Hunters

So as I was looking for something new to bing on Amazon Prime, I stumbled across a new series called Hunters. The follow is my complaint about the shows writing and inconsistencies.

The show is inspired by actual Nazi hunters through decades but is not based on any specific group or person. The show takes place in 1977 New York City and stars Logan Lerman, as Jonah Heidelbaum, who takes his grandmother’s place on the hunters team who hunt down Nazis who are now living in New York City. The leader of the team is Meyer Offerman, played by Al Pacino, a rich philanthropist and Holocaust survivor. There’s also a parallel plot to the hunters, there’s a group trying to create the Fouth Reich in the United States, lead by actress Lena Olin. Plus there’s the U.S. government relocating German scientists, including Nazis, into the United States.

My main issue with the show is how inconsistent the writers were. The actors ages rarely line up with the 1977 setting and the holocaust taking place between 1941 and 1945.

For Logan Lerman to be in his 20’s in the show, he would have been born in the mid to late 50’s. This means his parents would have been alive during the Holocaust but when they showed his grandma in the Holocaust, she had no children and was only in her 20’s herself. This wouldn’t add up for the story.

Al Pacino, while the show doesn’t say his age, is 80. For him to have been in the Holocaust 32 or so years earlier would’ve put him in his late 40’s while he was in the camp. Hard to believe but okay I’ll go with it, the other characters don’t match up.

The main villain of the show is played by Christian Oliver. His character was a Nazi doctor as Auschwitz and had tortured both Meyer Offerman and Jonah’s grandmother. The problem with his character is the actor is only 45, which you can say he is suppose to be older in the show but he looks like he’s maybe in his late 30’s. Which even if the show’s producers claim he’s in his 50’s, then he would only be in maybe his early 20’s during the Holocaust. This casting makes no sense but it’s what they want you to believe.

Another small issues I have with the show is they made the leader of the “Fourth Reich” a woman. I have nothing against women but with Nazi culture, a woman wouldn’t be in charge. I understand they did this to show how strong women can be, even as the villain, it just doesn’t fit.

If the show could have fixed these mistakes one of two ways. First they make Lerman the son, instead of grandson and his character would’ve made more sense to having been born in the 50’s. They would also need to recast the Auschwitz doctor to be an older actor. The other way they could’ve fixed these mistakes is they could have changed the date to maybe the 80’s. The 80’s is more believable for the age of the cast and then again recast the doctor to an even older actor. The problem with that is an old man wouldn’t be as menacing as the current actor.

The show isn’t interesting enough to get over the character detail errors. The show is slow, nothing really happens and most of the cast appear as if they don’t want to be on the show. I had high hopes for it after enjoying The Boys and Upload, two other new Amazon Prime shows, but Hunters isn’t the thriller I was expecting it to be when I began watching it.