Hunters

I avoided Hunters for the 1st couple of episodes and then tried episode #3 and all I wanted was the back-story: who is Allison, how did she get here, what happened to her parents, who the hell is chasing her and why is she different from the difference, never mind the humans?.

So I started in on #2 and then to #1 and I was even more hooked. Hunters has a highly atmospheric, Dark City/Synchronicity look and feel. It is cinematically very dark to carry off the Predator thread. Hunters is well acted, good dialogue and not overly FXd.

I mentioned Predator, Aliens and Spock but it also resembles The Americans in its paranoia and the unease I feel while watching it. It definitely plays to the unease with 'the other' going on in US society, particularly with the trans-gendered issues of gender bending but more toward what will eventually happen when we are augmented by nanotechnology to the point of being 'aliens' in our own societies.

I think if you like The Aliens on E4 you will enjoy Hunters as well. I'm in.

--Thom

Episode 1 was quite a failure in presenting the series properly. Too much of action and too little plot. Unfortunately I didn't continue the series based on the poor first episode, but I got curious by the latest episode 04 due to boredom and after watching it I was kinda hooked and played all the episodes in reverse to get the whole story. The main unit characters (3) are the most interesting part in the whole series due to their changing relationship with each other (hate/curiosity/confusion). I smell a possible alien/ human relationship coming...hopefully. There is one thing especially which is still bugging me and it is the main female character (who should be the lead) who is pictured to be quite strong because she's alien, has violent/ sexual urges etc but in every fight she has been in, she loses or somehow the suspect escapes. WTF? She should kick some serious ass. Make her more Domina, scary in a sexy way.

When something tries hard to emulate something else, but doesn't quite make it, it enters an area of psychology referred to as the "uncanny valley"; for example, a mannequin that is almost real, but not quite. When a person encounters something that takes them into the uncanny valley, it sets off an anxiety and makes them uncomfortable. This is why we don't make dummies that look too human-like, they put shoppers off.

"Hunters" lives firmly inside the uncanny valley. Virtually all of the actors are Australian. It's filmed in one of the most Australian of cities, Melbourne, inside Melbourne buildings and houses. They really try their best to put on American accents but outside of the veterans they often fail -- sometimes quite comically. Australia is not North America. Escalators are reversed. Vehicles have the steering wheels on the wrong side. The architecture is distinctly un-American. The list goes on.

It's a recipe for a perfect storm of distractions, and when the show itself is quite borderline in terms of plot, acting and editing the last thing you need is to then shove viewers out of what meager frame you have by shouting at them that this is "fake". At the very least the lead actors ought to have been North American. Maybe they could have anchored the rest of it but with all Aussies it's all at sea.

I give it a 5 because it has potential BUT this is what's wrong with SciFi today. Maybe it's just the perception that some of the British or Australian directors,writers etc that audiences are stupid/ignorant of the real world or maybe they are themselves.

Here's what I mean, no one in this day and age over the age of 10 thinks a CRACK secret organization sends 3 guys into a bldg to search for dangerous aliens/monsters or bad guys.

OR if you do the guys are THE bad asses of the world. Not 3 guys who wander in , lose track of each other , disobey orders or carry radios that don't have earpieces and throat mikes so the baddies don't hear you or basically run around like idiots and get themselves killed.

Now I know some may say well that was just a device so we can set up that he loves her or she lost a loved one or whatever BUT! if you don't get the little things right then no matter how good you do the biggies you only be mediocre, hire a military consultant for Pete's sake.

And I will give this a few more looks but as of now that's what it is mediocre MTV scifi show.

Wow that was long winded for me but I had high hopes for this one and they just aren't up to snuff the acting's not that good and the script is not THAT well done, they throw in a little gore for shock value and it's done poorly and not really needed if the show was done well. Well nuff said , hope they correct this one but it feels kinda like an overseas copy of a really good American show. Sorry guys but you know USA makes the most entertaining movies and shows... we just make them in Canada now LOL

Hunters offers up a clumsy start, to a series that, so far, fails to inspire.

The show taps into the shadow government organization hunting aliens stick. Its hardly original but that's OK. What's not OK is the poorly constructed storyline and characterizations.

Its story never really makes clear whats happening or why. You get vague pieces of information, combined with showy scenes of amongst other things, the done to death, alien autopsy. Perhaps this is intended to intrigue the viewer? The reality is, it simply confuses.

The characterizations are hardly impressive either. They feel flat and lifeless. There's no strong emotion, clarity of purpose or real connection built between the key characters. This includes those who are romantically involved. As a consequence the key players are, for the most part, rendered uninteresting and dismissable.

For myself, there is little to like here. I was genuinely bored by the first episode and doubt, I'll be taking this one any further. Three out of ten from me.