Manhunt is an American dramaanthology television series created by Andrew Sodroski, Jim Clemente, and Tony Gittelson. Initially commissioned as a television miniseries starring Sam Worthington and Paul Bettany, it depicted a fictionalized account of the FBI's hunt for the Unabomber and premiered on Discovery Channel on August 1, 2017. On July 17, 2018, it was reported that Charter Communications was in advanced negotiations with the series' producers to pick up the series, now considered an anthology series, for two seasons to be aired on their Spectrum cable service. The first of these potential seasons reportedly would follow Eric Rudolph, known as the Olympic Park Bomber. On January 18, 2020, it was announced that the second season, titled Manhunt: Deadly Games, would premiere on February 3, 2020.
The working title for the series was Manifesto, and the series order was announced in March 2016 at a presentation by Discovery Communications president Rich Ross. On May 15, 2016, Entertainment Weekly released several promotional photos, showing a first look at Paul Bettany's portrayal of Ted Kaczynski.
Release
released the entire miniseries on Blu-ray and DVD on December 26, 2017. Netflix secured the rights to the series in November 2017. It premiered on the site on December 12, 2017 in various territories.
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating and an average rating of 7.67/10, based on 29 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads: "Engrossing and affecting, Manhunt: Unabomber uses a taut, meticulously constructed narrative to uncover the facts behind the oft-exaggerated true story." On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Historical accuracy
Greg Stejskal, a former FBI agent who was involved in the UNABOM investigation, criticized the writers of the show in TheWrap. He accused them of making "a minor member" of the FBI investigative team "into the star player who won the game", referring to the show's portrayal of Jim Fitzgerald. He said that Fitzgerald never met Kaczynski, was not in Lincoln, Montana, during the time of Kaczynski's arrest, had no part in the search of Kaczynski's cabin, and never interviewed him. Fitzgerald told Bustle in August 2017 that the show is in the "high 80 percentile" of accuracy, though "the Fitz character is a composite". He also stated that he had not interviewed Kaczynski, although he said he was on his way to do so in 2007 when Kaczynski changed his mind. The trial took place in Billings, Montana, not in California as depicted in the show.
