Susanne Morris

I’ll admit that Manhunt: Deadly Games (season 2) hooked me at the beginning. As I am originally from Atlanta, and having lived in the mountains of North Carolina during my formative years, I was curious about how this story would be told. My father was at the exact site of the bombing, but coincidentally left the scene 15 minutes before it exploded. As a kid growing up in the mountains, I knew that Eric Rudolph was hiding out somewhere nearby, and it haunted me. I had nightmares about Eric Rudolph blowing up my house. So I feel connected to this story in a visceral way. To the show’s credit, the Richard Jewel storyline was well written, and Cameron Britton carried the role beautifully. But for a series that emphasizes the importance of the ethical and truthful storytelling, they radically depart from their own lesson. Kathy Scruggs is inaccurately portrayed as a journalist who sleeps with her sources, a depiction that she cannot speak against because she tragically passed away in the early 2000’s, though her family and friends have asserted that Scruggs had more artful ways of gathering journalistic evidence. Also, Eric Rudolph, as despicable as he was, never murdered a two men (one suffering from cancer) in the woods. What the f*** was that. I know the writer was aiming to spice up the 5 bleak years of waiting for Rudolph to emerge in handcuffs, but augmenting the storyline with contrived portraits of mountain people and shootouts with hillbilly militias is not the answer. Also, the dialogue and the accents were insufferable.