It has been almost 1 / 4 of a century because the occasions of September 11, 2001, modified the world as we all know it. As a youngster on the time of the worst terrorist assault in United States historical past, that notorious day was a defining second in my life and the purpose the place my childhood got here to an abrupt finish. Through the years, I’ve learn numerous books, watched every kind of documentaries, and accomplished just about every little thing I can to reconcile my recollections of that day.
I not too long ago watched the new Netflix authentic documentary, American Manhunt: Osama Bin Laden, a three-part sequence about that Tuesday morning in New York, the seemingly endless struggle that adopted, and the hunt for the assault’s architect. Whereas the 2025 TV present left me extremely conflicted (for causes I’ll dive into quickly), I’ve to confess it did present some much-needed and long-overdue therapeutic. Permit me to elucidate.
I Was Flooded With Emotion All through American Manhunt: The Hunt For Osama Bin Laden
This shouldn’t come as a shock to anybody alive on September 11, 2001 (or who got here of age in its aftermath), however American Manhunt: Osama Bin Laden is an extremely emotional expertise. Crammed with moments of worry, tales of hope, tales of exhilaration, and every kind of nationwide satisfaction, the three-part docuseries, accessible with a Netflix subscription, throws so much on the viewer.
There have been moments that took me again to being a scared, confused, and upset 13-year-old who insisted on sleeping in his brother’s room due to the day’s occasions, others that left me numb throughout the struggle in Afghanistan, after which some that left me pumping my fist within the air. Whatever the explicit feeling at any given time, I used to be flooded with emotion from begin to end.
I Felt Like I Was Watching A CIA Recruitment Video, And I Do not Know How To Really feel About That
Contemplating the documentary’s title, I had a sense getting into that this was going to be a multi-hour chronicle of the Central Intelligence Company’s quest to seek out and kill Osama Bin Laden, and I wasn’t let down in that regard. Nonetheless, whereas bingeing this sequence, I couldn’t assist however shake the sensation that I used to be watching some type of CIA propaganda movie or recruitment video.
Whereas the documentary doesn’t shrink back from tackling the failures within the intelligence neighborhood and the way they failed to stop such an assault, nor does it try to sugarcoat the morally gray ways to acquire info following 9/11, it typically makes the CIA seem like the largest and brightest company within the U.S. authorities at occasions.
Then there’s the entire Navy SEAL enterprise within the remaining, and outstandingly thrilling, episode about Operation Neptune Spear. Just like the post-9/11 struggle flick, Zero Darkish Thirty, greater than a decade in the past, I felt torn between seeing this as a documentary and an entertaining thriller.
Nonetheless, The Docuseries Did Present Some A lot-Wanted Closure And Therapeutic
Although I don’t know the way I really feel about some elements of it, I can’t deny the truth that the docuseries did present some much-needed closure and therapeutic all these years later. There are numerous moments all through the sequence that allowed me to undergo some stuff in my coronary heart and head, however the scene displaying the entire folks celebrating in entrance of the White Home the night time Bin Laden was killed actually acquired me.
I’ll always remember that night time (John Cena introduced the information after the WWE Excessive Guidelines PPV), sitting in my school condominium watching all of it unfold. Experiencing that once more by way of the documentary actually gave me a second to suppose again, mirror, and transfer on from one thing that impacted a big a part of my life and my common worldview.
All in all, American Manhunt: Osama Bin Laden, just like the surprisingly nice docuseries about O.J. Simpson, was a fascinating, emotional, and extremely highly effective expertise; one I received’t quickly neglect.