‘Manhunt: Unabomber’ arrives on the STV Player

A critically-acclaimed US drama series with a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score has launched on UK-wide streaming service STV Player – giving viewers the opportunity to stream it in full for free…

Manhunt: Unabomber depicts a fictionalised account of the FBI’s hunt for the ‘Unabomber’ – one of the world’s most infamous criminal masterminds, who stumped experts with a decades-long domestic terrorism campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others.

The eight-part series features Hollywood star Sam Worthington (Avatar, Hacksaw Ridge) as Jim “Fitz” Fitzgerald, a fresh-faced FBI criminal profiler tasked with tracking down the elusive terrorist. But the Unabomber’s chilling dexterity isn’t the only challenge Fitz is up against, as he also has to fight the bureaucracy of the UNABOM Task Force – a joint law enforcement effort formed to investigate the Unabomber.

Fitz pioneers the use of forensic linguistics, but colleagues in the task force dismiss his maverick ideas and new approaches. Can he cut through the red tape and finally catch the person responsible for wreaking havoc on the US for 20 years?

Manhunt: Unabomber also stars BAFTA-nominated British actor, Paul Bettany (WandaVision), who plays Ted Kaczynski – the mathematician and former Berkeley professor who was ultimately unveiled as the Unabomber in 1996.

The series has received critical acclaim across the pond, with The Hollywood Reporter describing it as “interesting in its depiction of how years of using traditional methods and failing to catch America’s most notorious serial bomber gave way to something experimental and new”. The Los Angeles Times hailed the “equal parts true-crime drama, psychological thriller” as a “win on all fronts”.

The drama joins an eclectic library of gripping international content available to stream for free on STV Player – including Canadian legal drama Burden of Truth; Irish police procedural Red Rock; and New Zealand’s longest-running continuing drama, Shortland Street.

The second series in the Manhunt anthology series, Manhunt: Deadly Games – which follows the FBI’s hunt for the 1996 Olympic Games bomber – is also available on STV Player as part of the streamer’s deal with distributor, Lionsgate.

Manhunt: Unabomber is available to stream now for free on STV Player. STV Player can be found across the UK on all major platforms, including Sky Q, NOW, Virgin Media, Amazon Fire TV and Freeview Play.