(May Contain Spoilers)
I loved this series; I think Amazon Prime are bringing us great consistently high-quality content that is not diluted my masses of other videos. I adored Al Pacino’s performance throughout the series, he has definitely got finer with age. I hated Jonah’s (Logan Lerman) character through the entire series and each episode I grew to hate him more and more, just because he was immature, a bit of a sheep and did what Meyer wanted, as well as being stupid not thinking and impulsive, which a lot of the time ended in his near death or the actual death of others around him! I episode 7 and 9 were my favourites because there were a lot of action and the plot seemed to build up and thicken. I also enjoyed the Hunter’s as a group of individuals and getting to know their background and story. Murray (Saul Rubinek) and Mindy (Carol Kane) were my favourites for their classic old-married-couple routine, but the love they have for one another, as well as Lonny Flash (Josh Radnor) he was so funny and I enjoyed the moments where he was on screen and wanted MORE! Finally, Sister Harriet (Kate Mulvany) I’m not sure if she is a Nazi or Jew and what her intensions are or even who she is, that completely confused me.
Set in 1977 the first scene sees a friendly neighbourly BBQ taking place until a young Jewish woman notices Biff (Dylan Baker) as a Nazi from the concentration camps, therefore Biff shoots them all so that his cover is not blown. That is our introduction, Nazi’s in America. Jonah comes out of the cinema after watching Star Wars with his friends and is also seen drug dealing to earn money for him and his grandmother Ruth (Jeannie Berlin) who are quite poor. Later that evening Ruth gets shot, whilst Jonah is upstairs, and he hears her say ‘you can’t hide’. After this traumatic event Jonah is introduced to Meyer (Al Pacino) at Ruth’s funeral and he claims to be an old friend who was with her in the concentration camps during the war. Meyer says that Jonah can call on him whenever he needs help and it so happens that Jonah gets into trouble drug dealing again so calls on Meyer to bail him out of jail.
Jonah goes back to Meyers house and over a game of chess, Meyer tells Jonah the story of The Wolf, a notorious Nazi who used to kill Jews for sport. Whilst Meyer is out of the room Jonah discovers a secret compartment and discovers photos of Ruth’s killer, he takes them and runs. Jonah discovers who this person is and goes to kill him, but being a stupid, naïve boy, the tables turn, and Jonah is tied up, just as the Nazi is about to kill Jonah, Meyer saves the day and Jonah. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Millie (Jerrika Hinton) is sent to investigate a murder of an old woman who died in the shower, however it was seen that she was gassed as revenge, when Millie finds a photo of the woman shaking hands with Hitler. Millie’s Nazi trail leads her to Meyer and the hunters, however, is always a step behind.
We are introduced to Travis (Greg Austin) and The Colonel (Lena Olin) who are building the Fourth Reich. The Colonel sends Travis to kill the hunters and the FBI agent, but he tries to toy with their minds by playing them off against one another. Travis, however, does kill The Colonels three sons, but she rewards him with a drink of her blood to welcome him fully into the next Nazi bloodline. Travis does end up in prision and tries to build up the Fourth Reich in there.
The hunter’s, hunt Nazi’s and they track down and kill them after they do a trail for the 6 million Jewish crying out from their graves. When killing one Nazi they discover a hidden room with a recorder and realise they have been communicating with one another, but it is code. Mindy and Murray break the code, but only have of it and there are dates of famous murders. Jonah after retrieving a music box from another hunt realise the breaks the full code, revealing that it is co-ordinates. After finding a Nazi called The Ghost and see he is in intensive care, the hunters discover that the Nazi’s are creating a Fourth Reich and creating a biological weapon to wide out millions. The hunters split up and there are two bombs placed in both co-ordinates, but after Murray fails to disarm the bomb he dies in the explosion. The other bomb causes a city power cut, which enables the Nazi’s to move their biological weapon across the city in the cover of darkness.
Flashbacks reveal more about Ruth and the camps, showing that Ruth build up a relationship with Meyer, however The Wolf was infatuated by her. Meyer was put in a situation where The Wolf would kill her if Meyer didn’t kill other Jews and Meyer ended up killing 11 Jewish men, which tortured him mind after the war. Flashbacks of Mindy and Murray’s past reveal they had a son in the camps, but he was taken from them and shot in front of their eyes. Harriet was shipped to Britain during the war and trained to forget her past. Joe has flashbacks of the war he was in and the torments of a young girl dying in his arms.
After visiting another Nazi, it is revealed that the biological weapon was going to be distributed in corn syrup. Therefore, the hunters infiltrate the factory where it is being made and destroy it. Travis manages to escape but Jonah runs after him, although Millie catches up and urges Jonah to do the right thing as his Grandmother would have wanted. The Colonel escapes, however, it is Meyer driving the car and they get into a crash after The Colonel shoots a gun at Meyer. A few days later Jonah discovers some files in Ruth’s cookbook leading him to The Wolf, a plastic surgeon, who he takes to Meyer’s house. The major plot twist is that Meyer says he is The Wolf and the doctor was the one who did the plastic surgery on him to make him look like Meyer. Jonah shoots him, of course, although much to my dismay, and tells the Hunters. Millie is recruited by the government to track Nazi’s in America, which leads the Hunter’s to decide to move and track Nazi’s in Europe. Finally, Joe gets kidnapped to reveal that somewhere in Argentina, The Colonel has survived and that is alongside her is Adolf Hitler!!!
This review was super-long, and I didn’t include everything, because there was so many subplots that were going on but check out my TV RECAPS on Hunters to get a in depth episode breakdown. I loved this series and there were some great moments that stood out to me, I thought the cinematography was great, the plot twist at the end was very Jordan Peele (Get Out 2017, Us 2019) and I didn’t expect anything less from him. I really disliked Jonah’s character, so am super sad that Meyer is dead. I cannot wait for series 2, however if they the Hunters are off to Europe, Millie is in America and Joe is kidnapped with Adolf Hitler in Argentina, then are we going to be all over the place?! I do think that the series could have been summed up to 6-8 episodes and the juicy storylines could have been brought through to be punchier as I think some of the series dragged and some characters and subplots were needed or come to much which felt like a filler idea.
I did love the direction, especially of the moment between Mindy and Murray, I cried! I do NOT cry at stuff and not really TV shows, but I was so invested in their characters and went on their journey. Finally, this series has had negative comments about the moments of madness and absurd interludes, but with something as extreme and hard-hitting as this, I really enjoyed those breaks out to come back in and pay more attention. Therefore, I give the series 4 Jewels for all the reasons above and look forward to where they go with series 2.
Stream the full series on Amazon Prime Video.
Comments