I pretty much skip most fortean TV shows (unless someone I know is on) because they are made for the vast majority that enjoy it as fun in the evening or on the weekend, but not for people like us that are more knowledgeable. That is OK with me, TV is entertainment after all. However, I will never forgive SyFy for that stupid name change.
This show should be on Comedy Central. The faked "conference" at the beginning, the "journalist" from another SyFy show,the "seasoned" FBI guy who looks like Ferris Buehler..following the game show of Ghost Hunters International..it marks a new level of surrealism in the already surrealistic world of dumb ass reality shows.
I was up late and bored last night so I was looking through paranormal documentaries to amuse myself. There was the Ghost Hunters International, which I watched about 15 minutes of before I started hitting my head on the coffee table in an attempt to erase everything I'd just seen.
Next up was Fact or Faked S01E01.
I had never heard of this show before but since I was already watching train-wrecks, I figured "What the Hell".
Aside from the cheesy obligatory setups where the group meets before cases (something that seems to be in all paranormal "investigation" shows), I was fairly impressed with it as compared to other shows of this genre. It took some of the *overly* dramatic cheese out of fortean television.
There were certainly things that bothered me about the show. For instance, they ran some experiments that seemed more for entertainment than for actually narrowing down explanations - especially the car launch over a chain-link fence.
Also, while they were trying to give the appearance of a more skeptical team of investigators than is usual in paranormal shows, they were kind of pushing it. I felt like they were trying very hard to come off as hardcore skeptics and debunkers for the sake of coming off as non-hokey. Yet, overall, I found this show to be more enjoyable (to me) than any of the other shows that have come along in the last decade. It wasn't great but next to Ghost Hunters and Paranromal State, it was looking pretty good.
That said, I think all of these shows are a sham to some degree and most are so bad that even for the sake of shits and giggles I cannot force myself through most of them.
I have not seen episode 2 of Fact or Faked, which is the episode this article is mentioning, so I don't really have any opinions on that one specifically.
I would prefer these types of shows to drop the theatrics which is probably due to the dabbling fingers of producers and post production teams. Just tell me the case, perform the experiments, and then present what your experiments came up with.
The end.
And for the love of Christ, stop the infrared unless here's something to show for it.
I like what Bruce said about Comedy Central, however, I think that all of these shows should probably be on Comedy Central, because they all have the curse of high-sillyness.
4 comments:
Remember SyFy used to be SciFi? The Fi in SciFi stood for Fiction, and that's the basis of this show as well as the Ghost Hunters shows.
I believe UFOs and paranormal phenomena exist, but when it comes to shows on SyFy we should apply a healthy dose of skepticism.
I pretty much skip most fortean TV shows (unless someone I know is on) because they are made for the vast majority that enjoy it as fun in the evening or on the weekend, but not for people like us that are more knowledgeable. That is OK with me, TV is entertainment after all. However, I will never forgive SyFy for that stupid name change.
This show should be on Comedy Central. The faked "conference" at the beginning, the "journalist" from another SyFy show,the "seasoned" FBI guy who looks like Ferris Buehler..following the game show of Ghost Hunters International..it marks a new level of surrealism in the already surrealistic world of dumb ass reality shows.
I was up late and bored last night so I was looking through paranormal documentaries to amuse myself. There was the Ghost Hunters International, which I watched about 15 minutes of before I started hitting my head on the coffee table in an attempt to erase everything I'd just seen.
Next up was Fact or Faked S01E01.
I had never heard of this show before but since I was already watching train-wrecks, I figured "What the Hell".
Aside from the cheesy obligatory setups where the group meets before cases (something that seems to be in all paranormal "investigation" shows), I was fairly impressed with it as compared to other shows of this genre. It took some of the *overly* dramatic cheese out of fortean television.
There were certainly things that bothered me about the show. For instance, they ran some experiments that seemed more for entertainment than for actually narrowing down explanations - especially the car launch over a chain-link fence.
Also, while they were trying to give the appearance of a more skeptical team of investigators than is usual in paranormal shows, they were kind of pushing it. I felt like they were trying very hard to come off as hardcore skeptics and debunkers for the sake of coming off as non-hokey. Yet, overall, I found this show to be more enjoyable (to me) than any of the other shows that have come along in the last decade. It wasn't great but next to Ghost Hunters and Paranromal State, it was looking pretty good.
That said, I think all of these shows are a sham to some degree and most are so bad that even for the sake of shits and giggles I cannot force myself through most of them.
I have not seen episode 2 of Fact or Faked, which is the episode this article is mentioning, so I don't really have any opinions on that one specifically.
I would prefer these types of shows to drop the theatrics which is probably due to the dabbling fingers of producers and post production teams. Just tell me the case, perform the experiments, and then present what your experiments came up with.
The end.
And for the love of Christ, stop the infrared unless here's something to show for it.
I like what Bruce said about Comedy Central, however, I think that all of these shows should probably be on Comedy Central, because they all have the curse of high-sillyness.
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