Bex and Oliver’s chemistry on The Hunting Party has fans divided — but is there a chance they could rekindle their romance?
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Melissa Roxburgh acknowledged that support for Bex and Oliver’s relationship is considered somewhat of an “unpopular opinion,” quipping, “He killed someone. He did a bad thing. [But] there’s so many killers on the show. So it’s OK. It’s fine. It was one little murder.”
Regardless of Bex and Oliver’s complicated history, Roxburgh, 32, was thrilled to work with costar Nick Wechsler.
“I had actually known Nick in passing before The Hunting Party] and then he nailed the audition,” she recalled. “So going into filming with him, it was nice to have a little bit of history already — even though I didn’t know him too well.”
Roxburgh admitted she had her own opinions on the onscreen dynamics, adding, “As far as the characters go, I am always cheering for the history and the relationships where it’s like they’ve been through so much together.”
She continued: “On the other hand though there is Shane [Josh McKenzie]. If they do build this love story and love triangle, Shane is safe and he’s very calm and cool waters. We have the bad boy who murdered someone and he had a reason. We have the person who didn’t murder someone. We’ll see.”
The Hunting Party, which premiered earlier this month, is a crime procedural about investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers in the country. The twist? The criminals escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist.
Roxburgh is playing Bex, an ex-FBI agent recruited to the task force due to her reputation as a profiler who caught the world’s most dangerous serial killers. She must work with the warden of the prison, who turns out to be her former partner and ex-boyfriend Oliver. Their last mission took a turn when Oliver murdered the criminal they were chasing down and Bex can’t figure out whether she trusts Oliver now.
NBC’s newest procedural relies on unexpected twists — and Roxburgh hasn’t always been in the know.
“I kind of go back and forth. There are some days where I’m so overwhelmed by what’s currently happening in the scripts and making sure that I have my lines down or trying to understand it,” she explained. “Then there are some easier days where I’m like, ‘I’m going to go be nosy to the showrunner now because I want to find out what happens.’ As the series went on with the mystery, I did start to get a little more curious.”
The Hunting Party airs on NBC Mondays at 10 p.m. ET and new episodes are available to stream on Peacock the next day.
