"In Dog We Trust" (Dog The Bounty Hunter)

Member Name: eyedo6789

Product:	Dog The Bounty Hunter
Date:	10/03/09 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Action Packed, Educational, Fast Moving, Cool.

Disadvantages: Has A Repetitive Feel To It After Watching Many, Many Episodes

Dog The Bounty Hunter is a reality television programme shown on Bravo television in the UK and syndicated world wide.

Duane "Dog" Chapman is an American Citizen currently residing in Hawaii that has been convicted 18 times for armed robbery and has one conviction for first degree murder. The latter of which he maintains was a wrongfully charged conviction. I am not sure of his stance on the armed robbery convictions.

At some stage in his life he found God, and in Jesus Christ his Lord he puts his faith. Having found God (which coincidentally is Dog spelt backwards) he set out on a path to turn his life around and as part of this process he decided to use his knowledge of the criminal world and went from "Poacher" to "Gamekeeper"

He used to cook eggs and now he looks after pheasants and wilder beast I hear some of you thinking. No not at all. When he was a "Poacher" he was the bad guy doing bad stuff, but now he is a "Gamekeeper", a Bounty Hunter, a protector of the peace, a force for good against evil, and most of all a man who is the star of a multi million dollar internationally syndicated television series.

What does a Bounty Hunter do and is there any coconut involved?

In the US courts system if and when the accused is granted bail the bail is set by the judge at an amount of money which is determined according to the seriousness of the alleged crime, the financial means of the accused and the perceived likelihood of the accused not re-appearing in court for the trial. The accused has to pay the whole amount or they will not be granted bail and will go straight to the slammer on remand until the date of the trial.

Bounty Hunters are an integral part of The Bail Bondsmen/women system. "Dog" has both roles. The Bail bonds company offers a service to the accused whereby the accused for a % of the total bond value (e.g. 10%) makes bail with The Bail bonds Company paying the remaining 90% to the court. Many defendants use Bail bonds simply because they can not afford the whole of the bond fee or, me being cynical, because they are planning on doing a runner and not showing up in court.

If the accused shows up at court as scheduled the Bail bonds company has made an easy 10% profit from the accused, However, when the accused doesn't show up "Dog's" 90% is then at risk of being permanently kept by the court.

The programme is all about these situations where the accused (who has used this 10% service) fails to show at court. When this happens, first Dog gets religious and prays with his family that the accused is rounded up quickly and that he, his family and the accused all stay safe in the process.

Then when, as is often the case, he has trouble tracking down the fugitive Dog gets angry. Then when he eventually captures the accused Dog gets all religious again. He does this by first giving the accused a cigarette, then some water, then by telling him or her that he himself used to be like them, then by giving him or her a mini religious sermon in the back of his 4 by 4 chase and capture vehicle.

All of the action including the pre chase office briefing about the fugitive, the gathering of intelligence, the chase itself, the capture and the transportation of the fugitive back to jail or a local cop shop is covered in a "fly on the wall" documentary style of filming.

The show and the Bounty Hunting is nearly always in Hawaii so there is a coconut connection of sorts! Occasionally Dog and some of his team fly over to the mile high city of Denver, Colorado (where he grew up) to do some Bounty Hunting for associates of his. A sort of "Busman's Holiday" if you will.

There are some episodes and parts of episodes that focus purely on Chapman family themes such as weddings, relationships, children and family tragedies. Sometimes other members of the family make guest appearances on the show as do celebrities.

Dog is the undoubted star but also heavily featured, and bounty hunters themselves, are Beth, his wife, his sons Leland and Duane, his nephew Justin, his daughter Lyssa and Tim Chapman who he calls his brother but isn't his blood brother despite having the same surname.

Controversy:

In 2006 Dog and two of his crew were arrested by FBI agents and threatened with extradition to Mexico relating to charges by the Mexican authorities that the Bounty Hunting capture in 2003 of notorious rapist Andrew Luster was technically kidnap under Mexican law.

Dog has vigorously fought and refuted these charges and after years of fighting the charges and with a lot of support from the American public, media and politicians it now looks as if the charges will finally be withdrawn and dropped. He was never extradited to Mexico.

After court appearances associated with this on going legal battle Dog on exiting the court house was greeted by dozens of members of the public chanting support for him and some of them holding up placards saying "In Dog We Trust"!


Theme music: Heavy Metal singer Ozzie Osbourne sings the theme tune which is rather good.

Recommendation: This is a very, very well made programme, far superior to other similar programmes on the same topic.

Summary: One Of The Best Reality Programmes Of The Last Ten Years