At Least 'The Hunting Party' Answers the Question We Had About Melissa Roxburgh

Melissa Roxburgh is only familiar to me because of four agonizing seasons of Manifest, which really should have been a red flag about the dire state of America. People really like stupid things, and if you sprinkle in a dash of religion or conspiracy, it’s practically irresistible.

Roxburgh is also the lead in the new procedural The Hunting Party, which is the only reason I bothered to watch. Her acting in Manifest was flat and affectless, so I needed to know: was that a deliberate choice, or just the way Roxburgh acts? I can now confirm that either Roxburgh is a profoundly mediocre actress, or she has made the conscious decision to play every role as though she’s listlessly reading from cue cards. Honestly, it’s possible she’s an energy vampire, and NBC has once again given her the platform to siphon the life force from a mass audience by boring them to death. She does, however, still have those glorious eyebrows, which might be where she stores all the energy she drains from the people around her.

In The Hunting Party, Roxburgh plays FBI Agent Rebecca Henderson, an expert profiler brought in to track down a serial killer who was supposedly executed by lethal injection years ago. Why is she hunting a dead man? Well, there’s your premise: the serial killer, Richard Harris, was never actually executed. The execution was faked, and he was transferred to a top-secret, high-tech prison for the worst of the worst called The Pit (not to be confused with The Pitt). But wouldn’t you know it, a massive explosion destroyed the prison, and Harris, along with a number of other Very Bad Criminals™, escaped.

Now, Agent Henderson and a supporting cast of wooden actors, including La Brea’s Josh McKenzie (dear god why!?) must track down a new fugitive each week. Presumably, we’ll also get piecemeal revelations about the prison, why it exists, and who orchestrated the explosion. But if you’re expecting actual answers, I wouldn’t expect the series to survive long enough to provide them. Despite a potential ratings boost from airing after an NFL playoff game, it’s hard to imagine anyone sticking around for a show as painfully tedious and uninspired as The Hunting Party. Then again, Manifest somehow dragged itself through four seasons, and The Blacklist clawed its way to ten. Still, The Hunting Party lacks a James Spader-sized anchor. Instead, it has Melissa Roxburgh, the Megan Boone of Jaimie Alexanders, and a premise that manages to be simultaneously baffling and mind-numbingly trite.

Later this year, a series called The Hunting Wives will debut on Starz. It’s reportedly Desperate Housewives in Texas with extra murder, and it stars Malin Akerman, Brittany Snow, Dermot Mulroney, Chrissy Metz, and Katie Lowes. This is not that show. When the time comes, please do not confuse the two. One of them might actually be fun.