Before I start my review, I want to let you know I avoid watching anything with Nazis and Al Pacino. However, one day I was bored, and I decided to watch the screeners for Hunters that has both of those elements. Within three minutes, I was all hook, line, and tie up the Nazi bastards! You will see why when you watch Hunters that is available to binge on Amazon Prime now.
It starts out with Biff Simpson (Dylan Baker) having the all-American BBQ at his house, and inviting people over to enjoy. The wife of one of his workers realizes that Biff is not who he says he is. He is one of the Nazis from her concentration camp. What happens next is how I knew I was going to eat up this show.
Hunters is what Quentin Tarantino dreams of doing if only he could edit himself. It is full of action, fun, violence and so many WTF moments. It has everything from a Bat Mitzvah scene to introduce our Hunters to a spontaneous dance scene at Coney Island.
Before we get to that, let’s get to the story that takes place in the summer of 1977 in Brooklyn, NY. Jonah Heidelbaum’s (Logan Lerman) grandmother is shot and killed at their house, and he doesn’t know why. At the Shiva call, he meets Meyer (Al Pacino), a man who knew her from the camps.
Jonah wants revenge on the man who killed his grandmother and will do anything to get it. When Meyer bails him out of jail, he gets the info he needs to kill her killer. He goes after that guy, but Meyer learns of his plan and stops him.
That is when Meyer tells him the truth, he, Jonah’s grandmother and seven other people are Nazi hunters. They have made it their life’s mission to kill all of the Nazis in America. While they are hunting Nazis, there are hunters hunting them.
Travis (Greg Austin) is a sick f*ck who will kill anyone in his path, whether they are on his hit list or not. He is not the one that killed Jonah’s grandmother, but he will do plenty of killing.
He’s the bad guy, these are the good guys. Lonny Flash (Josh Radnor) is an actor with many disguises. Sister Harriet (Greg Austin), a former MI-6 agent. Joe Torrance (Louis Ozawa) did three tours in Vietnam and know how to use a gun. Roxy Jones (Tiffany Boone) is an all around bad-a$$ who can do it all. Mindy (Carol Kane) and Murray Markowitz (Saul Rubinek) were in the camps and now they are weapons experts. Finally, Jonah is their codebreaker.
Together they make up a weird bunch, but they get the job done. When they get word that there is an attack about to happen in two weeks, their timeline is moved up to stop an event that could change the world as the Kennedy assassinations did.
Will they work on their own, or will they work with the authorities? Millie (Jerrika Hinton) is an FBI agent who is investigating all of these dead Nazis. Whose side is she on? The Hunters or the hunted? She will get close to finding out who they are, but is it close enough?
You never know what to expect with each episode, but you know you will be wanting more. It is a modern-day take on Grindhouse with the groovy feel of the ’70s. So many thick sideburns. You will want to go to a disco and buy some shiny wallpaper for your house after you are done with the 10 episodes. I need and want more than that.
Like I said, I am no Pacino fan. I think every character he plays is the same one. However, on this show, I believe he is an old Jewish man from Europe. He reminded me of the Jews I grew up with in NYC. He walks and talks like they do.
Radnor does not walk and talk like we are used to. I had no idea that it was Ted from How I Met Your Mother until I looked up to see who playing Lonny Flash. That is why he is the man of many disguises.
Lerman does not wear any disguises, but I cannot believe this is the same little kid from Jack & Bobby. He turned out to be a really powerful actor who commands the scenes he is.
Then there is Kane and Rubinek, two of lovable actors who are playing spouses. They are the honey we put on apples for a good year. The show is the apples and they are the honey.
While most of the show is enjoyable to watch, even with the torture scenes, there are some scenes that are tortuous to watch. They also show flashbacks to the camps and we see what Jonah’s grandmother (Jeannie Berlin) and young Meyer (Zack Schor) went through in the camps. The sadism of the Nazis is disturbing and traumatizing.
Something creator David Weil knows all to well. His grandmother was in the camps and she told her grandson all about the horrors she witnessed and experienced. He turned her story into one where she can finally get revenge on all of the monsters. But he says if we kill the monsters, then do we risk becoming a monster ourselves?
Watch the first season on Amazon Prime now and tell me, do they become the monsters that they are eliminating one by one?
