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Pop CultureNovember 2, 2022

Why watch a whole action movie when you can simply watch Hunted Australia? 

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Alex Casey watches Hunted Australia, a high-octane reality series that pits high-level intelligence officers against classic Aussie drongos on the run. 

The lowdown

With Celebrity Treasure Island coming to an end and FBOY Island pulling another petal off the reality romance rose with every passing week, Hunted has come storming onto TVNZ to fill the void. The action-packed series sees 18 Australian “fugitives” (read: classic Aussie drongos) go on the run from an expert team of detectives and high-level intelligence tracking their every move. If they manage to avoid capture by the end of the 21-day hunt, they win their share of $100,000. 

Think early-2000s high-concept Julie Christie reality shows like The Mole (which person is the mole?) and Going Straight (how long can you walk in a straight line?). As the experts pace around central HQ in the middle of Melbourne, the fugitive teams instantly scatter from a van in Federation Square and the big game of tag is afoot. There are aunty/niece teams, soon-to-be-wed teams, best friend teams, and an unlikely pairing of a hairdresser and a cop. 

The good

No expense is spared on selling the idea that this is a real hunt for dangerous criminals, rather than for a gentle account director named something like Sandra. There’s a fleet of helicopters, covert blacked-out vans and rabid sniffer dogs. It’s shot like an action film, with stealthy camera operators following our fugitives around the state of Victoria, who also capture the action with GoPros. All the while, former intelligence officers eff and jeff their way around HQ in Succession-style crash zooms trying to figure out where the hell everybody is. 

Hunted’s hunters hunting

The idea of actually disappearing in 2022 is a challenging one. Contestants have to be careful about what they do with their phones, where they get cash out and even what colour their hair is. One team immediately dons mullet wigs and tradie outfits. Another young woman dresses up in a large polo shirt and aviators in an attempt to look like a young boy at the ATM. Even if you have no need to go on the run, it is interesting to mull over how you might attempt to disappear, and what your digital footprint reveals about your life and habits. 

Finally, outside of Dame Susan Devoy on Celebrity Treasure Island, Hunted provides some mega reality laughs. In one instance, a fugitive crumbles into a pile of shaking tears halfway through packing up her bag in a remote campsite. Could the pressure be too much? Is it a panic attack? Is she going to hand herself in? “It’s a grasshopper,” she wails. “Little spiky legs.” Some of the teams are total duffers and immediately get caught by staying with one of their close friends on Facebook, while others make a narrow escape by using an old lady decoy. 


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The bad

There’s a disclaimer that comes at the very end of every episode that says “some powers available to government agencies including electronic surveillance have been simulated in the production of Hunted”. Although you don’t need to be FBI to understand that a lot of reality television is manipulated, you really do have to suspend your belief an awful lot when these former MI5s pull up footage of someone buying snacks at a servo in the outback within seconds. But this is Hunted, where everything is made up and rules of civil surveillance don’t matter. 

The verdict: Run, don’t walk – and pack a wig just in case. 

Hunted Australia screens at 8.30pm Tuesdays on TVNZ 2 and is available to stream on TVNZ+.

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Lewis Gribben as Danny in Somewhere Boy (Photo: Channel 4/Supplied)
Lewis Gribben as Danny in Somewhere Boy (Photo: Channel 4/Supplied)

Pop CultureNovember 1, 2022

Review: Somewhere Boy is a small wonder

Lewis Gribben as Danny in Somewhere Boy (Photo: Channel 4/Supplied)
Lewis Gribben as Danny in Somewhere Boy (Photo: Channel 4/Supplied)

This British series is a slow burn that packs a powerful emotional punch, writes Catherine McGregor.

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The lowdown

When his mentally disturbed father Steve dies, 18-year-old Danny is freed from the remote house where he’d been held in isolation and is forced to face life in the outside world. Steve had prevented Danny from leaving the house by convincing him it was surrounded by “monsters” that only Steve could defeat, going so far as regularly smearing himself with animal blood to support the charade. That his beloved father was a liar is just one of the hard truths Danny must confront when he’s propelled out beyond their four walls.

Written and directed by first-time TV showrunner Pete Jackson, Somewhere Boy was shown on consecutive nights on the UK’s Channel 4 a few weeks back and is now streaming in full on TVNZ+.



What’s good

What a strange and lovely series Somewhere Boy is. Despite its dark subject matter and emotional intensity – especially in the first and last episodes, which centre on the suicide of Danny’s father Steve (Rory Keenan) – Somewhere Boy counts among the most uplifting viewing experiences of the year.

It’s a slow build, to be sure. When Steve’s big-hearted sister Sue (Lisa McGrillis) brings Danny (a brilliant Lewis Gribben) back home to join a family he’s never met, things get off to a rocky start. After 18 years of isolation, Danny is painfully awkward – hunched over, monosyllabic, lacking basic social skills and with a stubborn streak a mile wide – and the chances of him integrating into this new family of strangers seem slim.

Samuel Bottomley as Aaron and Lewis Gribben as Danny in Somewhere Boy (Photo: Channel 4/Supplied)

Things are trickiest with Sue’s teenage son Aaron. He’s actively resentful of this odd kid who doesn’t know what porn is and can’t grasp the appeal of social media, or as Danny puts it, “sitting here looking at photos of cunts”. Worse, Danny’s arrival is one more hurdle in his struggle to be popular, or at least not a social outcast. Mooching around the house, icing out his mother and bragging about the masses of sex he isn’t actually having, Aaron has all the makings of a classic horrible teenager. And yet, for my money, he’s the show’s most affecting character, played with remarkable sensitivity by young actor Samuel Bottomley. The burgeoning friendship between the cousins – two lonely, uncool teenagers, both desperate for human connection – is one of the show’s major emotional throughlines.

The other is the far more complicated relationship between Danny and his father, a story told in flashbacks scattered through the eight episodes. Steve’s psychological manipulation of Danny is monstrous, but his love for his young son is genuine and powerful – overwhelmingly so. Steve is clearly mentally unwell (there’s a strong suggestion he has manic depression) but he’s not mad, and he’s not a tyrant. In fact, in many ways he’s an ideal dad: hands on, supportive, creative, affectionate. He imprisons his son not to terrorise him, but to protect him; in his warped way, it’s the ultimate act of love.

Rory Keenan as Steve in Somewhere Boy (Photo: Channel 4/Supplied)

What’s not so good

It’s a small nitpick, but I spent much of the eight-episode run wondering how Danny and his father had so easily avoided welfare services, or any expectation that the child attend school.

The verdict

Somewhere Boy takes a familiar idea (the movie Room covered similar ground) and fashions from it something wholly original. Episodes of Somewhere Boy are short; watch at least a couple and there’s a good chance you’ll be hooked on this quietly wonderful series.

Somewhere Boy is streaming on TVNZ+ now.

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