Manhunt: Unabomber Review

Manhunt: Unabomber (2017)
Mini-series - 8 episodes

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Created by:  Andrew Sodroski, Jim Clemente, Tony Gittelson
Directed by: David Ayer
Starring:  Sam Worthington, Jeremy Bobb, Ben Weber, Chris Noth, Paul Bettany, Mark Duplas
Rated: TV-14

Plot
Faced with few clues and an increasingly panicked public, the FBI calls on a new kind of profiler to help track down the infamous Unabomber with this in-depth look at how the FBI tracked him down.

Verdict
An engrossing look at a historical event. The true story part gives this terrorism story a lot of intrigue as we see the successes and failures of the investigation. While this falls into the oft used protagonist who everyone discounts, that doesn't take much away from the story. We even get into the history of the Unabomber, and the series tries to make us feel sympathy for him. The scale of the pursuit is astounding, and the break in the case is facinating. While the FBI got their man, they sacrificed a few people in the pursuit.
Watch it.

Review
The opening monologue, presumably from the unabomber, is effective. It's amazing how the mail operates and by the same turn dangerous, revealing insight into how he worked. This is cross cut with Sam Worthington's character Agent Fitzgerald's first starting the case and after the unabomber was caught. Fitzgerald is a profilers, constantly ridiculed as not real police and his ideas are dismissed despite being accurate. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but I do give the FBI credit, they have years of profiles with top profilers telling them each time they need to start over, so a brand new agent telling them the same thing is easy to dismiss.

Agent Jim Fitzgerald and Kaczynski.

The cross cutting from during and after the case works well. In episode three Kaczynski details how he'll evade the charges while we're also seeing the FBI trying to break the case. Episode four is crazy with the FBI's plan to set up Kaczynski and catch him. They plan to find a needle in a haystack by going through the haystack straw by straw. We get a lot of drama in this episode and it highlights how the drama is drummed up for a series. It's easy to misdirect the viewer. Even in the next episode we're introduced to Kaczynski's brother who proclaims Ted cant' be the unabomber. We know how that's going to go.

Everyone in this image was a suspect until proven otherwise.

A lot of movies and series depict a cop or agent bent on catching the bad guy. This obsession leads to them ruining careers, forsaking their family, and becoming obsessed. Maybe that's what it takes to track down people like Kaczynski. Is it worth it? In the broad sense, yes. By the body count, yes. Fitzgerald ruins his own life in the process. He also broke the rules to catch Kaczynski. I didn't do any research so I don't know what's fact and what's drama. Would he argue with his superiors as much as we see? The FBI has a hierarchy. Did Fitzgerald really break rank as depicted?

A young Kaczynski at Harvard.

Episode six gets into Kaczynski's background. I like how the series shows both sides, but he was a sociopath. He had no idea how to express emotion, acting out violently. He was isolated in every step at life and susceptible to suggestion. With no social skills this only highlights the abilities he lacks, fueling his desire for revenge. He was mentally tortured after being groomed for a year in a crude experiment. While I feel bad for him and the irreparable damage this had to do to him, he had tendencies before any of that. The show depicts him regretting what he's done, wishing he had started a family instead of feeding hate, but it feels like emotional manipulation. There's no way to know that, and anything the real unabomber said after he was caught cant' be fully trusted.
I also felt bad for Kaczynski's brother. The FBI sold him out to catch the unabomber, destroying the brother's life. Ultimately the ends justify the means, but more than a few people were thrown off the burning bridge that was this investigation.

Kaczynski eventually accepts a plea bargain. He's aware enough that he would be perceived as crazy during a trial, but somehow doesn't think he's doing anything wrong. I don't know how that reconciles. Did he just want to be heard, to get attention? Maybe it was all revenge for the experiments at Harvard. It was Kaczynski's need for attention that got him caught. That and analyzing his writings and speech patterns. Fitzgerald may not have been "real police," but he caught his man.