Critique: Review of Amazon Prime's Original Show, Hunters

Article: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/02/hunters-amazon-al-pacino-logan-lerman-review

I decided to critique a review on one of my favorite shows, Hunters. I’m going to try to be as fair as possible.



Photo Credit

In this review, Richard Lawson critiques Amazon Prime’s original show Hunters, a drama about a group of people who hunt Nazis in America during the 1970s. 

I thought the lead was pretty strong. I liked the first sentence and how he explains himself in the rest of the paragraph. Lawson gives a little synopsis about the show without giving away too much. He also includes his feelings about the show early on.

Throughout the critique, it is obvious that he isn’t a big fan of the show. He constantly relates it back to the show, Watchmen, an HBO original. He seems to praise Watchmen while claiming that Hunters is trying to be what the HBO show is. At times, he seems a bit harsh on the show and the creator, David Weil. The show includes some humor within it, but Lawson is not impressed, saying “Weil’s instincts go more lowbrow, particularly when he tries to be funny.”

Although Lawson criticizes the show, he does praise Logan Lerman’s acting. Lerman portrays Jonah, a 19-year-old whose life is sucked into the world of Nazi hunting after a tragedy occurs. He describes Lerman’s acting as “consistently good” and says it brings “emotional depth to a role that could easily be played as a blank.” He talks about some of Lerman’s co-stars, saying he liked Kate Mulvany’s character and disliked Josh Radnor’s character. Lawson focuses on Al Pacino, claiming that the show only gained recognition due to his name being attached to it.

I think the review flows well, each paragraph focuses on a certain aspect of the show. At times, it lost my interest. Not because he was criticizing my favorite show, but because the language he used tended to be difficult to understand. It was like he was trying too hard with his language and it just ended up being confusing. At one point, he uses the word “clout” which is a slang term for “fame or attention.” I understand it’s just one word, but he should have just left it out to avoid confusing some readers. He also includes some references to other films which left me confused, figuring I had never seen or heard of them.

His kicker again focuses on Hunters not being on the same level as Watchmen. I honestly thought that the kicker could have been better. I wish he would have just focused on Hunters as he ended the review. He didn’t include a “news you can use” section. I didn’t notice any fallacies in his review either.

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