Show: Hunters Season 2

Cast: Al Pacino, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Logan Lerman, Jerrika Hinton, Lena Olin, Josh Radnor, Tiffany Boone, Carol Kane, Louis Ozawa, Kate Mulvany, Greg Austin, Udo Kier

Creator: David Weil

OTT: Prime Video

Rating: 3 Moons

The second season of Prime Video’s show Hunters, follows the team of Nazi-hunters set in the 1970s who group together to kill any Nazis who survived the war and made new homes in the US. Hunters Season 2 stars Al Pacino as the leader of this motley crew of trackers. However, since his character was killed in the first season, the new show brings him back as a sort of origin story for the Hunters by way of his character and mines the secrets that lie deep within him. Hunters Season 2 stars Jennifer Jason Leigh, Logan Lerman, Jerrika Hinton, Lena Olin, Josh Radnor, Tiffany Boone, Carol Kane, Louis Ozawa, Kate Mulvany and Greg Austin and is created by David Weil while executive produced by comedy and horror specialist Jordan Peele.

Hunters Season 2 moves back and forth within 1970s and shows instances of Pacino as Meyer Offerman before he was killed in the previous season. This time around the Hunters have a bigger target than tracking the escaped Nazis not only in the US but around Europe, hoping that they will lead them to their leader, Adolf Hitler. And this time they will do anything to stop the rise of the Fourth Reich. We get to meet Hitler in this season played by Udo Kier and Lena Olin reprises her role of Eva Braun-Hitler or The Colonel.

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Al Pacino plays Meyer Offerman, an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and Holocaust survivor, who has grouped together the Nazi Hunters. However, he was killed by his own recruit the young Jonah Heidelbaum (Logan Lerman) in the first season which made his death somewhat justifiable because of his deception but still making him a sort of a martyr and a hero. Now, in the second season the Nazi-hunters are out on their own trying to find Hitler who after laying low for decades is now coming after the Hunters.

We have the team from the first season in place comprising of maths whiz Jonah (Logan Lerman), Sister Harriet (Kate Mulvany), Holocaust survivor and demolitions expert Mindy Markowitz (Carol Kane), mustachioed actor Lonny Flash (Josh Radnor), war vet Joe Mizushima (Louis Ozawa), counterfeiting expert Roxy Jones (Tiffany Boone) and FBI agent Millie Morris (Jerrika Hinton). The first season came with the shocking reveal that Meyer wasn’t who he was claiming himself to be, in fact he was the infamous SS officer known as the Wolf, who the Hunters were trying to track the whole time. After he was killed by Jonah, the hunters go their separate ways, except for Joe who gets abducted and taken to Argentina, specifically to Hitler and Eva.

Hunters season 2 like its predecessor is a pretty problematic series because it sounds great on paper rather than in practice. It sounds great to see normal people taking down the truly evil bad guys but the kill and the gore lacks a certain appeal. Season 2 introduces Jennifer Jason Leigh as Chava Apfelbaum, a Nazi hunter who has her own agenda but enjoys every kill that she accomplishes, no matter how gruesome or merciless.

The problem with Hunters Season 2 is that all the cast are giving great performances but in a show of their own. There is no coherency and the flashbacks and the present leaves one muddled. Nevertheless, It is Josh Radner as Lonny Flash who steals the show with the laughs, the angst and his addiction issues. Surprisingly the loose chord in Hunters Season 2 is Al Pacino and not because of his acting but because of the narrative and the writing. After having been killed off in the first season, in almost every episode we get flashbacks as origin story of Meyer which comes out as tedious after a point. It feels as if the makers just wanted to cash on an actor of his caliber for the series as long as they can mint, but it simply drags down the story. Since we already know that he was not suspected about his identity in the first season it becomes a bit redundant to wait for a twist that somehow never comes and his part feels disjointed and fragmented from the rest of the show.

Thankfully, the journey of Jonah provides some humane characteristic to the show as he is torn between building a normal life and choosing to be a hunter. Lerman as Jonah is able to capture the turmoil his character is going through and provides an emotional quality to the show. The other cast members are also commendable in the set roles given to them and the series give them some sort of a closure as they really light up the screen once in a while when everything comes together in a coherent way.

Hunters Season 2 has pulpy action, is disjointed, convoluted and uneven but can never be called boring as it keeps you glued till the very end even if you are tempted to scratch your head once in a while. The series does have its moments and is compelling in parts but it is a good thing that this is the finale season.

PeepingMoon.com gives Hunters Season 2, 3 Moons.