Manhunt - Unabomber

[astrohip]

Good final episode. No sympathy still. They showed him being railroaded in a certain fashion, but his options were in reality exactly as they showed them. You had a judge who didn't want a circus, so he jumped to the end.

Originally Posted by loves2read

<snip>

So we both agree as to the definition of dramatization.

[Speleothem]

I enjoyed the series.
Could hardly get over agent Fitzgerald being a dead ringer for Bret Baier.

[echo7tango]

Yes, good final episode. Good miniseries, although it did move slowly.

Sympathy for Ted Kaczynski? Never. I wish I could find that article, the one I alluded to in post 5, to reread it and share it here. IIRC it said that episode 6 is where they wanted viewers to be a little sympathetic towards him.

Never.

[loves2read]

Originally Posted by silibran

I wondered if anyone else had started to watch this show. We watched two episodes and bailed. One of the major problems for me was the intrusiveness of the commercials. I think there was as much time given to commercials as there was actual show. And it was the same commercials at every break. So, so tiresome.

And, I also thought the the show was formulaic. Crusading profiler has to buck the system to find his man. But we already know that the FBI did not catch the unabomber; his brother figured out who it was, and he is the one who tipped the FBI off. I didn't get that far into the show though.

I thought Worthington's performance was hard to watch. The little bit I saw of Bettany's performance as Kaczynski was very good.

At any rate, I wanted to post my impression of the show. As I stated, we didn't stick around. We didn't like it enough to sit through all the commercials, basically.

This is on Netflix now if you have that service--no commercials

Watching it --
Some of the shifts in time are more jarring than helpful IMO but the scenes with Paul Bettany as Ted K are so very good---I would not recognize him because he totally changed his voice to what I assume is more in like with the Unabomber
Sam W is good as the FBI profiler
I can't believe the amount of hatred and general ineffectiveness that runs through - or ran through if it is changed (which I kind of doubt) the FBI guys on that team---
Fitzgerald's story has been somewhat amended for this show (he was executive producer or consultant) and makes him into a neophyte coming on to the team when Wikipedia says he had more experience
But the guys running the show, Freed (the FBI Director) were all about CYA and old-fashioned methodology
Jane Lynch as Janet Reno seems to have more guts than Freed for sure--
So even though Fitzgerald stayed in FBI and retired from there--seems like he really has a big ax to grind...

[loves2read]

Originally Posted by echo7tango

Yes, good final episode. Good miniseries, although it did move slowly.

Sympathy for Ted Kaczynski? Never. I wish I could find that article, the one I alluded to in post 5, to reread it and share it here. IIRC it said that episode 6 is where they wanted viewers to be a little sympathetic towards him.

Never.

I think I read something about that trying to get people to not see him as moster--
He was a monster though-- because of how he chose innocent people to punish with his bombs with an inarticulate criticism of how society had evolved

The fact is if he had published his "manifesto" as simply that--a published document--on the Internet or by sending it to various publications like NYTimes, WaPo, or any liberal newspaper he would have gotten no attention...it would have died on the vine or been lumped in with other, similar fringe POVs...
He didn't have the discipline (or mental stability) to argue his philosophy in open discourse...

I don't know if his initial plan included using the bombings to focus attention on HIM and then put the "manifesto" into the light or if that developed because no one was understanding why he was doing the bombings...
I don't care what he thought his purpose was--
I never read it at the time because to read it was to give him a modicum of legitimacy...whether he knew I read it or not...but nothing proactive on my part to seek it out...
What I have heard from other programs and on this one has concepts that people share but they didn't mail bombs to innocents...

[2x3x29x41]

This was on my extensive TO WATCH list. So I queued it up tonight.

I lasted 15 minutes.

It's melodramatic schlock.