rubinek, Carol Kane, Josh Radnor, Greg Austin, Tiffany Boone, Louis Ozawa, Kate Mulvany, Dylan Baker, Jeannie Berlin, Al Pacino
I really wanted to like The Hunters. I was mindful of great shows about post-war Nazis brought to justice such as QBVII and Shoah, and always admired Simon Weisenthal. And historically, there really were Jewish vigilante groups such as Nakam (Revenge) that hunted down and brought to justice Nazis who had escaped to America and in some cases, had horrific records expunged. While not all Germans who came to America after the war were monsters and criminals, some indisputably were.
Further, Jordan Peele and Al Pacino were mentioned prominently in the promos for the series, and I like the work of both individuals a lot.
But the writing just isn’t up to the task, and Hunters has to be seen as an interesting failure. Part of the problem is that the depictions of the Nazis is so over-the-top in displaying their evil that it becomes an annoying caricature.
The opening scene, alas, is fairly typical of what is to come. Biff Simpson, blond, affable undersecretary-of-state, is having a barbeque in the back yard of his Maryland estate. His three small children are playing in the pool, and he is entertaining guests with a story of some mildly risqué language he used in front of the First Lady, Rosalyn Carter (this is in 1977). He speaks with a mild southern drawl and is every bit the well-off governmental suburbanite. Two guests, a man and his wife, arrive slightly late. The woman looks at him and gasps, “You! It’s You!” She turns to her husband and shouts, “It’s him!” and starts screaming in Polish. Biff tries to charm his way out of the situation, and when it doesn’t work (the discerning viewer might have guessed it wouldn’t) and she shouts, “The Butcher of Arlav” and starts yelling about all the family members he’s killed. Finally Biff pulls a 9mm with a silencer out from under his barbeque grill because no barbeque is complete without a 9mm with silencer inches from red-hot coals, and starts shooting, starting with his wife, his three kids, and the half dozen other guests, leaving only the hysterical Polish wife, giving him a chance to monologue for a wee bit. He grumbles in a sudden “Ve heff vays ov mekking you tok” accent, “An entire life built. Marrying that American pig. Siring three talented swine. How long I wanted to snap their little necks. Well, their blood is on your hands, little girl.” And then he shoots her. And the moral is that if you encounter a pychopathic government nazi named Biff, don’t ask for the weinerschnitzel.
I wish I could say the show didn’t have such lurid writing falling into parody as it went along, but unfortunately, such cringe-inducing dialog and situations recur.
It’s really a shame, because it could have been a great series, and if Nazis and Nazi-hunters have receded into the past, the crimes and the lessons to be learned have not.
No, this isn’t “Be Kind to Nazis” week. That won’t happen until his second term. But one reason the real-life Nazis got away with it was because they made a point of not sounding like the dentist from that Dustin Hoffman movie.
The acting is good. The premise is good. It’s got some artful direction. But the writing! Ouch.
Give it a schufti if you want, and you will see some redeeming features. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.