Hunters : Should you watch? | a show about Nazi hunters where you will see the twist coming

So I'll try to do this without spoiling too much

Story:

The best way to describe Hunters story without spoiling too much is to lay out some of the main characters stories and a few other bits of info.

After the death of his grandmother in mysterious circumstances Jonah is determined to find her killer as he believes the police will be no help and feels guilty for not acting to try and take down her killer just after her murder. His attempts lead him to trying to get info from a local gang only to get busted with the drugs he was trying to use to pay for said info.

Image taken from IMDB

After being bailed out by wealthy business man Meyer Offerman Jonah stumbles upon Offerman's secret that he and Jonah's grandmother were part of a secret group tracking down Nazi war criminals who had seemingly escaped to the USA and avoided any repercussions for their crimes. When Meyer initially refuses to work with Jonah, Jonah tracks down a Nazi who killed his grandmother and tries to take revenge only for things to go sideways. After Meyer steps in and saves him, Meyer decides to introduce Jonah to the rest of the group whom Meyer had secretly following and keeping tabs on Jonah. 

Jonah's story is one him coming to grips with the methods of the Hunt and if he is truly able to reconcile his ideas of right and wrong with the way the Hunt operates where the Hunt's idea of mercy is a quick death.

Travis is an American Neo-Nazi working for the Nazis as a fixer, being called in to fix problems that develop be it cleaning up after a mess or taking out or intimidating people proving to be obstacles. Travis's story is story is of his attempts to impress the Nazi Commander and to try to be seen and accepted by them and prove he is one of them.

Millie is an FBI agent looking into the seeming accidental death of a woman Nasa scientist only to discover the death is far from accidental and the woman scientist is a former Nazi scientist.

Image taken from IMDB

This leads her down a winding and dangerous path as she slowly discovers more than a few former Nazis hiding in the USA were turning up dead and trying to find out how the Nazis got into the USA along with who is behind the string of killings. This of course sets her on a collision course with the hunters. Millie's story is about her trying uncover the bigger mystery while trying to balance her personal life along with it.

As things progress the path of the hunters, Travis, the Nazis and Millie all wind together with the discovery and a large scale Nazi plot happening all to create and establish a 4th Reich.

Tone

I'm putting this in because it's fairly important to point out either by design or fluke hat Jordan Peele and co have managed to create is a series that feels like it was an old film serial of the exploitation cinema days only an attempt to combine multiple of the subgenre into one. There's the obvious Nazisploitation there's a character who feels like she fell out of a Blaxploitation film and another who could have fallen out of a Nunsploitation film, and yes that is a real minor film genre I checked into this. The series as a whole could even be considered to be in the Vigilante film subgenre of exploitation films complete with mentions of Vietnam and government corruption. Also while not a genre (as of writing this) it does feel like the series is also what I'd call a "Jewsploitation" film as it does contain a lot of elements, tropes and almost cliches about the Jewish faith and Jewish people as a whole, not being Jewish myself and not knowing anyone else to ask I can't say how accurate these are to actual people's lives but I'd guess not as representative as the series suggests.

While the series very much feels rooted in the exploitation film genres it does seem to want to be more but doesn't quite seem to know how. The other thing worthy of note is that while the series does show brutal events taking place it does cut away quite often and only show the aftermath only in some scenes showing a serious gore, it's brutal but it's not the over stylised brutality you'd expect from the genre and it's arguably actually more tame than other contemporary series have been in terms of violence and gore.

I feel I should also point out the Auschwitz memorial was critical of certain scenes and sequences in the show pointing out said events were invented and not historically accurate which based on the number of actual horrors committed seems disrespectful to invent something and potentially giving ammo to deniers of such atrocities. While I'd say there is a conversation about realism to be had especially as Hunters claims it was inspired by true events. However I don't think it offers potential ammo to deniers or anything as the moment you point out the series has a secret agent Nun who at one point pulls out and fires an RPG the argument of the series being 100% based in reality and not an abstraction of events goes out the window pretty quickly.

Effects:

The effects that are there such as make up effects, some gunshot effects and a couple of quite grisly kills are well done and I suspect achieved mostly with practical effects. The 1 actual fight scene in the show is quite well done and I have to credit the production for actually having a character get injured and have that injury not just magically heal but have enough attention to detail that the injury does seem to stick around until such a time it would heal in reality.

Acting

The Acting overall is quite solid and I won't say there were any obviously weak performances. Worthy of note I'd say would be Al Pacino (do I really need to give you a list of his other roles?) who gives an excellent performance as expect, alongside him I'd say Tiffany Boone (Mandy Lang In the following) really seems to get into and enjoy her role and Roxy Jones. In terms of a real break out performance though credit has to go to Greg Austin (Charlie Smith in Doctor Who Spin off Class) who really creates a villain who comes off as more evil and more punchable in the face than Joffery from Game of Thrones. To be that good as a villain takes talent and a great performance and it's an achievement to create a villain performance such that the villain oozes evil in almost every scene and makes you really want to see some-one punch him every damn scene.

Social commentary and themes

Jordan Peele's works are known for being social commentaries but as previously seen with works like Get Out sometimes the target of said commentary are the so called "progressive" too. With Hunters there are definitely some elements of that present.

Actual Nazis are evil. It might sounds like a stupid thing but in an age where everyone from Trump Supporters to followers of Bernie Sanders are getting called Nazis and merely failing to tow the "progressive" line will get you quickly labelled a Nazi, Hunters shows Nazis as actually evil. It's almost a shot across the bow against "progressive" types as the show essentially goes "This is what Nazis are, stop diminishing the term by claiming some dude trying to stop you smashing people's heads in is a Nazi who deserved it."

The idea of a right way vs a wrong way to get justice. It's spelled out by comparisons to comic books such as Batman delivering people to the authorities with the big twist very much making it clear that the hunters aren't the good guys here even if they're not the bad guys either. There's a moment where the hunters have to get help from another group of Nazi hunters whose philosophy widely differs from their own, with the other group being about bringing Nazis to justice via the court system rather than via the bullet. Also by the end of the series there is a 3rd Nazi hunter group on the horizon too who very much don't agree with the methods of the hunters.

The idea of reforming people. While many of the Nazis the hunters track down are awful people shown as hell bent upon continuing their insane ideology. As the series progresses others are shown to be attempting to make amends in their own small ways for their past by becoming doctors to treat the sick and stating they have no interest in the schemes their comrades are cooking up. Such moments help towards making the audience question if the hunters way of doing things is right as for some they're not evil monster to the core but people who were caught up in it or their work and didn't consider the human cost or looked the other way. The major twist in the series also very much does hint at some people ending up not reforming just directing their malice in other directions.

The immorality of governments is explored with the USA choosing to look the other way to war crimes by Nazi scientists to be allowed to use said scientists to advance the USAs position as a world power by bringing the Nazis to the USA and giving them new identities. It shows how governments will do what is right for themselves rather than what is right in the name of justice or morality.

Should you watch it?

This isn't one I'd recommend rushing out to watch. It's fine enough as a show and is executed well enough it feels like it's struggling to find an identity for itself with it feeling like a somewhat toned down combination of exploitation series ideas. The twists you'll likely see coming a mile away for the most part and it feels like a with the cast of characters you only get little glimpses into their reasoning for doing what they do or character development really. Most of the character development if focused on Jonah the main character as such as he comes to terms with his grandmothers death and becoming part of the hunters. If you've got nothing else to watch then this will occupy your time but it won't be one that is going to be remembered for years to come as it seems to lack the conviction such a show needs to either embrace the almost Schlocky vibe or embrace the more serious subject matter with a more serious tone. As is Hunters is stuck in a middle ground being often more tame than its contemporaries or even the kinds of cinema that it seems to have been inspired by.