The Hunting Party just premiered on NBC, so is this new thriller worth watching?
Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for The Hunting Party Episode 1
NBC pulled a surprise move by announcing that the new thriller The Hunting Party would premiere on Sunday, Jan. 19 rather than Monday, Feb. 3. It appeared the network wanted to capitalize on viewers watching the Philadelphia Eagles/Los Angeles Rams playoff game.
It was a good way to get viewers on this series, which opened with a literal bang. We’re introduced to The Pit, an underground prison kept in an abandoned nuclear silo. Without warning, a massive explosion blows the place apart with two guards who had just ended their shift knocked off the road by the blast.
Meet the characters in The Hunting Party
Cut to Rebecca “Bex” Henderson (Melissa Roxburgh), a former FBI profiler who now works security at a casino. Her days of finding card cheats are interrupted when she’s brought to meet Attorney General Elizabeth Mallory (Zabryna Guevara), who wants Bex to profile Richard Harris, a serial killer she already captured. Bex is naturally confused as to why she’s being asked to profile a man who was executed in 2017.
CIA officer Jacob Hassaini (Patrick Sabongui) brings Bex to the remains of the Pit to meet guard Shane Florence (Josh McKenzie). They reveal that Harris, along with scores of other supposedly dead killers, terrorists, and criminal masterminds, have all been kept alive and in the PIt. Now, that explosion has let them free and because this place isn’t supposed to exist (even the President doesn’t know about it), they can’t tell the authorities. Since Bex caught Harris before, she’s on his trail with Shane and Jacob at her side.
Bex’s backstory is haunting
As they hunt Harris (telling the local cops they think it’s a “copycat” abducting women), Bex shares her backstory. When she was only 15 years old, she listened in on her sheriff father tracking a killer and pieced together clues to discover it was her best friend’s father.
That led Bex to the FBI, where she worked with Oliver Odell (Nick Wechsler) and had a brief relationship with him. When they were tracking an orphaned girl held hostage, Oliver crossed the line by setting the guy on fire. Bex rescued the girl, Sam, and later adopted her.
Bex is coy about why she left the FBI, while Shane talks of being a former soldier. He also related that the Pit was very tightly wrapped up to the point Shane honestly had no idea how many prisoners there were.
Jacob defended the Pit as needed as the research into the prisoners aided profilers and perhaps stopped future serial killers. However, he acknowledged this involved experimenting on the prisoners, which could only further their psychosis. As Bex put it, this meant the Pit had succeeded in making the greatest psychopaths on Earth even worse.
It took a few twists, but the trio stopped Harris. There was a twist in that his supposed targeted victim was actually in love with him. Bex stopped her and the woman was shipped off in a crate.
The end and should you watch?
Bex was brought to the hospital to meet the Pit’s warden, who was none other than Oliver. While there was tension, Oliver told Bex that A) there were a lot more escapees than anyone would admit and B) The explosion was no accident. He needed Bex as she was the only person he could trust.
So, obviously, the premiere is the setup of the entire show, and it does a decent job of introducing the characters. It seems surprising they give attention to the Pit only to destroy it in the first scene but perhaps flashbacks will show more of it.
The idea of using killers to understand killers is sound, and hopefully, the show doesn’t waste too much time delving into who’s really running things. Episode 2 will introduce a new character, Jennifer Morales (Sara Garcia), an intelligence officer who is joining the team. That will be good as we need some light humor for this otherwise dark story.
Roxburgh isn’t bad in the lead, and Bex’s backstory is a bit more original than expected (basically if Veronica Mars joined Criminal Minds). We need to learn more about why she left the FBI and her relationship with her daughter as the actress is so far a bit bland but may grow into the part.
There’s a fun dynamic with her, Shane, and Jacob as they have differing views on catching these crooks. Shane is a bit friendlier, while Jacob is more intense, and we could use more insight into their pasts to truly understand them. With Oliver, we just know about how he killed a guy yet still respects Bex.
There’s a decent twist in hunting Harris, but it failed to thrill like it should. There are also worries about the show taking too much time on the greater mystery of the Pit and its purpose. Hunting killers who are officially dead does have promise in drama in how the team have to keep it quiet from the public and that might add more interest depending on the cases.
Right now, it’s a bit hard to judge the show off just its pilot. It can feel cookie-cutter and not unlike past NBC thrillers. Perhaps the second episode can build on it more as the concept is a bit too familiar and needs a bigger spark before The Hunting Party can be considered a must-see thriller.
The Hunting Party airs a rerun of the premiere on Monday, Feb. 3 at 10/9c on NBC. New episodes will then air on Mondays at 10/9c.