Manhunt is a gripping account of John Wilkes Booth’s assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the subsequent effort to bring him to justice. But it’s about so much more than that, taking in post-Civil War politics and the attempts by the victorious Unionists to implement their Reconstruction policies, in the face of determined opposition by the Confederates and their sympathisers.

It starts, it must be said, very slowly. The first couple of episodes spends a long while on the events immediately before and after the assassination, jumping back and forth in time and providing lots of context for what’s going on, which is probably necessary but doesn’t do the pacing any favours. Initial misgivings that this might be another streaming show that would have been better as a movie are misplaced, however, as things pick up drastically from the third episode, which is not coincidentally where the show starts expanding its scope beyond Booth and the Black characters begin to come to the fore.

The funny thing about Manhunt is that, despite Anthony Boyle’s superb turn as Booth (whom he plays as a fanatical egotist obsessed with the idea of becoming a heroic symbol of the Confederate South), the actual manhunt is probably the least compelling part of it. It gives the story its forward momentum, but it’s the politicking and backroom deals surrounding it that are the meat on the bones. And it’s why the show works best when it’s telling the stories of former slaves, the people who have by far the most to lose in the fractious, only very uneasily-United States.

When it lets these Reconstruction politics and the aftermath of the Civil War speak for themselves, about their fallout and how it affects the US to this day, it’s deeply compelling stuff. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always trust the audience’s intelligence enough: when a white man murders a freed Black man for allegedly stealing a horse, we don’t need to be told by the dialogue that this should remind us of Trayvon Martin and the countless other racist killings in present-day America.

And having a Confederate sympathiser all but quote Donald Trump, telling protagonist Edwin Stanton that he could shoot him in broad daylight on Wall Street without any consequences, is just a bit silly. The heart is undeniably in the right place, but Manhunt doesn’t need to beat us over the head with the point it’s making. The point is quite clear by itself.

But for all this, Stanton’s determination to push Lincoln’s Reconstruction agenda through and desire to make reparations to the recently freed slaves gives Manhunt an extremely powerful emotional core. Tobias Menzies – really quite brilliant in a rare top-billed role – portrays him as a truly principled, good man surrounded on all sides by those who want to undermine Lincoln’s plans and make slavery legal again.

Amid all the legalese and complicated politics lies, ultimately, a refreshingly simple story of good versus evil, freedom versus slavery, and it’s difficult not to get caught up in it. Lovie Simone, arguably the heart of the show as freedwoman Mary Simms, is a revelation, balancing her desire to make her way and help catch Booth with the absolute terror of what could all too easily happen to a Black woman speaking out against powerful white men.

Manhunt is beautifully produced and rich with fascinating historical details that place us firmly in this point in history and its complicated, divided politics, and overcomes an uneven beginning to become captivating, affecting, and thoroughly involving TV. It’s about a great deal more than just trying to catch an assassin, and so much better for it.

★★★★

Streaming on Apple TV+ from 15 March / Tobias Menzies, Anthony Boyle, Lovie Simone / Dir: Carl Franklin & TBC / Apple Studios 

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Emlyn Roberts-Harry

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