Before ‘Death by Lightning,’ This Apple TV Drama Tackled the Forgotten Side of History’s Most Infamous Assassination

Death by Lightning has become a success on Netflix with its depiction of the shocking true story behind the assassination of President James A. Garfield (Michael Shannon), which has surprisingly not been a critical part of the American education curriculum. While this is in part because Garfield accomplished very little within his first term before he was shot by Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), it is also because, sadly, his assassination tends to be overshadowed by a much more famous one. The death of Abraham Lincoln is one of the most consequential events in American history and shaped the future of the nation as it recovered from the devastation of the Civil War. There have been many films and shows about Lincoln’s life in the past, but the Apple TV miniseries Manhunt examines the thrilling search for a presidential assassin and his co-conspirators.

Although Lincoln’s assassination is an essential part of any biopic, the consequences aren’t as frequently touched upon; given that he was killed less than a week following the end of the Civil War, there was a threat that the pursuit of his killer (who was assumed to be a sympathizer to the Confederacy) could ignite the flames of war once more. There was also the complication that Lincoln’s legacy would be handled by a different administration that had vastly different priorities and beliefs. While it offers an explanation for the dramatic shifts within American politics during the tail end of the 19th century, Manhunt is first and foremost a cat-and-mouse thriller about the pursuit of justice. Apple TV+ may have already made their mark on the science fiction genre, but Manhunt serves as proof that they should invest equal efforts into historical drama.

Apple TV’s ‘Manhunt’ Is an Electrifying Historical Thriller

Although Manhunt succeeds in establishing the narrow time that authorities had to find John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle) and hold him accountable, the series also benefits from examining why Lincoln’s leadership was so critical in the days before his death. Manhunt is as much a tragedy as it is a thriller, as the great Hamish Linklater gives a memorable performance as Lincoln within flashback sequences. Although great actors like Henry Fonda and Daniel Day-Lewis have previously played the sixteenth President, Linklater shows the empathetic and strategic mind that made Lincoln such a critical force for peace. Despite his strong-willed beliefs about the preservation of the Republic and the banning of slavery, Lincoln understood that positive relations would need to be maintained with the Confederate leadership in order to prevent another outbreak of violence. The wise, strategic presence that Lincoln is depicted as having makes it clear why there was such personal anguish when he was killed; not only did he have a plan for guiding the nation’s future, but he was a genuinely empathetic man who expressed kindness and reason.

The shock of Lincoln’s assassination was unprecedented, but Manhunt took the time to get into the psychology of Booth and how he became a pawn for Confederate sympathizers. Boyle depicts Booth as an angry, dejected young man who has blamed Lincoln for all of his grievances; having been influenced by propaganda and a hostile cultural environment, Booth has come to believe that the emancipation of slaves and the Union Army’s policies are to blame for all of his misfortune. While Boyle brings the effective terror needed to play such a dangerous character, it’s also implied that Booth was less of a “lone wolf” than he was the product of a hostile force of anti-democratic sentiments who were convinced that Lincoln was their sworn enemy. While the series demonstrates why bringing Booth to justice was important as a means of letting the nation heal, it also suggests that the road to healing the nation would be far more complicated than simply finding one assassin.

‘Manhunt’ Examines the Chaos of Reconstruction-Era America

Manhunt actually focuses on a relatively more obscure figure as its primary protagonist because it is centered on Edwin Stanton (Tobias Menzies), the Secretary of War and a friend to Lincoln during his final days. Stanton is a fascinating point-of-view character because of the dramatic changes in his duty following Lincoln’s death; while he had been essential in gutting the Confederate Army and forcing a ceasefire, Stanton finds that his services have not been appreciated by Lincoln’s Vice President, Andrew Johnson (Glenn Morshower), who assumes the role of Commander-in-Chief. Johnson had been added to Lincoln’s ticket as a means of reaching out to moderate voters in swing states, and did not share many of his beliefs; as a result, the White House was taken over by someone willing to be more lenient on the Confederacy and less interested in preserving the rights of freed men. This makes Stanton a more compelling character, as he sees himself as the only remaining member of the administration who is capable of bringing Lincoln’s legacy full circle.

Manhunt may serve as an in-depth history lesson, considering how it’s able to encompass many years of history, but it’s also a great work of crime entertainment. Manhunt benefited from a seasoned group of filmmakers with experience working in the suspense genre. Director Carl Franklin, who helmed the first two episodes, has made nail-biting noir stories with a racial component, including Devil in a Blue Dress and One False Move, which made him the perfect person to capture the disparity of the early Johnson administration. Similarly, several episodes were directed by John Dahl, a master of neo-Western thrillers like Red Rock West and Rounders, who examined the notion of frontier justice during the actual manhunt. Manhunt is as much a cautionary tale as it is a reminder that history repeats itself, and it examines a complex situation that would tragically be repeated during subsequent American presidential assassination attempts. While Apple TV may not have taken as great a length to promote it as they have for some of their more star-studded shows, Manhunt is an embodiment of the benefits of a detail-oriented approach to history.