Amazon's Hunters Season 1 TV Show Review

"Let's get to cooking these Nazi c**ts"

by Casimir Harlow

Amazon's surprisingly good Jordan Peele-produced Nazi-hunting series sees Pacino pulling no punches as he leads the hunt for vicious Nazis who've infiltrated America.

With an initial trailer that makes it look a little like some kind of twentysomething-taskforce running around in a lite TV drama, it's quite a pleasant surprise to find that Hunters is more like a blend of The Americans and Munich, with a dash of 70s exploitation thrown in for style. Sure, it's still running with a younger cast with pop culture dialogue and occasionally gimmicky exploitation movie stylisation, but it's founded in a very bloody and refreshingly unrestrained look at past Nazi horrors and present Nazi plotting in 70s NYC.

 

Like a blend of The Americans and Munich, with a dash of 70s exploitation flick thrown in for style

When his grandma is mysteriously murdered, gifted but young Jonah feels even more lost than before, getting into trouble with the law, and desperate for answers as to who was behind it. Approached by an enigmatic family friend, Jonah discovers a secret organisation of Nazi hunters, attempting to stop the Nazis who have infiltrated the US from enacting the Fourth Reich. Discovering the true horror of his grandmother's time during the War, and seeing the lengths that he must go to in order to bring these undercover monsters to justice - outside the law - Jonah is forced to make some unpleasant decisions about his future.

Hunters Season 1
"I know: you were worried when you saw my name attached to a TV show."

Gone are the days when the name Pacino would be a big draw to anything - he's simply taken on too many straight-to-video duds - but thankfully his return to TV is a welcome one, and arguably something that he should have done some time ago. Reportedly his reasoning was that movies are not made like they used to be made - there's no time on modern productions; no rehearsals or effort made getting to know your fellow cast members or even getting to know the character you're playing; instead being called upon to turn up and deliver, with the rest dealt with in post-production. Conversely, he reportedly suggested that working on Hunters was like working on a 10 hour movie, with a lot more time to sink into the role, and bring something out of the story, and he's absolutely right.

These days TV shows practically look movie quality in terms of production values (do a search and you might even find that elusive 4K version of Hunters too), and the long form narrative and eschewing of episodic plotting do indeed leave most modern TV series feeling like really long movies. A binge drop helps too, leaving this show in particular hard to put down, with a compelling story, interesting characters, and a dark, conspiratorial undertone (no doubt thanks to Peele) which gives it a nice edge.

 

Peele's input is welcome, and the dark comic book stylisation, whilst a little hit and miss in its 'humour', mostly gives it at least some distinctive flavour

What gives it the edge is an adherence to effective flashbacks (unlike Arrow). Nazi warcrimes are portrayed with an almost Saw-like sadistic quality (the human chessboard is a shocking image), and the present day impetus is relentless, with a vicious Nazi enforcer scouring the streets looking for the hunters, ratcheting up the tension at both ends.

Percy Jackson's Logan Lerman as Jonah makes for a tolerable enough younger protagonist, and the supporting characters are colourful and enthusiastic (How I Met Your Mother's Josh Radnor is having a ball, it's nice to see True Romance's Saul Rubinek, and Tiffany Boone is kick-ass Blaxploitation gold), headlined by a part-time Pacino who is still welcome as the wise old Bruce Wayne-esque leader of the pack, even affecting an effective accent to boot. Greg Austin is suitably chilling as the almost superhuman Nazi enforcer, handled by The Colonel, deliciously played by Romeo is Bleeding's Lena Olin, supported by Spider-Man's Dylan Baker, with a slew of juicy one-shots for familiar faces as hidden Nazis, raking in the likes of William Sadler (Netflix's When Will They See Us), 2001's Keir Dullea, Fringe's John Noble, and Kenneth Tigar (Avengers).

Casting and characters are key, but Peele's input is welcome, and the dark comic book stylisation, whilst a little hit and miss in its 'humour', mostly gives it at least some distinctive flavour. Certainly the extended feature-length pilot should have you hooked, with Amazon's Hunters well worth investigating.


Scores

Verdict

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8

8
AVForumsSCORE
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