The NBC series The Hunting Party examines moral questions about justice and control through “The Pit,” a secret supermax prison incorrectly labeled a Panopticon—Jeremy Bentham would likely dismiss its flawed design.
The show’s basic setup follows what happens after humanity’s most dangerous prisoners, wiped from public records, break free during an explosion that creates chaos. Rebecca “Bex” Henderson, a somber profiler from casino security in Virginia, receives orders to catch the escaped inmates (complete with technical terms and personal struggles).
The series wavers between depicting justice as a mechanism of control versus an ethical matter, hinting these prisoners served as test subjects, dehumanized and turned into weapons. The Hunting Party seems to prefer focusing on weekly villain confrontations rather than examining this system deeply.
The show touches on big ideas before returning to its crime-of-the-week format, making its supposed shadowy elements obvious. The series plays like The Blacklist minus the playfulness, disorder mixed with bureaucracy.
Broken Heroes and Moral Chess Pieces: Dissecting The Hunting Party’s Ensemble
The Hunting Party focuses on Rebecca “Bex” Henderson, a character who fits TV’s recurring “Brilliant but Broken” type. She resembles a less refined version of Clarice Starling—her profiling talent mixed with past wounds and hidden background stories that the show dangles before viewers.
Her character shows itself through others’ stories about her rather than her own actions. Bex creates mixed reactions: her analytical mind works like a precise tool, studying criminal minds, though her technical speech often sounds artificial and detached. She seeks to make things right (a common TV pattern), and her path involves past wrongs, remorse, and her mysterious ties to The Pit.
The show pairs Bex with a mixed group of characters who seem taken from various crime shows. CIA agent Jacob Hassani acts as the group’s rigid rule follower. His strict, guarded nature makes him appear like a living symbol of protocol. His dedication to The Pit’s goals creates friction with Bex, making him the team’s order keeper who uses rules both defensively and aggressively.
Shane Florence, who used to guard the prison, shows different sides—devoted worker yet morally troubled observer. His past with the escaped inmates creates an odd connection, showing cracks in The Pit’s stated purpose. Shane and Bex’s bond shifts between friendship and work-related strain as he starts seeing her as someone who shares his doubts. These two characters create the show’s best dynamic: two damaged guides trying to find their way through ethical grey areas.
Oliver Odell, who worked with Bex before, stays mysterious—an unpredictable element known by what stays hidden. His dramatic rule-breaking seems forced, like he exists to highlight moral issues rather than add depth. Jennifer Morales barely makes an impression, stuck playing the new recruit role. The show hasn’t yet shown if she’ll become a fuller character.
The escaped inmates, wrongly called the “worst criminals alive”—including Richard Harris from the first episode—act like test subjects turned psychopaths. Their unclear yet planned actions hint at The Pit’s experiments without breaking free from weekly villain patterns. Together, they work less as scary opponents and more like hints toward a bigger mystery about The Pit’s goals and their human cost.
A Patchwork of Pursuits: Episodic Thrills and Overarching Mysteries
The Hunting Party builds its stories on a standard TV structure: each week brings a new escaped criminal, tracked using psychology terms, personal stories, and police work. Episodes focus on one escapee, studying what makes them act (often tied to past pain, like most TV killers) and tracking their methods after release.
This pattern offers different experiences—fresh crimes, threats, and mental puzzles. The show could tell rich stories, with each case showing both the criminal’s mind and the feelings of those tracking them. The actual episodes often stick to basic police show patterns.
The show adds a snaking thread of ongoing mystery through “The Pit”—a hidden prison conducting government tests. Small hints about mental experiments and wrong studies appear, but like the unknown warden who allowed these acts, clear facts stay hidden. No one knows why these people were locked up and listed as dead.
A strange chain of command talks about protecting the country while acting like they’re above human limits. Big story points exist here, but the show backs away from them. The writers give vague hints (“There are no answers in The Pit. Only more questions!”) that mix mystery with avoiding real answers.
This mix of stories sometimes doesn’t work well. The ongoing plots about hidden plans, tests, and moral choices should make the weekly cases better but create odd shifts instead. Hidden facts keep stacking up (including each character’s required “dark past”), but many lead nowhere. The show’s speed changes badly—especially during basic weekly cases—making it feel stuck: danger exists, but the story drags.
The show mixes different types of stories that don’t always match, like weekly killer chases mixed with big ideas about right and wrong, creating an odd fit rather than a smooth blend.
Dark Labs and Fractured Souls: The Ethical Labyrinth of The Hunting Party
The Hunting Party presents a disturbing split in ethics: seeking scientific achievement through brutality. The Pit, where secret tests happen on the minds of dangerous inmates, serves as both a physical place and a symbol—a cold facility where research, retribution, and control meet.
The experiments on these prisoners raise doubts about their purpose: studying evil behavior or creating it? The show moves back and forth on this idea. The supposed maximum-security prison becomes a symbol of how authority works: like a military strike that picks results over morals during times when safety excuses everything. The setup suggests a failed mix of surveillance state meets military business interests.
The show’s blurred ethics show in its characters, especially Bex and Jacob. Bex shows two sides: she reads killers’ minds so well that her own sense of right and wrong wavers. She seeks to fix past wrongs, but strictly her way—showing how past pain can make someone distant and obsessed rather than caring.
Jacob acts as the smooth-talking face of secret state violence. People believe him as a rule-follower, yet his role makes him responsible for bad acts, making viewers think about which is worse: obeying bad rules or fighting them.
Past pain, both given and received, runs through every part of the show. It explains many things: Bex’s skills, her mental scars, and what the escaped prisoners do. (The show makes viewers ask if someone can be truly bad when their mind was damaged through testing.)
The show overuses past pain as an excuse, making actions seem pardoned instead of examined. The characters might find ways to make things right, but their personal battles rarely connect to what The Pit means overall. The writers know how to use trauma to move plots forward but can’t use it to tie bigger ideas together.
Aesthetic Gloom and Procedural Glitches: How The Hunting Party Tricks the Eye but Fumbles the Soul
The Hunting Party tries to be a dark thriller filled with tense scenes. The show’s look copies other expensive TV shows—dark lighting, winter-gray colors, and background sounds that hint at doom (or maybe tiredness). This dark style doesn’t always work well, sometimes becoming funny by accident.
The bad guys get silly treatment: they’re tied to chairs, picked up by cranes, and flown away like comic book villains planning to destroy everything. These big scenes break the scary mood, making things dramatic instead of scary.
The gray, dark look might remind people of serious police shows, but it sits between “creating a mood” and “copying other shows.” Each hallway shines with cold light; each scene looks empty. The style might not make the story better. Maybe it’s just hiding weak writing. The show tries to look like HBO but ends up looking like NBC with less money.
The actors switch between good serious acting and flat performances. Melissa Roxburgh makes Bex Henderson seem intense like her troubled smart character should be, but sometimes becomes annoying—her smart detective work turns into boring speeches when real feelings should show.
She and Patrick Sabongui’s Jacob Hassani don’t create the right feeling between two people who disagree about right and wrong; their secrets seem fake. Josh McKenzie shows some real feeling as Shane Florence, especially about his mixed loyalties, but doesn’t mix well with other actors.
The show could have created real relationships between people, but shows scattered characters who follow the plot without really connecting. Chances for people to connect disappear, leaving an empty crime show—a big problem for a series that needs good acting and mood to fill story holes.
Will the Party Last? Speculating on Longevity and Redemption
The Hunting Party sits at a turning point. The series could grow into a good crime thriller if it fixes its early problems. Better story speed and deeper characters might turn this average show into something special.
The show’s hidden stories, especially The Pit’s shady facts, could keep viewers watching for many seasons if they stop being mysterious just to be mysterious and start looking at what makes people act the way they do. People will keep watching if the hidden parts of the story lead somewhere good.
The show needs to be different from similar TV shows (The Blacklist casts a big shadow). The show could stand out by focusing on the mental and moral problems The Pit creates (like Mindhunter mixed with scary government control). Making the team members have real bonds—with good and bad moments, and real unity—would make them feel like real people in this battle of right and wrong, instead of just story parts.
The show moves between good and boring. It might get better if it moves past easy scares and looks deeper at right and wrong, control, and making up for mistakes.
The Review
The Hunting Party
The Hunting Party mixes standard crime stories with ideas about right and wrong, but can't handle everything it tries to do. The basic idea—inmates breaking out of a hidden prison where bad tests happened—sounds good, but weak relationships between characters, same-looking episodes, and mixed writing styles make the show less than it could be. Some parts look like good TV drama, others like basic crime shows, and the good moments don't last. The show might get better if the stories flow more smoothly and connect well. Right now, viewers should expect an OK show, nothing special.
PROS
- Intriguing concept centered on secret prisons and psychological experimentation.
CONS
- Predictable episodic structure limits narrative impact.
- Weak character dynamics and lack of chemistry among the ensemble cast.
- Ineffective integration of overarching mystery with case-of-the-week formula.
- Pacing issues and tonal inconsistencies detract from dramatic tension.
