Amazon’s Fictional Nazi Hunters Conclude Their Pursuit.

Hunters, The Al Pacino and Logan Lerman starring Amazon series from David Weil and Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions that presents an alternative history version of Nazi-Hunting in the US, now in its second and final season moves the action to Europe and Argentina in the late 1970s.

Hunters is very much pulp fiction, a comic book-like over-the-top fictional series based on some very real facts. So, for example, it is true that Nazis escaped to the United States and lived here, some finding success in the US Space Program (Werner von Braun/Arthur Rudolf), or in the Church (Valentin Trifa), or as factory workers (John Demjanjuk). Some were recruited by US forces, others lied on their immigration forms to enter the US and become citizens, and still others Nazis found refuge in South America by following the “rat line” that took them to Italy and with the help of Catholic Church officials to new identities and new lives (Eichmann and Mengele).

And it is true that that in the late 1970s, a Jewish congresswoman from New York, Elizabeth Holtzman, was able to pass legislation to create a Nazi Hunting division in the Justice Department. They did so at the same time, as others abroad, including the governments of West Germany and Israel and individuals such as Simon Wiesenthal, Tuviah Friedman and Serge and Beate Klarsfeld devoted themselves to hunting for the Nazis among us.

But back to the series. Weil has layered his story of Nazis at large in the US and their pursuers as a series of philosophical debates between those willing to take Justice into their own hands and those who feel that doing so would make them as bad as their murderous villains. At the same time, we are always left to guess at each character’s motives and allegiance, and what they will (or will not) do.

Logan Lerman plays Jonah Heidelbaum, whose beloved grandmother (played by Jeannie Berlin) wanted to protect him from the violence she witnessed in the camps. She is murdered one night because– as we come to realize — she was about to expose a Nazi. At his grandmother’s funeral Logan meets Meyer Offerman a wealthy Holocaust survivor who knew his grandmother in the camps and who –spoiler alert – admits to being his grandfather.

Meyer also reveals that he leads a group of vigilantes who are tracking and killing Nazis in the US. The team member include survivors Murray and Mindy Markowitz (Saul Rubinek and Carol Kane); Lonnie Flash (Josh Radnor) a popular Hollywood actor; Roxy Jones (Tiffany Boone). a young black militant seeking Justice, and Joe Mizushima (Louis Ozawa), an Asian American whose family was interned in the US and Kate Mulvany playing Sister Harriet. There is Millie Morris, a Black FBI agent played by Jerrika Hinton, who we discover is gay, who is investigating the murder of a woman who she discovers was actually a Nazi – and she threatens to expose the Nazi Hunting group – if only she could find evidence.

By the end of season one we discover that Meyer is not who we thought him to be; and the Nazi network is vaster and more organized than imagined and they have plans to subjugate and eliminate vast portions of American society and return to power to lead the Fourth Reich. Their leader is The Colonel (Lena Olin), who we discover is just the power behind the power.

In Season 2, we learn The Colonel’s true identity – wait for it – she is Eva Braun and guess who is still alive in Argentina planning his comeback? Yup. AH – Der Fuhrer himself. The Second Season also features Jennifer Jason Leigh as Chava Apfelbaum, and Emily Rudd as Clara, Jonah’s fiancée.

We get to see Adolf and Eva as a bickering couple, and learn of Eva’s own ambitions and hunger for power.

In general, what’s fun is that each character gets to eat up the scenery to their heart’s delight, and they all seem to be having a good time doing so. Without being doctrinaire about it, Weil has cast Hunters with Jewish actors playing Jewish characters (which happens less often than you might think).

Without giving too much away, I will say that Season 2 offers up surprises, drama, pulpy twists and a finale that asks us to consider: What is Justice? Weil delivers his own answer – – and you will just have to watch to see if you agree.