Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Channel 4's hit reality TV series Hunted has returned for a fourth season and so have my reviews. Ten ordinary men and women surrender their identities to become fugitives. Their goal is to avoid government capture for 25 days; if they do so, they'll win a share of £100k. They cannot break the law and must stay on the British mainland. However, they'll be going up against a fearsome team of ex-policemen, criminal psychologists, intelligence analysts and military personnel. Armed with sniffer dogs, ground teams, ANPR software and all of the tools of the state, the Hunters will not make things easy for the fugitives.
The Hunters are led by Peter Bleksley - a man more cockney than Delboy. He is an ex undercover policeman. He has deputies in the form of Julie Clegg and Ben Owen who were both intelligence officers. Amongst others, there is also Donna Young - a criminal psychologist.
With so many fugitives, to keep things simple, the series focusses on a few at a time, which is what I'll do too. But firstly, we'll have a break down of the 10 fugitives.
Nicholas Bachelor: a 51 year old Youth Worker and ex-convict and drug addict from Kent.
Paul James: a 48 year old Construction Worker. Paul is a close friend of Nicholas and helped him through the worst of his drug addiction
Emma Davidson, a 23 year old nurse from Devon.
Jess Kirkham: a 27 year old nurse also from Devon.
Harry Savage - a 20 year old drama student from Essex. Harry is also gay and he is participating to challenge stereotypes about gay people.
Frank Savage - a 23 year old campsite owner and Harry's older brother.
Nathaniel Watt - a 26 year old architecture student from Nottingham
Ismail Haruna - a 27 year old architectural technologist also from Nottingham.
Matt Mason - a 29 year old Royal Marine from Devon.
Loren Hannon - a 26 year old personal banker from Essex.
Every season begins with the fugitives gathered in one place ready to go on the run. This year, it began in Liverpool with the fugitives on a boat going up the River Mersey. They reach the port of Liverpool and bail out.
This episode focusses particularly on Loren and Nick and Paul. But here is a quick rundown on the other fugitives.
We quickly learn that Matt Mason is very cocky. Due to his background as a Royal Marine, he feels he has the expertise to outsmart the Hunters. He is seen using an ATM in a heavy disguise. He then ducks behind a lamppost and changes his outfit, before changing it again later on. He is last seen successfully escaping the city centre. As a Royal Marine, the smart money would be on him. However, as time and time again have proven, contestants like Matt Mason have never done as well as you think they would.
Season 1's Ricky Allen was a hot-favourite but crashed out halfway through. Season 2 featured two overconfident ex-soldiers who were caught after a week and season 3 had a police officer who was also caught halfway through.
Next up, we have our two nurses from Devon - Jessica and Emma who we see very little of, but we do learn they successfully escape the city centre.
Harry and Frank Savage - the two brothers from Essex escape the city centre to the countryside, where they have to get fend off a herd of cows. Here we see Frank's brotherly instincts emerge. Harry is scared by the cows, but Frank is there to comfort him and get him through it. The last we see of them, they are walking along a canal, before hitching a ride on a canal boat. Although, canal boats aren't particularly fast, so I'm not sure how good of an idea that is.
Lastly, we have Nathaniel and Ismail who have the novel - and highly conspicuous - idea of using roller skates to escape the city. While the Hunters spot them, the two friends escape to the countryside.
The Hunters' immediate tactic is to go for the weakest link - that is the fugitive they think they can catch the easiest.
This seemingly appears to be Loren Hannon - the personal banker from Essex. In intercut interview footage, we learn that Loren is ditzy and scatterbrained. Before she became a personal banker, she spent a lot of time caring for her agoraphobic mother. She wants to win the money for her.
The Hunters identify her as the weak link, as they think she is disorganised. Case-in-point, she is wearing a bright yellow jacket which can be spotted from a mile away. And worse, as she is running, her backpack busts open and everything falls out. She has to spend vital seconds packing everything back up, which is enough time for the Hunter's helicopter team to spot her. The Hunters send a ground team to catch her.
Knowing she is standing out like a sore thumb, Loren ducks under a flyover and loses the jacket. With the Hunters seconds away, she escapes by hitchhiking a ride out of the city centre. From there, she is driven 300 miles to Fort William in Scotland by her cousin. It's here we learn that she has lived a very sheltered life. The Hunters search through Loren's home and interrogate her mother who claims it is unlike Loren to have a fully-thought out plan.
However, the Hunters find a vague itinerary in her bedroom. For me, this is a rookie error. Loren should have known the Hunters would search her home, so she shouldn't leave a paper itinerary just lying around. She shouldn't have written anything down in the first place, but, rather committed to memory. However, as previously discussed, Loren isn't the type to plan things like this. Loren has also received a lot of backlash online for using this tactic, which I don't think is entirely fair.
It's always easy to say these types of things sitting at the sofa at home. But when you're in that situation with the pressure building, it is easy to make mistakes. Last year, Alex Ayling made a schoolboy error where he told his getaway driver the exact place to find him, which wouldn't be so bad, if the Hunters weren't listening in. Alex went onto win. In season 2, Nick Cummings was also an unlikely winner. It is only early and Loren did make a mistake. But she doesn't deserve the criticism she received.
While the Hunters suspect the itinerary could be a trap, they see that she has plans to travel to Fort William. Knowing it is only a small village, they tell local businesses to watch out for Loren.
While in Fort William, Loren stumbles upon the Ben Nevis distillery and explains her situation to the workers there. They tell her to go to the North Face car park where they have a car she can use. After promising not to grass her up, they promptly grass her up. The Hunters send a ground team to the distillery, but they're too slow to catch Loren.
Not knowing how close she came, she meets more locals and asks if she can camp on their land. They agree, but also warn her about the Hunters in the area. She decides not to stay there and the locals drive her to safety before the Hunters can catch her.
The next fugitives are Paul James and Nicholas Batchelor. Both of them are recovering drug addicts with Nick serving time for his drug offences. To aid the fugitives, a new rule has been introduced. If so they recruit an accomplice to help them. Nick and Paul use their accomplices to help them escape Liverpool city centre. However, the Hunters catch them on CCTV and send ground teams to intercept.
But Nick and Paul ask two of their friends to act as decoys. The plan is for them to distract the Hunters by diving onto public transport allowing Nick and Paul to escape. While the plan works for a little while, the Hunters identify the decoys as being just that. However, the plan has worked enough for Nick and Paul to reach Cromer, Norfolk. They were driven there by their associate David Seaman.
On Nick and Paul's social media, the Hunters learn more about Nick and Paul's past as drug addicts. They see that they have been members of various support groups and suspect they will be using their network of recovering addicts to aid them. The Hunters focus on one such associate - the aforementioned David Seaman. They monitor his calls and find he's called up another associate of Nick and Paul - George Goody who will drive them to another location.
However, when George is 45 minutes late to the rendeyvous, desperation drives Nick to call him up through a burner phone. The Hunters track the call and send teams to intercept. Turns out that George screwed up and drove to the wrong rendeyvous. But he corrects his error and picks up the boys to drive them to Bristol along a series of A roads. The Hunters use ANPR to track George's car, where they discover Nick and Paul's plan to go to Bristol.
Once at Bristol, Nick and Paul hole up at the house of their friend, Caroline Hogan. However, the Hunters have identified Caroline Hogan as a port in the storm and send ground teams to intercept. Meanwhile, the boys plan to lie low at Caroline's - wash their clothes, eat some good food, before moving on. They don't want to become too comfortable or they'll let their guard down. But then, in the next shot, we see them smoking outside, which undermines their plan.
While, the Hunters think they've found Nick and Paul, they decide to keep a low profile, in case they spook the locals who in turn will warn Nick and Paul. But the Hunters screw up and are caught snooping around a field by one of Caroline's neighbours. Back at the house, we see Nick and Paul becoming increasingly paranoid. When they see an unfamiliar car approach, they fear it's the Hunters, but it turns out to be the Piano Tuner.
If they're panicking like this on the first day, they're going to be in trouble further down the line. The neighbour warns them about the Hunters. Thoroughly spooked, Nick and Paul have a big choice to make. With the Hunters closing in, just where do they run to next?
Top 3 tips for going on the run
1. Don't write things down. Commit them to memory.
2. If you're using decoys, make sure they're wearing similar clothes to you and are of a similar build.
3. Invest in a good bag that won't fall apart when you're running around.
And, as always, if you're going on the run, don't tell me your plan in the comments below. The Hunters could and probably are watching.
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