Congratulations if the journalists and covert operatives in The Wanted ever bring some real-life terrorists to justice. That doesn’t mean we have to watch them, though, does it? Because based on its premiere, The Wanted is the corniest, most melodramatic series this side of Grey’s Anatomy.
The news/reality-TV show’s incessantly talking-head, Adam Ciralsky, described tracking Mullah Krekar, the founder of the militant group Ansar al-Islam, as “a race against the clock.” Ciralsky gathered some sincere “elite operatives,” including a Navy SEAL and a Green Beret, to “surveille” Krekar, now living in Oslo, Norway, under the safe haven of that country’s government. For the purposes of The Wanted‘s wanted drama, we spent many minutes in a steamy van stakeout, watching the watchers watch Krekar’s apartment building.
Why? Later in the hour, Krekar readily agreed to talk on camera, so there was no need for all that spy stuff other than letting us see how well The Wanted learned lessons from movies like the Bourne franchise: quick cuts, shaking cameras, zooming in and out of focus — ooh, excitement!
Not really. Nausea is more like it. Krekar spouted a lot of vile, sick-making nonsense about the nobility of killing anyone who doesn’t think Osama bin Laden is a hero. The Wanted wants Krekar taken back to Iraq, where he’d stand trial, we were told, and not be killed or tortured beforehand. Then Ciralsky took his camera crew to a bunch of Norwegian bureaucrats and badgered them about laws on the books that make it difficult to extradite scummy guys like Krekar.
Look, Krekar would seem to deserve nothing but contempt and grave punishment if half of what The Wanted accuses him of is true. It’s just that the hour was pumped up with such false suspense (that pointless surveillance), ridiculous narration (“It’s crunch-time!”), an even-more-ridiculous hard-rock-guitar soundtrack, plus the old 60 Minutes trick of putting a camera in front of one gullible bureaucrat after another and accusing him or her of impeding the justice and imperative timetable decided upon by… The Wanted.
The Wanted desires to come off all tough and noble, but it spent proportionately too much time showing us footage of Norwegians telling Ciralsky that “it took an American television team” to bring this subject to light, and “thank you very much,” and “you have done what the Norwegian government should have been doing.” The Wanted pats itself on the back very well. What does it need us, an audience, for?
Did you watch The Wanted? What did you think?
Update: Preliminary overnight ratings suggest The Wanted may soon be catching terrorists without the benefit of suitably-awed viewers: The premiere drew fewer viewers in its 10 p.m. time period than ABC’s up-chucky new reality show Dancing In The Dark and a rerun of CSI: Miami.
I liked the docu/show. Seems govenrment people dont know crap and it took two highly motivated former U.S. soldiers to once again get the job done. I was in Iraq and to hear that scum bag say the things he did about Americans made my blood boil. I know it made these two guys blood boil. Give me my M4 back I will gladly put a bullet in that terrorists scums head and put another notch on my saddle. Any takers?
I found myself “wanting” less and less the more I watched of The Wanted. They made such a big deal about the documentation from some northern Iraqi politician. This document is fairly meaning less on almost every level. The show completely lacked any sort of closure. All we got was a brief text blurb at the end of the show about how the governments are still working on it. Epically underwhelming.
Show was really terrible. I wondered about it based on all the NBC hype so I recorded the first show. Everything you wrote is exactly true, but don’t forget about the really bad stereotypes that it is undoubtedly using as a means to look cool.
This show blows, which means it will be a hit with the American public.
Just send in the navy seals again and finish the job!! That guy should not still be breathing !!!
I like the show.Real Bad guys Wanted.Real people pointing them out.Hope they get some help from the govs.
THIS SHOW ROCKS!!! i went to Iraq and what there going through was a everyday event for us. Politics and bargains is all anyone would respond to. I hope that this show lasts alot longer than American Idol!!! I will deff be watching this show every week. keep up the good work!!!
gripping tension, excellent videography and editing… more importantly, 40+ minutes of action for justice, sadly missed in this medium. Keep the path lads, and deepen the content available on-line to keep us connected; offer action vehicles for each of us to support, it takes a village.
In regards to Ken Tuckers’ article about “The Wanted”, he questions, “that doesn’t mean we have to watch them, does it?” In answer, quite simply, no. Nobody has to watch it. Turn away and watch something you like. Personally, regardless of how corny and melodramatic one may think, they are getting results doing tasks others would rather not deal with but are of utmost importance,if you have high regard for human life, which is more than most can claim to have done in their entire lives.
The show is a study in coercive editing and misleading journalism: Being an editor I spotted all the tricks in the book on how to make someone saying one thing sound like someone saying something completely different. For example, the interview with Krekar lasted over 3 hours of which the editors cherry picked soundbites put together in no concieveable order.
What bothers me the most though is how they completely misrepresented the Norwegian government: The two politicians they spoke to both belong to the same nationalist fringe party called “Progress”. Their policy is to kick all “non-norwegians” out of the country, terrorists or not. It’s striking that they didn’t speak to anyone actually in government – probably because they would provide perfectly reasonable explanations.
What a waste of time.
This show takes NBC to the all time low. I am sure Huntley and Brinkley are vomiting as they turn over in their graves. If any presentation could bring more hate based and stereotyping racist fear mongering, I don’t know what it would be. NBC should hire some adults for their programing departmrnt.
While this show might have seemed pointless to those people who are so calloused by the news nowadays, they forget the average viewer has a very high stake and interest in watching what it takes to bring these criminals to justice. It’s easy enough for you to sit behind a computer keyboard and criticize people who are actually trying to make a difference in the world. This show is “Cops” on steroids and I commend NBC and the makers of the show for making a difference instead of just sitting around talking about it.
Just awful, with the corny hat, the shades, the frowning, the Bourne Identity rip-off background music. Unbearable
Just awful. The pumped-up color, the hat, the shades, the grimacing. Unbearable
This show applies what was learned after WW2,Goverments don’t have the incentive to track down war criminals. Nazi hunters working independently were and still are, more successful. We saw last nite that terrorists are walking around in broad daylight and they can be located by fast moving teams working in the open.
I loved the show. I did not know who this guy was and I have read alot about the cole bombing. For those who don’t like it turn it off. I am sure there is big brother or something more important for you to watch. As long as your not one of his targets why should you care. right?