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Hunted investigators: “We’re the good guys”

Dr. David Craig and his team have one more chance to thwart the run of four remaining fugitives on 10.

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Hunted finishes its second season tonight on 10 as four remaining Fugitives, father and son duo Jordan and Tharren, and surviving single players Holly and Jimi hope to make it to the extraction point to share in a $100,000 prize.

Intent on stopping them are the Hunters, headed up by its resident ‘Chief’ Dr. David Craig, who tells TV Tonight, his team is unrelenting.

“We’re very competitive as a group, and we’re there to win,” he assures. “A lot of people don’t think we’re the good guys. I keep saying we are, but people don’t tend to believe me!”

Craig (pictured top, second from left), a former Detective Superintendent and Australian Federal Police Agent, has his reputation at stake in hoping to thwart the fugitives.

“I had a great reputation, a good career with the Australian Federal Police. Why the hell do I put it all at stake on national television? I ask myself that. But I’ve done it again.”

The Hunted team, including Intelligence Lead Graeme Simpfendorfer and Deputy Ben Owen, Operations Deputy Reece Dewar, Cyber Lead Jason Edelstein, Psychologist Dr Karla Lopez and Digital Forensics Jay Banerji, have so far ended the run of 16 participants.

“It’s pretty intense, when you’ve got 20 people on the run, that’s 20 people’s accounts, 20 people’s friends or false accounts -all the red herrings they want to leave us. That’s a whole lot of data for a small group of people to get through,” he continues.

To do that the team have pieced together information from electoral roles, utility bills, social media, CCTV cameras and skills from police work simulated by production.

“In the AFP if we’re investigating a serious crime, and I thought that someone had used an ATM, I will get a warrant and I would get that from the bank and I’d have a look at it. It’s no different to this job in this field.”

He adds, “We’re starting from right at the back, but we get names and their hometowns. Then from that, it’s just a plain investigation.

After 20 days of fugitives dodging and hiding, the team have just one final episode to capture participants before the extraction point.

It’s a relentless Reality TV chase but Craig insists he wouldn’t dream of swapping places.

“I absolutely respect every single one of them for what they put themselves through in this competition. Like, it’s tough, these people are really committed, and they’re really exposing themselves,” he says.

“But I wouldn’t do it even for the money.”

Hunted finale 7:30pm tonight on 10.

21 Responses

  1. Further comment about the methods. The show condenses and expands time frames, and mixes the edits. So methods which would take days to get approved (eg search warrants) appear instant, but are actually pre agreed. Phone pings take hours, rather than minutes. Contacts appear unintelligent, but are actually required to give over information if asked. And that is why the hunters don’t change appearance – so the edit can flow as if it was sequential when it isn’t.

    Major goof, though, at the end, with Holly walking to the MCG, alternating between a huge backpack and a tiny daypack. Especially as we saw her stash all her bags in a cupboard at the last house.

  2. There’s a dichotomy in this show purely because they are not real criminals. If these experts were trying to catch someone who had burned your house down, you would definitely see them as heroes and want them to use every trick possible.

    But the “hunted” people are volunteers and innocent. They are personable, clever, funny and friendly, so we are on their side. We want them to win, we want strangers to help them. If a person dobs them in (like the hunter’s brother), we boo them. These feelings would all be reversed if they were real criminals.

    The takeaway message, I think, is how tracked we are in this world, and how dangerous mobile phones (and modern cars) are in ways we never think of. The father and son nearly won, and got very little edit because it appeared that they almost never used technology. They just wandered from place to place, working for their board and making friends. I wish they had won, but happy for the others, too.

    2. I do think an interesting twist would be forcing the Hunters to use old school techniques and remove the modern technological tools the series so relies on. A Victorian series in a different sense.

  3. Breaking into a person’s home and going through their belongings is a crime. Why didn’t they get charged?

    Tharren and Jordan were hard done by. They were at the mcg, they should of been safe.

    Putting a tracker on a car without the person’s knowledge. That’s very concerning. How many abusive partners will copy that.

    Definitely not the good guys

    1. Some actions are agreed to by the contestants in their contracts, such as house searches and giving up their tech. So it is not a matter of the law, but of what is contracted for the show. Not sure about the tracker and the interceptor on the person’s computer. They seem below the belt, but they also may be in the contract.

  5. I love the show and want the hunters to catch all the fugitives. I don’t care if they use tactics and equipment that not everyday police would use. It’s called entertainment. If it’s on tv it’s not going to be 100% true to life. It was fun and enjoyable. I loved it. Can’t wait for season 3.

  6. Good concept, poorly executed. The Hunters definitely aren’t heroes. In fact I think it shows all of them in a bad light. Thanks for your service but I would never want to drink with these smug people. Oh, and using German Shepherds on contestants was a low point.

    1. I agree, they are very arrogant and pushy. The hunters at HQ get under my skin with their cocky remarks at times and the ones on the road can be very pushy when ‘interviewing’ members of the public. They all act like they are tracking hardened criminals. The low point for me was breaking into a contestants house. Seeing them go through peoples private things that made me feel sick.

      I really enjoyed the first season, but have gone off it this season. Really disappointed the father and son didn’t quite make it, they were my favourites.

  7. I like the show and get the fact they need to simulate things but it’s clear they have taken more liberties this year. Now everybody is just “put on full intercept” and they track their precise location – which really makes the move of putting actual trackers on 2 vehicles this year – a storyline/visual stunt

  11. Seriously find it hard to believe that Authorities have access to everything the Hunters do on this show!!! Especially when it’s every relative, friend, friend of friend etc etc etc. I would like them to spend 10 minutes explaining how they manage to have access to every CCTV camera in the world, GPS tracking devices and the list goes on. If it is even remotely true, then maybe they need to share their resources with the Australian Police Departments so they can solve their cases more quickly!!!!

    2. Yes, authorities do have access to the same and in most cases better technology that the hunters have, although probably some technology is probably only able to be used in major criminal cases and not by smaller, local police departments. If the show explained how they’re simulating everything each time they access anything it would make a very boring TV show.

  12. This season of Hunted was excellent. However I question if it was legal of the hunters to put a tracking device on a car without the owners permission and fiddling with someone’s internet again without the owner knowing. I’m hoping that Holly can win.

    1. Breaking into a participants house and rifling through their underwear draw seems highly illegal without any form of warrant. That’s pure cheating by the Hunters

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