Hunted (2015– ) User Reviews

Needs the rules clarifying. But fun to watch.

[kuuk3 · 6/10 · 30 September 2016]

Here are the rules:

They have a 30 minute head start. They can take whatever they can carry including a tent etc. They have 28 days to get to the designated end location. They must not break the law. During active hours of hunting they must keep on the move and change location regularly – no hiding in the sewer for the entire time. They must attempt to throw the hunters off their scent – and do their best to decoy them. They need to make use of a support network and they must make contact with family and friends. They have £250 in a bank account, only accessible in small amounts via an ATM. I believe they must get the money out regardless of whether its needed as a rule. They must take with them a cameraman.

We are never told the rules on the show (only on the website). This means the players are made to look stupid when choosing not to hide in an abandoned house for the duration, as that would be trespassing. They are required to call home which gives away their location, but it is edited to look as though they are being stupid and doing it out of impulse.

Also, the law rule is ignored as hitchhiking is illegal in this country but they happily ignore that.

Its an interesting show, but the rules need better clarification and explaining to the viewers so we understand the game more, if we are truly to do as they request and ask ourselves what would you do?

New, intriguing idea, leaving something to be desired as regards execution, though still compelling

[jrarichards · 8/10 · 14 April 2019]

My review is based on Series 1 of what proves to be yet another worthwhile British TV genre proving innovative and addictive enough to encourage imitations in a number of other countries. And at some level we need to know what the state knows about us; and - in our fantasies at least - we need to know how we might elude and evade real-life "Big Brother", in the same way as we fans of "The Walking Dead" fantasise regularly about how we might find a place safe from zombie attack.

Except that the real world of large-scale surveillance is really with us - this is real.

Or is it?

One problem - virtually insurmountable - with this series is that the Hunters are not really the state (though many have relevant experience - see below), and there is an admission at the beginning of each episode that state powers are being emulated or mimicked, but these are not state powers. Just how that happens is not made clear, and it's dubious.

And that brings us to the shizophrenia of the series, if admittedly the same division of views that actually EXISTS now in our societies - writ large after September 11th. Are we happy if people can evade the state's attentions (in the case of the challenge in this series for "just" 28 days)?

Or are we not?

The programme is telling us simultaneously that we should and we shouldn't - and that is authentic for the world we live in, but also rather confusing. The suggestion here is that on the whole we sympathise with the fugitives, but then that must be so, as nothing can stop us recalling that they are "normal people like us". (Actually, in series 1 at least that is an ever-so-slightly dubious contention, but let's drop that). Furthermore, people do definitely de-ormalise into paranoia, despression and other problems when constantly on the move, regularly exposed to the elements, fearing everyone, and subject to (admittedly "light" versions of) state oppression.

And the series gets a bit more edgy when one pair of fugitives who are of Asian origin and carry rucksacks around are open and honest enough to suggest that they already feel like they must be suspicious characters even in everyday life.

That kind of thing is among the services "Hunted" provides its faithful viewers, while further examples include (some limited) insight into the methods used to track people down and make it near-impossible for them to "go off-grid" or "off the radar". One guesses this is worth knowing and understanding a bit better. Certainly if one is interested in questions of the role of the state and the rights of the individual within it.

Or indeed in the matter of just who the state is actually for.

But on the other hand, we are supposed to cheer the Hunters, because they keep us safe from horrible things, which sounds great enough. However, most of us are aware of the potential for a kind of positive feedback loop to cut in easily enough in this case. We fear terrorists, but state measures on that basis also create work and profits for many while (for that reason or others) generating real or mostly virtual terrorists that necessitate and sustain a yet-stronger crackdown, and so on. This is the new, further-diversified face of the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower used his final address to warn us about. And Eisenhower also remembered McCarthyism, where Reds were suddenly under EVERY SINGLE bed. That was then, and today we may conceivably have the deep state, which thrives on fear, or is addicted to fear.

And "Hunted" gives us just a hint of that, as we see the leading hunters - that's Brett Lovegrove (former Head of Counter-Terrorism with the City of London Police), Cindy Storer (ex CIA), Peter Bleksley (former undercover Scotland Yard detective), Ben Owen (ex Military Intelligence), Louisa Clarke (ex-GCHQ), Julie Clegg (ex Police) and so on - unavoidably getting gung-ho when they are closing in on the fugitives, down in the mouth when they miss them. And sometimes the language resorted to at these more-fraught moments suggests they have unconsciously forgotten that these are - apparently at least - "just ordinary members of the public", who actually have the right to disappear for a while if they so choose, on the basis that they have paid their taxes and done absolutely nothing wrong.

We DO NOT have to prove our identity to the state as we are innocent until proven guilty. We are also human beings who have dignity and natural rights on that basis alone, while citizenship gives a whole host of additional rights. We do not have to be monitorable or accessible at all times. Of course, these days, that is as much a message to big companies and the private sector as it is to the State. And how willingly those two monoliths sometimes seems prepared to work together to keep us "on grid" 24/7!!!

For these and other insights "Hunted" IS a worthwhile watch. But a constant niggling question concerns just how much might have been stage-managed, orchestrated and interfered with to make a better show. And on that note, strangely enough, some of those on the run get captured quickly, while others do not...

Not a fair fight

[olliverkarina · 6/10 · 9 April 2023]

If you are looking for a fair hunters and hunted show you won't find it here. The rules have everything slanted to make it easy for the hunters, and this can be frustrating. Season 4 especially. But some people can outwit the hunters and you have to applaud them. If you consider it real fugitives do have everything stacked against them the shows does try to replicate this.

Contestants are not able to crawl into a hole for 25 days, they must move, rely on family and friends, have limited access to cash.

If you can suspend disbelief and take this show at face value you will enjoy it. If you are looking for a completely authentic non-scripted reality show, this is not the show for you.

A great show

[Sahaib-Parvez · 10/10 · 26 March 2021]

Very thrilling and exciting. One of the best shows ever. 😀. I would recommend this to everyone. It is funny watching the people get caught or outsmarting the hunters. The hunters are also quite clever.

Good but unfair

[mitchellmuir11 · 7/10 · 10 July 2021]

I don't like that they use the help of the public aren't they supposed to do it themselves. It takes away the excitement. There not showing any skills. But I like seeing catch them with skill.

Utter Garbage

[earlyritter · 3/10 · 4 March 2017]

This show is an interesting idea, we were really excited to see it and the first episode was interesting. Unfortunately the premise of the show cannot cover the nonsense that ensues. This is not portrayal of reality. The players are set up to fail. The rules place on them would make it easy for even a novice investigator to find them. It seem to be a forum for stroking the egos of the investigators on the show. Their time consists mostly of sitting in a room making arrogant comments about how great they are. They have seem to have every device that is needed ready to go at a moments notice. People in the forest, cool an ex machina drone and its pilot suddenly appear! Just like real life. Their interview techniques are rudimentary at best. They conduct interviews of the fugitives children? What planet are they on? Force their way into peoples houses without permission? Toss a guys house including the attic looking for the fugitives? To use a video game analogy. The fugitives are nerfed with stupid unrealistic rules, while the investigators are buffed with super powers and resources that seem unlimited and a scope of power that is unrestricted. It would not bother me so much if the investigators were not so arrogant about their own abilities, when all they are doing is using systems already set up to track the people they are after. Oh and then at the end after all the running and hiding and evasion we find out it's really for nothing because the investigators get their final cheat by knowing exactly where the fugitives are going to be when they make their final escape.This show insults the intelligence of real life investigators and law enforcement because it makes the job look way too easy. It insults real fugitives because it makes it look like they are all stupid. It insults our intelligence by selling it as reality, when in truth its a crappy game show with stupid rules that seem made up on the fly.

"we would have got away but for"

[dids2 · 1/10 · 7 June 2022]

The pesky camera man they sent with us. He was following and filming our very move. Riding in our car. Inside our friends houses. In our family houses.

If only we had known he had a GPS tracker in his pocket, doh!

2018/19 Season finale

[joshcornes · 1/10 · 17 February 2019]

Awful, completely anti-climatic and ruined the entire experience. Clearly scripted and has ruined all future viewing for myself

Fake, contrived, scripted......

[simonwyatt-97372 · 1/10 · 22 May 2022]

I don't know where to start!

It's a great concept but the statement at the top of the show probably tells you all you need to know. Something like "powers of the state such as CCTV, ANPR etc have been replicated...."

The hunted candidates are genuine enough and have no idea what they're getting into. Fair enough.

And the hunters and their contrived ops room, manufactured powers and cringing and obviously rehearsed sound bites are just laughable. "Let's take them down", "I want these two in the bag by the end of the day" and so in. Laughable.

And the "field agents" in their black SUVs. Couldn't be more stereotypical if they tried.

You'd need to be a mug to treat this show as believable.

Hide, off grid - forget the cameras

[imdb-92083 · 1/10 · 24 March 2024]

What are these people thinking?

A camera crew must follow? They go to friends and family. They use social media. Mobile phones...

Powers of the state? Granted to a TV network should terrify us all, if they can get it? We are all in trouble, I can get it if that is true. Channel4 can listen in to phone calls? Even of non participants- how is that legal? That will be phone hacking, like Princess Di and News Of The World.

Is it the usual celebrity wannabe? Or someone looking for a life changing opportunity? As far as I see it is the former.

People, pampered by years of technology, who have no clue how to live off grid, after their fleeting 15mb of fame. Thinking Off Grid means charging their phone in a stranger's back garden.

Occasionally taking unsuspecting loved ones with them? Condescending hunters, mock them?

Jack the Ripper never got caught, it took years to get Fred, Rosemary, Shipman, Myra - bet they did not have cameras following them. Do the crew have their phones? Off or not, we keep being told they track... We switch from the black SUV's, control room to desperate wannabes.

Booking rooms on your card, going to friends and family, cash points, leaving notes at home... Are you mad? Moving between technology. How we are tracked, tender minds moments as people reach out for help to the obvious, unaware they are minutes from capture.

Contrived, scripted, you might as well watch Hollyoaks which is closer to reality. Pretty ridiculously, £100k is nothing, bait for influencer wannabes who make more after.?

Take it as fiction, a 007/MI5 style documentary as how society has turned.

sort of fun to watch if you keep in mind that it's not real

[howboutthisone_huh · 5/10 · 12 March 2020]

In the credits they state up front that they're simulating police tactics. Um, this disclaimer is probably for official authorities. They would probably run a foul of the law if they were tracking anyone as they claim. I mean nobody has access to anpr, cctv, electronic bank records and so on, not lawfully. Some of it is technically interesting because of course the state does have systems in place like those shown but it's not the simple technology as they make it appear. e.g. you can't just tie into every cctv camera in the country, that's silly But, I found it hilarious the way in which they stage various scenes with the hunted like the episode with the so-called military man who dawns a camoflage suit, which he called a 'guinea' suit (yep, 'guinea', not 'gilley') and then proceeds to crawl across this lawn, of course in broad daylight. He looked like sasquatch in a mound of mown grass. I couldn't stop laughing. That was just too funny. I assume all the participants, both hunters and hunted are not actors but c'mon, none of it is real. It's all staged and scripted and that makes for entertaining tv. Like the crack team of hunters who are supposedly working day and night for 28 days and yet they never appear to change their clothes. Check for yourself. Season 2, ep1 to ep6 and these people are wearing the same clothes. So either they shot all these scenes in one day or I hope they're getting paid well because that room must stink. So highly recommended low brow entertainment for those who like to talk to their tv, otherwise watch reruns of downtown abbey. And, just in case the hunter credentials are actually as they claim, you've done a disservice to your country because you guys couldn't find a queen at a coronation.