The Hunt with John Walsh

After watching 30-40 minute forensic files, and being a big fan of the genre of true crime, I thought this would be a real treat. But the absolutely pondering pace of this show left me checking my watch and anxious to do something more constructive with my time. The first episode was about some killer, and they spend the first 10 minutes discussing the town in Shasta County, how quiet and peaceful it is, how it's like a paradise to many people, interviewing people about how the town is so crime-free. Ugh. I fast-forwarded to John Walsh, but he talked slowly and I sensed this was trying too hard to be some dramatic build-up instead of a documentary about true crime. Forensic Files, on the other hand, is paced well, and does not try to hit us over the head with the dramatic elements, because the shock and horror of the true crime is dramatic enough.

A real bore. 3 points.

I love this show, one of the best if not the best show ever made. Why? First of all, statistics say it all, look up Wikipedia to see how many of the predators have been captured because of the show. Second of all, I think every single detail about the editing of the show is awesome, the music, the transitions, the footage itself, I feel like it is incredible. Yeah, I am not gonna lie, it gets a bit scary sometimes but that is why it is underneath the category "Crime" TV Show, right? John Walsh does a great job, has a great judgment and if you are not familiar with his story, check it out, that is why he is so great at what he does, he is very authentic.

This is a somewhat riveting reality TV series featuring John Walsh hosting stories targeting some of America's most wanted fugitives. As he narrates, actors reenact events of those crimes, but the reenactments are more like dreamy flashbacks.

There are some intrigue, but the suspense seems to be limited and not as intense as some of the earlier crime reality shows. Still, Walsh does a great job narrating, providing eloquence, professionalism and authority, and the show does make you want to root for justice and the nabbing of the bad guys.

Grade B-

I like Walsh and respect what he and his family experienced... However, the repeated intro is too much a broken record... The shows spend too much time on superfluous junk. I can fast forward to the end and not miss anything important pertaining to the suspect. Seriously, I don't care where he grew up ..get to the freaking case, stop pontificating over searches that reveal nothing! Is this true crime or a game show? I loved America's Most Wanted, Hunted is a "real house wives" version of bad criminals...btw, why is important to air that a detective stepped down because of an indiscretion? "The Hunted" is disappointing after the master piece "America's Most Wanted".

America's Most Wanted was great, but this is really hard to watch. The crimes are disturbing enough, but the actual techniques used in production are overkill. So it makes it hard to sit through. It's definitely too slow, but things such as super-closeups of people's mouths talking, lots of slow motion and dramatic disturbing music, and scenes really suggestive of sex and violence mixed with this, just make it unwatchable for me. The crimes are dark enough. You don't need dark, slow production techniques on top of it. It was very disappointing because I had seen it advertised originally and thought it would be a good series. In flipping through the channels I saw it tonight, and they ran two episodes where the fugitive in question had already been caught and killed. Yet they are running the episodes again.

I applaud his efforts to find these criminals and put them away, but he might have a better chance to do that if the show were more watchable. The production techniques seem like they would be more appealing to people who were a little bit disturbed than to the general TV watcher.