The Devil's in the Detail - Hunted Series 1 Episode 5 REVIEW

This week, Sam took some time out from the good old world of espionage and discovered the joys of Yoga and Nando's... 

I'm fibbing, of course. Find out about this week's life-or-death goings on after the jump. 

The Beautiful and the Damned... But which is which? Aidan (Adam Rayner) and Sam (Melissa George) in Hunted

This week's episode of Hunted was probably my favourite of the series so far - not least because it offered that lovely injection of mythology that I think will really propel the series through the next 3 episodes. 

In a Da Vinci-esque encounter in the National Gallery, Sam finds out that Hourglass is related to a centuries-old conspiracy to place great power in the hands of a few rich, successful individuals. Part of the real appeal of Hunted's high concept premise comes from the way it draws upon concerns about what happens when industries move towards privatisation. 

What happens if an organisation similar to MI5 is driven less by public safety and more by the desire to make a profit? If what creator Frank Spotnitz says is true, then this is actually a highly profitable global industry, something I was never aware of before. I'm not sure how well national security and profit-making fit together, but Byzantium hardly seems to be the shining template of success for such a system. 

Ignore the blood red herring at the start of this post - Sam doesn't so much do Yoga as she does kick serious antagonist ass from start to finish (although, I have to admit that I've never attended a Yoga class, so I could be grossly wrong, feel free to scold me as necessary). 

Also Goebels,  known by many as Blank Face Man, may not be evil after all! He saves Sam's life towards the end of the episode, which is an improvement on shoving a needle in her eye at the end of episode 4 (I feel better about comparing him to Lost's Benjamin Linus now, as Benjy also grew on me as the series progressed, like a fungus, in fact).

The seriously underrated Melissa George did a great job in this ep - I'm much looking forward to next week's episode 'Polyhedrus', which looks set to be another eventful 60 minutes of Primetime. 

What were your thoughts on 'Hunted' Episode 5? Have you fallen in love with Blank Face Man as much as I have?