Show Discussion: The Heist

By | November 9, 2018

Sky One, Friday,
9pm

Apparently this is all on Sky now, presumably as a box set. I will flesh this out later.

Basic premise: ten people rob a van and try and keep the money for two weeks. If that sounds like Hunted, it’s probably because it’s by the same people as Hunted.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

9 thoughts on “Show Discussion: The Heist

  1. Greg

    I’ve been binge watching this and don’t really know how I feel about it. I’ll try to keep my comments vague as to not spoil anything. I am many series into Hunted and I’m still watching, even though I feel it is extremely scripted and more like a drama than a gameshow and have come to the same conclusion with this.

    Like Hunted, some of the tactics used by the investigators I find a bit fishy. Bugging suspects without any real evidence to link them to the crime, is just 1 example. Surely when investigators turn up to quiz a suspect and a camera crew is there already filming them, that must be a clue they are on the right lines.

    The teams always just happen to be listening to the radio station that is talking about The Heist, when the chief investigator is on for example. I also find it odd some of the teams were allowed to spend their money before winning or being convicted, on material possessions. However one team who chose to use the money in a slightly different way had it seized almost as soon as it left their hands as stolen money. Was that producer interference? If this show is genuine, i hope that no business was left out of pocket as a result of goods being paid for with stolen money, that was then seized.

    Also like Hunted, you don’t really see much of certain teams in certain episodes. This often is a big clue as to the outcome of that episode due to the teams being focused on.

    I commend the show for trying to do something ambitious and different. However it’s quite clear it has to be scripted in a certain way for the format to be possible. This does detract a bit for me.

    I have quite a bit more to say, but do not want to spoil anything for those that have not seen the series in its entirety.

    Reply
  2. David B

    Like Greg, I find this a curious beast. In many ways it is a better-made show than Hunted, and in many ways more logical. Yet, it is 90% the same as Hunted, using many of the same plot points again here. If I were C4, I think I would be more than a bit miffed about this.

    Where this show falls down is that the rules of the game are really not what would happen in real life, and – without spoiling, hopefully – they actually admit as much in the last episode.

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  3. TVs Michael Harmstone

    I’m a well-known Hunted fanboy and this show is…odd. I can see the similar strands, but honestly the mix of detectives makes them a little unlikeable for my tastes, especially when you compare them to Hunted with their mix of *ridiculous* personalities. There’s no detective I’ve gravitated to wanting to tease on the podcast like I do with Ben “Sherlock” Owen. I’ve watched four episodes, but know the outcome and I can see how they’re setting it up, but I’m not sure it comes together as well for me as Hunted does.

    On the other hand, FotP Nick Harvey’s scoring is maybe better utilised on The Heist than Hunted – there’s one particular moment in episode 3 where the score just fell away and he used a breath noise that was impeccable. I’d be interested to see a second series and whether it evolves like Hunted did.

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  4. Tom Lancaster

    Watched. It’s low budget Hunted, even down to the end game.

    I do wish they were explicit about the rules. You can see they were doing things that just wouldn’t be sensible, so there must be rules like spending certain amounts of money, staying within a certain area and moving the cash to new hiding places multiple times. I also wonder what happened with the items purchased before contestants got caught. At some point, they mentioned “goods recovered”, but how do you recover money spent on food and holidays or donated to charity?

    Rather a lot of coincidence type scenes as well.

    The extra “making of” show is interesting too. All of the contestants had to carry iPhones, so they must make sure that those numbers aren’t given to the detectives. And I’ve always thought it must be hard for detectives to avoid seeing the contestants being covertly filmed, particularly in rural areas, or for the general public to not notice the film crews.

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    1. Anthony patchett

      Ditto. To above. To many rules to make it easy to catch them. No thief in hiding would spend a 1000 pound coins in a store days after the heist and then the next day police put on radio has any store received pound coins. But then I suppose it has to be like that otherwise they would bury the money in a field for 2 weeks. Go about there normal.jobs then hire a rental car with unmarked cash or credit card and drop the money off at rendezvous. Impossible to catch them and no tv coverage worth watching. It’s light entertainment and the winners is as much luck as any skill.

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      1. Gabe L

        Bang on. It’s Artistic License.

        There were stretched realities on both sides to give both sides a fighting chance.

        Well done overall and great entertainment.

        Reply
  5. Paul Thomas

    In the final episode two of the contestants had to get to Whitby to launder the money, they were seen by the detectives on CCTV. I live in Whitby and we do not have CCTV,and we certainly dont have any cameras showing the scenes which were aired.

    Reply

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