Could you go on the run for 21 days, avoiding detection by not using your mobile phone or an ATM?
This is the premises of Channel 10’s new reality show, Hunter, which starts tonight.
Teams of pairs are “released” in Melbourne and given a head start, before the “experts” use surveillance technology to track them down. Avoid capture for long enough and you get the cash prize.
The show has screened in various countries in recent years and Ten has been promoting the hell out of it, so let’s hope it is good.
Hunted screens on Ten at 7.30pm.
Locals are going to have a huge advantage on this
They get $500 and an overnight bag
These guys will be good TV: a police officer and a hair stylist who specialises in FX makeup https://fb.watch/ejDhW6qWbO/?mibextid=iloqvq
Having paid little attention to the promos, I thought this was a spy or mystery series.
As it’s yet another reality show, I guess that explains why they felt free to use most of Liam Neeson’s speech to the kidnappers in Taken, only leaving out “I will kill you”. That would be too much, even for reality tv.
I’m a half hour in like you ,Juz. These cops aren’t eating doughnuts and junk food. They don’t swear. Bring the realism, Ch 10.
One time I had a camp on the banks of the River Murray. Every afternoon .a police car would park nearby , without fail and the officers would sleep for a couple of hours. They never noticed me “surveilling” them. Early 80’s. before they could have been put dozing on Facebook.
I take it back . An officer just said “$hit” …….unless it was an escapee.
Now I’m hearing derisive “f” bombs from the Inspector Callaghan wannabes. The language is being ramped up, forty five minutes for it to get worse. Good for the whole family.
I think Fs are only allowed after 8pm. We showed Mr 10 some of The Goonies today. In the first 10 minutes a child actor says shit – how times have changed!
Are they allowed to disguise their camera person? Like put a cardboard box around the camera so it looks like they are carrying a microwave or something?
The two in the lift with the obvious camera person up their nostrils was like MAFS.
This is Endemol $hite producing , after all.
It is trending on Twitter.
Mostly, people are saying that if they were a Hunter, they would look for a couple being accompanied by a camera man. 🤣🤣
If you have watched any of the other seasons, you are aware of the adjustments they have to make to make it a logical show. It doesn’t take long before they become irrelevant and you just get caught up in the chase. There are rules and tweaks for both the hunters and hunted, to make it fairer and suitable for tv. For example, it seems that they only send one car team to each lead, and the team has to stay together ie one can’t take the car off and leave another in hiding to watch.
Also, it is unreasonable to expect that this level of experts are going to reveal all their techniques.
The best part of the show is watching how the people react emotionally. The paranoia gets to them very quickly, and you start to see some weird, illogical moves where you can only think “what the…”. And then you start cheering so hard for them to reach the end. One of the best competition shows.
Thanks, Fijane. I know it is big overseas but have never watched it before. We are thinking now it might be a good one to binge at the end of each week, so we can impatiently fast forward through some of the filler.
I wander in an out of this show.
It’s a combination of annoyance at stupid decisions, rolling my eyes and my heart can’t take the suspense.
I am well aware that the person we are chasing every episode is going to get caught but I still have my fingers crossed that I may be wrong. Just between you and me and very, very quietly, I haven’t been wrong so far 🤣🤣
Oddly, it is one of the Hunters that made me finally fall in love with this show. I tuned in to two smart looking fellows driving in the car with one saying to the other, (paraphrasing here), “It looks like two pretty blonde girls are being chased by two thugs”, and then when one of the blondes was finally caught, how gentle he was with her. He treated her with absolute respect. No drama, no big scene, no playing up to the camera.
I was touched. I have obviously spent too much time watching MAFS. This is a refreshing change.
Bobi – I noticed that, too. The natural thing would have been to swipe her thigh as a “tag, gotcha” when she had fallen, but he thought about it and tapped her shoulder gently instead. And the girls were gracious in defeat
I’ve seen each episode. Fourteen left. Ch 10 are promoting the hell out of it. One can’t escape the ads for it. tenplay even sent me an email crowing about the awesomeness of this show. Good for teaching kids how to swear and offer money to get what you want from people. We get the de rigeur sob stories into the bargain.
14 Hunted left, that is.
How they get the “CCTV” footage https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/reality-tv/hunted-biggest-question-about-tens-hit-new-series-answered/news-story/02bfbdea199ba2dd03c31c10e6e5f334?utm_campaign=EditorialSB&utm_source=news.com.au&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_content=SocialBakers
I’m behind but just saw the team who were accidentally caught. Feel sorry for them as they had done a great job misleading the Hunters.
Just to clarify, the first two UK seasons were shown on the ABC several years ago. Never been an Aussie one though.
Mostly I understand the weirdness of the rules, but tonight I am bamboozled wondering how the hunters were allowed to freeze the account of a team? The teams are given those cards and access to the allocated money in them, so how is it fair to cut off access to the money? And why do it anyway, when all you need is the notification that they have taken money out?
I’m having trouble with some of the rules as well. How is it fair that a bus driver was allowed to call it in? I’m still struggling with that one. Out of left field for me.
That one’s a normal thing. When a team get really difficult but are known to be in an area, the hunters can enlist the public’s help, using posters etc. That bus driver saw the poster, and made the choice to report. He had the choice not to report as well.
On another tack, I am sensing that there must be restrictions re the contacts they have stayed with. It seems that they have to be home after their fugitives leave, must allow the hunter team to interview them, and when they lie to the team they do it really badly, as if there are only certain phrased they are allowed to use.
If I had had a fugitive team stay with me, I would immediately go elsewhere for a day or two after they leave. But it seems they have to stay.
Regardless of how much people like or don’t like the show, I hope there is a lot of education from the show about how easily your phone can be used against you, by almost anyone. One guy thought logging out of google was enough not to be tracked! Changing to a new SIM seemed smart, until the hunters just searched for new SIM registrations under their name.
In the seasons I have seen, the only successful teams have ditched technology altogether (and so have their contacts) while running, and used all “old-school” methods – maps, older cars, verbal local knowledge from strangers, printed pamphlets etc.
It will be harder now for the remaining teams because when they begin moving toward the extraction location, they narrow the search area, and give the hunters an idea of where they are heading.
The ‘HQ’ scenes that apparently are filmed as they ‘hunt’ the fugitives over several days, look to me like they were all filmed in a single shoot as the women wear the same clothes in each shot which seems unlikely if it was really filmed over a period of time. Can’t say the same for the men’s apparel as it seems to be mainly white shirts and the ties which are not distinctive enough for me to remember between each show.
They may have been asked to wear the same outfit to allow for seamless editing.
Apparently, they are asked to do that on the initial auditions on The Voice so that they can cut and paste.
I am imagining that they have a constant stream of intel on all the pairs and that things don’t happen in a neat chronological order. I assumed editing was done to reflect the capture sequence.
The distinctive looking girl with the red hair had a succession of 50s style dresses in all different prints. I definitely noticed her change of dress each day, but she did wear her hair in the same way.
It’s like watching fish in a barrel being shot…..with bad camera work.
One thing this show can’t capture……. my attention.
In the real world , it has taken 20 years for U.S. Military to locate the current Al Queda leader. I guess they couldn’t “freeze his account”
The big macho crew cutted Hunter in his car thinks nothing of using his hand held mobile whilst driving. That’s a several hundred dolllar fine,pal. The alpha dumbarse can’t even keep eyes on the road , drives with one hand. Great example, Shite Endemol. Literally car crash tv.
Lavinia stuck on an express bus……. well, you say to the drver “family emergency , you need to let me out here”. Then off you go.
If stuck on an express, better to say you’re going to vomit. Brakes go on and doors open pretty quickly.
You’ve done this before, Von. 🤣
I haven’t on a bus, but used to get carsick when I was a kid, and can remember rapid reactions by whoever was driving if I made that announcement.
🤣🤣🤣 Me too.
Don’t forget that these contestants can’t break the law. Real fugitives steal, intimidate, use weapons and have networks of ofther criminals to use. They also are much harder to find in third-world countries.
Great final episode, with high points and low. It wasn’t a bad season. A little lacking in the polished edit that the UK version has, but like other shows we have copied, it should get better each year, just as the contestants will get more wily. Also, it was quite evident that the Big C was causing trouble and affected the options for the game.
That said, a couple of teams were wily enough to match any other previous team.
It was a great final episode, would have watched the encore but Ch 10 appear to have trashed it today.
It’s a funny show. I really enjoyed some episodes and really didn’t enjoy others.
I know that it’s a function of premise but I would have enjoyed more coverage of all the contestants at the beginning. It’s a dead giveaway when they focus on one pair to the exclusion of others.
Still, I will definitely tune in to Season 2.
Well you guys seem to have enjoyed it so I will watch next time. I watched B&the G, and that was okay.
Also Woolif likes Netflix etc so I have to be fair. We watched See. That was about an 8.
I cancelled Netflix. So many shows, still nothing to watch – and they kept raising the price. I am not surprised that customers are leaving in droves. I absolutely felt like I was being treated as a someone who was being milked.
I am contemplating signing up to Disney Plus to watch Murder in the Apartment (?). It has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and, of course, there will be 100 things there for the kids.
Do you mean Only Murders in the Building? We really enjoyed the first season. The headline actors made the show good.
Yes. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Everyone says it’s fun.
What can I say? Woolif loves it. And, Stan, apple, Paramount, iview, SBS. It’s hard to get to see Judge Judy.
Fijane, how did our competitors compare to those overseas? Has anyone gone to the same lengths as Rob with the makeup and prosthetics?
We only got to see two seasons here and it was, I guess, more than ten years ago, so the memory is fading. I do remember disguises but nothing as elaborate as Rob. The best fugitives went off grid, camping, hiking, no phones. I do remember one guy I liked who led them a merry chase on a bicycle along the canal tow paths, changing his clothes under bridges. I think he eventually went camping and might have been a winner?
The UK hunters used numberplates a lot more but about similar with CCTV and building the fugitive’s circle of contacts. As I remember they went to all the the fugitives homes immediately to collect their laptops and phones, and grilled their families. But the families were much more clever at lying or misleading.
In both series, there were winners. I remember one pair being totally underrated as winners.
Finally caught up on the last few episodes over the weekend.
I think if anything this show proved how big the digital footprint is / how easily you can be tracked.
And while I understand how the CCTV footage was recreated, it sometimes appeared like the footage was handed over the moment they left a place, which doesn’t settle the viewers feelings of it being rigged.
Years ago there was an incident near my old workplace that happened on a Saturday night, detectives didn’t come door knocking searching for cctv until Monday or Tuesday.
Would watch a 2nd season will be interesting to see if they make any changes.
We had a stolen car stripped and burnt on the corner here. The police never asked for footage.
I know we are under resourced but I would have thought video (and everyone has a security camera) would have made their life easier.
I am told it might have something to do with the reluctance for juries to find people guilty. Why bust a gut if petty crims are just let off?
Real life vs tv show.
Bloody hell – that’s full on, Bobi
Ah, sorry. I was not emotionally invested so it was not as bad as it sounded. I am more just irritated in general.
All crimes are solved on tv in 30 minutes or less, with ads and a love life thrown in for good measure on the side. It raises expectations.
Surely contestants in S2 will be much more savvy about communicating with friends before the show, leaving a smaller digital footprint
Wow Bobi that does sound full on. The incident I am talking about was a murder In the royal botanic gardens in Melb.
Agree Juz I’m sure next season they will do searching by burner phones, perhaps keep notes in code etc.
I think, in the show, there was quite a deliberate fudging around of time frames, presumably so that viewers couldn’t nail down exact times. Several times it seemed that the CCTV was instantaneous, but if you concentrate carefully, you can see that some time has passed before they get it. And sometimes they had to apply for permission.
The thing that annoyed me was the way the general public gave up their information so easily. It seemed scripted, such as the lady at the caravan park, who seemed like she wanted to deny the question but changed her mind to confirm that the girls were there. Then she pointed out the exact location (I suspect she gave them a false lead here) which I don’t believe would happen in the UK version.
I will be interested to see next time, how much weirdness was caused by covid rules (esp in Victoria). With a bit more freedom (with less rules) the fugitives might be able to do more.