Sam Hunter (Melissa George, 30 Days of Night) is an agent for Byzantium, a private company that specializes in, well, getting the nasty jobs done. Their clients remain anonymous to the operatives, except for the man in charge, Rupert Keel (Stephen Dillane). In the first mission, we see Sam in Tangiers and an exciting ruse occurs so that a scientist can be rescued. This part was really cool and felt very Mission Impossible. The fallout from that particular mission finds Sam falling victim to a group of assassins and suffering a personal tragedy that causes her to doubt her entire team and hide out at her ancestral family home for the next year, even though she keeps reliving a devastating childhood memory. When she returns, she acts as if no time has passed and won’t share where she has been or what she has been doing, mainly because she doesn’t know who on her team set her up. Was it her lover, Aidan Marsh (Adam Rayner), her boss Keel, her team lead, Deacon Crane (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Lost), the tech expert, Zoe Morgan (Morven Christie) or the new guy to the team, Ian Fowkes (Lex Shrapnel)?
The team’s next job is preventing a hoodlum turned mogul named Jack Turner (Patrick Malahide) from gaining a utilities foothold in Pakistan through the purchase of a large dam. Posing as American school teacher Alex Kent, Sam infiltrates the formidable Turner home, catching the eye of Jack’s kind son Stephen (Stephen Campbell Moore) as she acts as nanny and caregiver to his young, motherless son. As Sam snoops around the house, it soon becomes apparent that nothing is as it seems and her life is in danger at every turn. Who can she trust? No one, it would appear. When the episodes wrap up, things are somewhat set right, but there are still some loose ends and the viewer is left wondering about a few things. I imagine that is because the series wasn’t supposed to end, but honestly, I just wasn’t compelled to see it go on, so I understand the reasoning behind not renewing it for a second season.
Even though there was a great deal of action and suspense in Hunted, I just didn’t find myself caring about the characters. I am not a big fan of Melissa George. While she is a competent actress, she always looks as though she is pursing her enormous lips at the camera and trying to look sultry. It’s jarring to me, personally. Besides that, there were some obviously ridiculous things that occurred that just didn’t sit right with me. Take for instance a street punk turned rich guy like Jack Turner, who is an absolute brute and suspicious of everyone, yet somehow Alex/Sam is able to roam around his house, slip down into his torture basement, dig in his personal desk and computer, all the while never being caught on camera. Really? This guy has his house set up to completely lock down should something go sideways and he doesn’t have a freakin’ camera in his office? Come on! Stuff like this really killed the believability of it all and I just didn’t really enjoy the show.
There are no special features whatsoever, which seems odd in this day and age. I have heard rumblings of a spin-off with just Sam Hunter, but since Hunted didn’t really appeal to me, I won’t be waiting in anticipation of it. If you like British espionage dramas and action, you may want to give it a rent, but sadly, I wasn't a fan.
