American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing

3 hour-long episodes.

This tells the wild tale of the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon, perpetrated by the Tsarnaev brothers.

Matt’s Take

Our Score

As a Bostonian, I found parts of this, especially the first episode, more disturbing to relive than I expected. In talking it over with coworkers, one remarked that it felt too soon, even ten years after the fact.

That said, it’s an important story, and in my opinion it’s recounted in a manner that’s very respectful of the victims, rather than exploitative. The documentary focuses in part on some of the victims and their families, and includes first-hand accounts from a number of the first responders that were involved.

I had forgotten what a wild story this was. While the pair of pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line certainly inflicted the greatest damage, in a way it felt like the most ordinary part of what unfolded. The execution of Officer Collier was even more senseless than I recalled. The shootout in Watertown in which Dzhokhar ran over his brother Tamerlan while officers were performing CPR on him (with Dzhokhar reportedly thinking it was a wounded police officer) was a wild detail I had forgotten all about. The misidentification by Redditors of a random, innocent person as the alleged perpetrator. The fact that metropolitan Boston was effectively shut down entirely.

There’s so much to the story that the documentary couldn’t cover all of it. Only a passing mention is made of how the witchhunt on Reddit nearly led to another Richard Jewell situation, and was ultimately a factor in forcing the FBI to release suspect information sooner than they wanted. Little is said about how the initial shootout in Watertown ultimately grew to involve a large number of self-dispatched police forces who took up positions on both sides of the Tsarnaevs, leading to at least one friendly-fire incident. The triple murder in Waltham may never be solved, and the fatal shooting by police of an alleged accomplice in Florida has so many unanswered questions.

I don’t see that as a shortcoming of the series, though. By focusing on the most salient aspects, it manages to condense so much into three hours of content. Strongly recommended.