Disclaimer: These are personal opinions of the authors and, while they may reflect the views of the professional paranormal community, they might not. Comments are not directed at particular private persons or organizations and rather at publicly displayed television shows. In short, sue yourself for disagreement, not us. -Sean Feeney
Television shows on the paranormal make up such a small percentage of the average television line-up and out of that small percentage, very few approach their subject matter in a scientific or even downright logical way. I often find myself watching these shows simply because there's nothing else better on the particular subject. I know I may be coming off as a bit cynical here but when you're dealing with a topic that's so widely disbelieved as the paranormal its hard to approach it in any other way without coming off as well...a bit insane to your average viewer. Even being a believer in such things more often than not I find these shows a bit hard to watch and even comical at times. Although, it's quite easy to see the reasoning behind these shows of course. The aim of such shows producers isn't thought out scientific investigation, it's to garner viewers. This is where cheap scares, drama between "members of the team" and illogical theories that steer the aim of the show into fantasy more so than reality come into play. These shows focus completely on the unexplained and fantasy side of the paranormal and by keeping it unexplained it remains interesting to viewers.
Take the Travel Channel's Most Haunted for example, there's very little actual scientific investigation going on in this series for a fact most of the show bottles down to one investigator crying her eyes out in front of a camera Blair Witch style because she heard a sound and the so called physic claiming he's being possessed by ghosts and demons every five minutes. The act of the investigations themselves seems to be nothing more than that, just an act. The shows Wikipedia entry has a quite a few interesting quotes regarding the photography of Most Haunted, which adds to my hunch about the actual aim of the series.
"The photographic style of the series has changed considerably since series 1. In the first series many elaborate shots were set up with an almost 'theatrical' style, with illuminated windows and dry ice. Locations were often illuminated outside at night time, with blue and green colors. From series 1 - 3 there was extensive use of the steadicam, which provided gliding shots during Yvette's ghostly tales or for general views. In series 8 the team introduced a camera crane or 'jib' system for elaborate aerial shots of both Yvette and the locations. Most of the photography in Most Haunted focuses on 'general views' of a location and its surroundings. Most Haunted is filmed with both broadcast Sony DVcams and Sony PC120 miniDV cameras with night vision facility."
Sci-Fi channel's Ghost Hunters is the only series I can say I'm remotely happy with. For the most part they take every case as every paranormal investigator should, skeptically. Doing everything in your power to disprove a piece of evidence can often be a very hard thing to do as an investigator when your entire hope in investigating such things is to bring belief and credibility to the paranormal. What you have to see is that by disproving and dragging every piece of evidence through every test you can imagine, adds weight to it and brings it closer to fact and out of the realm of fiction. I think Ghost Hunters does this well compared to most series and that sole reason alone gives enough premise to watch it. When any evidence whatsoever is captured, I can believe it and more often than not I can agree with their methods for disproving it or proving it. All the praising aside, its not that Ghost Hunters doesn't have its fair share of theatrics as well, every once in awhile drama between members of the team comes into play. That's not much to fault the series over as a whole but, I could really care less if Brian forgot a wire and you're extremely pissed about it but, I'd rather see more of the reason I'm watching the show, the paranormal itself.
[Editor's Comment: I'm impressed at how the TAPS team learned from their mistakes early in the series and have since changed their investigative techniques. The new international team needs to learn from the same mistakes, however.]
A">[Editor's Comment: You can't blame everything on demons. Ground your investigations in hard science and keep a healthy sense of skepticism. As college students, you should know better. I'd suggest bringing some science majors on board to keep things running smoothly. Joining ARN's College Initiative could certainly help.]
Stay tuned for Brandon's coverage of the History Channel's UFO Hunters and Sci-Fi's Destination Truth.
