Thursdays, 9pm,
Channel 4
Last year’s apparent megahit (provided you don’t look at the numbers past episode one too carefully) Hunted returns and ten more people go on the run, hoping to evade capture from professional trackers for 28 days only this time they’re playing for a share of £100,000.
Last series felt like a curious mix of faintly ridiculous and utterly compelling and didn’t feel like it told the stories of the runners enough.
Given that this second series seems to have gone full on gameshow, it will be interesting to see how the changes measure up. Let us know what you think in the comments.
I’m very excited for it already, and C4 seem to actually be hyping it up this year, with TV, radio, billboard and bus adverts.
It helps that I’ll be podcasting it too.
They did lots of hyping of it last year!
I don’t remember it as much last year – I know they did the TV ads, but I can’t remember it being on radio/bus/billboards, or maybe it’s just more noticeable in this part of the world this year.
I think what’s quite interesting is that they went all-in on Dr Allen last year in the build-up, but this year they don’t seem to be concentrating on the actual contestants much at all. I think when he got caught loads of people (including me) tuned out, so this may or may not be a good strategy.
From looking at the previews, I think a few of them have been inspired by Ricky, so it’ll be interesting to see what effect he has on it.
There are actually 10 fugitives this year. I’m really looking forward to seeing how it pans out.
I agree they are presenting this much more of a games how than last year’s pseudo documentary.
With the format now being exported, I expect there will be a lot of attention paid to how this season works with both the fugitives and hunters having to step things up a notch.
Changed, don’t know where I got eight from, thanks.
One of the contestants when interviewed sort of gave away the fact the producers had told him that he had to at one point make contact with his family so when everyone is calling them idiots it is probably because they have a whole load of rules and challenges laid out as part of the game.
Meanwhile CJ from Eggheads was obviously part of the celebrity edition pilot…
“So did you just not get in contact with anyone at home?
Well, one of the challenges on the show is that you have to contact one of your close relatives. During your time on the run you’re retired to meet up with family and friends. We were successful using very, very basic methods.”
It adds another level of artifice, although I can live with it if the production is straight up with this to viewers.
To be fair, they do mention this on the website. To what extent these rules are new or just newly released, I don’t know:
“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. Like many of the most successful real life fugitives, they must attempt to throw the hunters off their scent – and do their best to decoy them. And again like real life fugitives, they need to make use of a support network and they must make contact with family and friends.”
Full article:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hunted/articles/all/series-2-guide/4836
I don’t think it’s good enough to just mention it on the website, 0.01% of people will check the website. If there are big rules, and big rules which might influence the actions of the contestants, that HAS to come across on screen or it’s unfair representation.
In fact I think this gets to the heart of why Hunted never quite feels quite satisfying.
Viewers will accept rules in a light entertainment show. They’ll buy into complications as a means to entertainment. Fine. But Hunted likes to think it’s well above all that, trying to hide the joins, and in doing so comes across as unrealistic and faintly ridiculous which works completely against the way it’s been directed.
I mean last night’s was entertaining enough and I’ll probably tune in next week. But after episode one last series I wrote: “Mmm, it’s going to be the sort of show you’ll really like if you can buy into it but I think it’s going to leave casual people and the sorts who can be a sceptical a bit cold,” and nothing’s really changed from that.
I didn’t watch last year, so I will check it out tonight. The plot sounds similar to the short-lived game show Interceptor.
It’s closer to Wanted.
I did quite enjoy that to be fair although it still feels faintly ridiculous.
What we learn’t,
There is such thing as an ethical hacker
Some people don’t understand how to climb over a gate
Children are incapable of lying
I didn’t watch the first series so i have nothing to compare this too but i’m loving it so far
An interesting 75 minute format – anyone know if that’s going to continue for the whole series?
Reverting to 60 mins from ep2, according to 4’s website.
Ok. I really love Hunted (mind you I’m in the demo so well fickle 😉 ) and so my assessment may well be tinted with some genuine excitement.
BUT, I did think that was a cracking opener. I think they’ve improved a lot on keeping it swift, sharp and rationing the exciting bits well. That bit when the bloke who wasn’t the bloke went past on the bike had me genuinely jumping on the sofa.
The decision to leave e1 on a cliffhanger will probably ruffle some feathers but I think it’s justified given how last time they had massive e1 to e2 dropoff. If anything I think they should have cut away earlier. Making e1 75 mins was clever and I hope mitigates the annoyance factor of this: we did get plenty of action for our time this week. (If they pull that every week though…)
For me the only issue is the Hunters’ new base feels a bit too “TV”. I get that they’ve toned down the realism a bit with the big start and the prize, but whenever they gather around that big map I loose a little faith in the organicness of it.
It’s still the only gameshow my non-gameshow-loving housemates will watch with me.
“Please don’t jump in the canal” has potential to be my moment of the year.
I am interested in seeing this as the US is getting a version of this “soon” NBC has been casting teams for a while. But we did kind of have a show like this called The Runner a few months ago on digital platforms but it was more game showy than a serious look into how to escape ‘big brother’
The Runner ended up being closer to an asymmetric Amazing Race more than anything, and virtually nobody watched it. Sort of a pity as it handled tense moments well.
It’s slightly surprising that these trackers seem to be less good at hunting people down than they did on Wanted which was limited by 90s technology.
Actually that’s not quite fair as they had to do tasks and take public transport, but still.
how do you know it got no views? No offense.
Journalism.
They must have been told by the producers to leave all their mobile devices / laptops at home, and agreed to provide passwords etc as it makes for better TV, which is my main problem with the show sometimes it is a bit too hard to suspend belief!
The ending for the episode was a bit naff too, surely them tracking them down to the food place and making eye contact should = game over
I want to know how they stage the CCTV footage. I can deal with the disclaimer at the start that some things are simulated.
If i am guessing right, i think they file a freedom of information request for the footage where they think they are. I am surprised at how quickly they can get the footage though.
If I remember correctly they applied to have access last year and were completely turned down.
Requesting actual CCTV footage for a ‘entertainment’ purposes (even though ShineEndemol would argue it’s factual entertainment) really doesn’t get you very far these days*
They could argue that it would show how clear the pictures from the cameras are, but most of the footage would be locked off (pan and zooms off of Crimewatch and the news only happen because the CCTV operator suspects criminal activity so gets the shot, to help Plod and the courts at a later date) so for a production team assembling a get-away sequence if they got hold of actual CCTV, it would in all probablity contain two figures from a distance walking/running across a car park, or railway/bus station. And then you’d have to blur anyone else in the shot.
Better to get your own team to take the footage, then make it look like CCTV in the edit suite (or laptop of the runner with the hunted team(s) and do it that way.
*Source – someone at work who deals with the West Midlands CCTV monitoring team.
Actually (without obviously giving too much away in terms of precise location) and amuzingly, one of the hunted teams actually ran past the monitoring centre at least once in last weeks show!
Again it feels like a barrier to actuality. They go somewhere and then have to stop so the cameraman can set up a high camera to film the two of them walking across a road. How often will they have to do that?
Don’t they just swipe some footage from the cameras following them round and edit it to make it look a bit like CCTV?
Yes, exactly that. My understanding was that the footage is sent back to HQ but only released to the trackers in a ‘realistic’ timeframe that mimicks the real world where possible.
I don’t know what, if any, extent the CCTV is obfuscated with useless material to make finding the right bits harder.
Again, from the article linked to above, here’s some more info about this:
“An independent adjudicator was in charge of making sure the process was fair. Former Head of Covert Operations for the Met Police, Kevin O’Leary, returned for series two to help ensure information requested and gathered by the hunters reflected the information that would be available to them in real life, and within the appropriate time frame. Kevin also made sure that the team overseeing the hunters worked in isolation from the team overseeing the fugitives, and that no information could be passed from one side to the other. Kevin was the only person empowered to release information about the fugitives to the hunters and was permitted to do this only when he considered the hunters had done sufficient detective work to justify it.”
1.61m all-in last night. Significantly down on last year’s opener but significantly up on where it ended.
By the way, it’s CBS in the States not NBC.
The Russian version. 29 fugitives running around the largest country on the planet.
http://www.ntv.ru/peredacha/oxota/
Actually that might be a fun idea, have people go on the run in a foreign country.
Or just bring back Lost.
Running around foreign countries would be the only way San Marino could have its own version.
BTW is Hunted a new version of Wanted or just a blatant rip off?
There’s no official connection.
Thanks. The Wiki article claimed it was loosely based on Wanted so obviously Wikipedia is incorrect again.
I think what they meant to say is “it’s a little bit like Wanted except more up itself”.
Basically people have been trying to do shows a bit like Wanted for years. But Hewland have been out of the game for years and years.
I’m not sure you can copyright mantracking.
It doesn’t say that any more.
1.29m last night all-in.
When does this start becoming a hit, then?
I’m really annoyed that they put Apprentice up against it. That really can’t have helped.
The Nick part of this weeks episode was probably some of the best scenes that this show has ever produced, pity they semi ruined it with the editing giving away the plan before it happened but still
If ever there were an opportunity for a “Pause, Rewind 2 hours, Play Bangarang/Extreme Ways” then this was surely it.
Yeah, totes agree. Especially as the rest of the chase was edited as if it was him, which was completely ruined. Wouldn’t have really broken a rule if they’d done a retrospective reveal.
The ending was a bit naff, to be honest it was in Series 1 too ‘Look at how close we came to catching them but they just got away!’
I’ll *just about* let them off with magically managing to work out the location of the getaway point based on tracking Ayo close by
The rewards on offer were complete rubbish! Ayo on the verge of winning a share of £100k and they offer his mate Madu a whole…£1000 for information!
Noticed they were looking for contestants for another series at the end, probably go the same way as The Mole Series 3 did I reckon but prove me wrong…
The subversive in me, would love to do this, keep on the run for all 28 days, then find out where the ‘Hunted HQ’ is.
Then 1 second after the end of the time of hunting has elapsed, walk on to the set, throw down your rucksack and say –
“Yeah, and where the hell were you for the past 4 weeks,eh”?
That ending felt incredibly set up. Both players tracks had gone cold and it feels as if the production company stepped in, told the hunters where the extraction point was but said that they weren’t allowed to catch them to make “good telly”. Bar that, the series was entertaining and i will watch another series if it appears.
The finale didn’t hook me in anywhere near as much as last year. The series had it’s moments but wasn’t anywhere near as must see as last year. I think a third series would need a hook which offers a point of difference.
Also I wonder how many real fugitives now just get a cameraman to follow them everywhere and just claim they’re filming for reality TV!
This has been doing very well in catch-up, adding about three-quarters of a million most weeks.
The US version was basically EXACTLY the same as the UK version in the end, it seems a bit like how Knightmare used to work really in that if your techniques are smart enough they’ll let you carry on but if not they’ll end your game quite sharply and manage to hunt you down, quite a random comparison there I suppose but there you go.
Once you’ve got right to the end it would probably be very cruel to take your prize money off you at the last second but make sure they give the impression that it was ‘close’ to make good telly of course…
Anyway I’m sure I heard somewhere recently on the grapevine that Series 3 of the UK one has somehow got approval
They’ve been recruiting for contestants, so likely.
Here is some interesting news I swiped off the DS Forums :
http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/stand-up-to-cancer-2017-supporting-programmes-revealed
Celebrity Hunted (w/t)
Hunted is back but this time it’s not ordinary Brits going on the run, it’s celebrities.
Seven famous faces – Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Laing and Spencer Matthews, Jay McGuiness and Siva Kaneswaran from The Wanted, Gogglebox’s Steph and Dom and Anneka Rice – will attempt to stay off the radar and remain at large for two weeks as crack team of hunters try and track them down. With former police officers, intelligence and army personnel hot on their tail and faces recognisable across the UK will they be able to stay undetected?
This was mentioned a little while, but the celebs weren’t announced. Anneka Rice is a good choice, and I’m not a huge Gogglebox fan but I think Steph & Dom will be amusing on this. Not bothered about the others.
I’d love to see ‘8 Out of 10 Cats Does Hunted’, but it would probably take too much time out of their schedules.