American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing

I'm truly shocked to see so many poor reviews! I started watching this on a whim and was in tears within the first five minutes, seeing little children dancing and playing and then BOOM! The shock and terror of the assembled crowd was heart-breaking. Living in the area (and husband working in Boston) it was gripping to see all the home and security videos pieced together to give an overview of events.

As the bombing was on the forefront of the news for days we saw a lot of what was going on with the manhunt. I was transfixed watching this docuseries. Hearing the perspectives of the home videos as well as the calls to 911 and the interviews with peoples involved, both working and victims, gave a gut-wrenching perspective of the events that transpired. I personally feel this was very well made and I'll recommend this to others.

Just watch the 3 episodes back to back and I honestly sat in awe. Very rare a documentary gives all sides of the spectrum and in such an honest hard hitting way. Being from another part of the world I remember the event but never realised how long it went on for or the events that took place during it. The makers give you an hour by hour story from the people who were involved. From the top to bottom of the authorities and police. The victims,the public and the culprits are all given to you too. I was gripped after the first 30 minutes and just couldn't switch it off. Your pulled in and want to be there until the end. Which has in my eyes ,the right one too. Give it a go. I can't recommend it enough.

Generally this was a good documentary, not wasting your time, to the point and telling the story from many different perspectives such as the victims, police, fbi, etc. It does miss more proper investigation into their family and actually talking to the perpetrator though.

I would have rated this much higher, if it wasn't for some of their extremely out of place interviewees as Phillip Martin. He's a "journalist" who does nothing but complain about law enforcement, much more concerned about the well-being of the perpetrator than any victim. His narrow-minded ideologies are just glowing. Secondly we have the muslim friend who's also much more concerned about muslims getting a bad reputation, than innocent people getting killed or actually having muslims commit less terrorism. We all know Netflix added these for DEI. It only drags down the integrity of the rest of the series.

That being said. If you can ignore those parts, the rest is a good retelling of the investigation following the bombing.

The elder brother did not make the Olympic trials not because he was Muslim, but simply because he was not a US citizen. His father probably did not know this when boasting that his son would represent their adopted country in boxing. While the documentary expertly stitches together the footage of events, and testimonies from police, FBI, victims and journalists, it fails to spend enough time scrutinising the parents, who separated and abandoned their sons to return to Dagestan. Why did they return to Dagestan and what about their other two children?

The younger brother was described as charismatic and popular in high school but photos of him revealed an emptiness in his eyes. The charm was nothing more than a facade and survival strategy of someone who was not emotionally nourished by his family or community. It seems no coincidence that the both brothers chose to participate and identify with violent sports, instead of taking up chess or tennis. They were the product of inter-generational trauma that began with their grandfather being persecuted for being Chechen and resulted in their father's narcissism.

The father needed his children to be successful in their new country and pushed both sons to achieve. It was the shame from letting his father down by failing to make the Olympic trials that drove the elder brother to radicalisation. He could not blame his father for having lofty expectations so instead he blamed his adopted country and its Islamophobia, and recruited his own brother to his misguided cause. He could not see the forest for the trees, unlike Danny Meng who is himself a migrant from an oppressive nation and appreciates the opportunities in America in spite of the racism he will inevitably encounter.

I liked this docuseries. I like that the show focused more on the investigation than on the bombers. It didn't glamorize them or make them look 'badass'. It showed them as criminals with miserable life who did terrible things and ruined other's lives.

The series showed real footage, mixed with a reenactment, and interviews that show what happened. It's so sad to see how the bombing messed up the people and the city, but also interesting to see how the city fought back and helped each other. The show also explores the reasons why the guys did it and how they got brainwashed. Overall, i think it's a good docuseries.