Hunted: critics 'obsessed' with new reality chase show
Real-life thriller in which fugitives flee surveillance team gets some reviewers breathless, but are there better things on YouTube?
Channel 4's new reality show, Hunted, in which ordinary people have to evade capture by a professional surveillance team, might be a game, but it's a "real thriller" say reviewers.
In the show fourteen "ordinary members of the public" are challenged to disappear for 28 days while avoiding a group of 30 investigators including former intelligence operatives, counterterrorism officers, analysts, psychological profilers and cyber security experts.
Many critics are gripped.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In the Daily Telegraph Gerard O'Donovan writes: "Just when you think reality television has nothing left to offer, along comes Hunted to make you think again."
O'Donovan says the show is "surprisingly intense" and will have you "chewing your fingernails to the quick" while "goggling at the degree to which our behaviour can be monitored and predicted by hidden surveillance systems and the state".
Most disturbing of all, O'Donovan notes, is that "despite determined efforts to behave in pattern-free ways, the odds were so obviously stacked against the fugitives."
Sam Wollaston in The Guardian agrees. "It's not often that something genuinely original comes to the screen," but this is a rare example, he says.
Yes, it's a game, admits Wollaston, but it's also a social experiment about people and how they behave under pressure, as well as a good old-fashioned thriller. It also asks "loads of questions about the balance between security and freedom, and Surveillance Britain".
Catriona Wrightman on Digital Spy is "obsessed" with this "real-life thriller". Wrightman says high-concept shows like this can tend to fall a little flat, but this one exceeds expectations.
Hunted was instantly fascinating, she says, adding that it "was so tense and compelling that we're not sure we breathed out for the entire hour".
Sean O'Grady of The Independent was one of the show's few critics. At first it seems like a weak piece of drama filmed as reality TV, says O'Grady, "a sort of cross between the Bourne Ultimatum and 28 Days Later". But it is in fact "a weak piece of reality TV filmed as drama".
Whatever it was, it was mostly pointless, he says, and "not half as entertaining as the CCTV clips that you can gorge yourself on on YouTube".
Hunted airs on Thursdays at 9pm on Channel 4.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - November 2, 2024
Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - anti-fascism, early voter turnout, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Geoff Capes obituary: shot-putter who became the World’s Strongest Man
In the Spotlight The 'mighty figure' was a two-time Commonwealth Champion and world-record holder
By The Week UK Published
-
Israel attacks Iran: a 'limited' retaliation
Talking Point Iran's humiliated leaders must decide how to respond to Netanyahu's measured strike
By The Week UK Published
-
The Count of Monte Cristo review: 'indecently spectacular' adaptation
The Week Recommends Dumas's classic 19th-century novel is once again given new life in this 'fast-moving' film
By The Week UK Published
-
Death of England: Closing Time review – 'bold, brash reflection on racism'
The Week Recommends The final part of this trilogy deftly explores rising political tensions across the country
By The Week UK Published
-
Sing Sing review: prison drama bursts with 'charm, energy and optimism'
The Week Recommends Colman Domingo plays a real-life prisoner in a performance likely to be an Oscars shoo-in
By The Week UK Published
-
Kaos review: comic retelling of Greek mythology starring Jeff Goldblum
The Week Recommends The new series captures audiences as it 'never takes itself too seriously'
By The Week UK Published
-
Blink Twice review: a 'stylish and savage' black comedy thriller
The Week Recommends Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie stun in this film on the hedonistic rich directed by Zoë Kravitz
By The Week UK Published
-
Shifters review: 'beautiful' new romantic comedy offers 'bittersweet tenderness'
The Week Recommends The 'inventive, emotionally astute writing' leaves audiences gripped throughout
By The Week UK Published
-
How to do F1: British Grand Prix 2025
The Week Recommends One of the biggest events of the motorsports calendar is back and better than ever
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Twisters review: 'warm-blooded' film explores dangerous weather
The Week Recommends The film, focusing on 'tornado wranglers', stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell
By The Week UK Published