Hunters: Praise and Reservations

Hunters, due to its unusual mix of things I really liked and aspects I found annoying, is one of the strangest television series I've ever seen.   For that reason alone, it's unique,

What I really liked was of course Al Pacino's superb acting in the lead role in late 1970s America.  The rest of the acting was excellent, too, including Logan Lerman as Jonah.  The concentration camp scenes in 1940s Nazi Europe were of course not likeable, but as powerful as ever I've seen in a television series or a movie.  The depth of the Fourth Reich hatred of Jews in late 1970s America was well portrayed, which is to say, chilling and sobering to the core, even though it's not completely clear how much exaggeration, if any, is in that portrayal.

The series is billed as based on true events.  It is true that America welcomed Wernher von Braun and other Nazi scientists to the U. S. after the war, rather than see them fall into the hands of the Soviets.  It's also true that von Braun's genius in rocketry was at partly responsible for the U. S. beating the Soviets in the space race, and getting us to the Moon and back in 1969.  What's not clear at all in our history is whether von Braun had any connection to American neo-Nazis, and, indeed, to indicate that he did, as in Hunters, moves his true story into rank conspiracy theory.

And that gets to the parts I really didn't care for in Hunters.  In addition to playing fast and loose with life and death matters, Hunters deliberately almost frolics at times in a cartoonish ambience.  Faux commercials either promoting the Fourth Reich or telling the truth about some political matter are peppered into the episodes.  Although the action scenes are excellent, there's a bit of too much derring do and wise-cracking among the combatants.  The story works best when it tenderly presents the foibles of vulnerable human life, and worst when it verges into super heroism.

The plot is complex and, for the most part, very effective.  I'll leave it to you to decide if you liked the stunning revelation in last episode.  I didn't, particularly, and also think it didn't quite make sense.

Nonetheless, I'd rate Hunters as well worth your seeing.



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