Ghost Hunters 2.5: "24 Aug 2005"

Case #1: Bradley Playhouse
Case #2: Harris Firehouse

I’m now operating on the belief that the season is building towards something big, because otherwise, this has been a rather disappointing season thus far. There’s way too much emphasis on Brian and the “drama” behind the scenes (a rather common complaint, it seems), and the cases aren’t producing nearly as much intriguing evidence as in the first season (which was shorter).

The focus this time seemed to be on a case where Brian’s personal issues annoyed the entire team and cast a negative energy over everything they did, and a second case where his absence allowed Steve and Dustin to step up and do things right. OK, I understand that reasoning, but it didn’t have to be the dominant “story”.

On the other hand, this is part of the give-and-take of such a series. TAPS has a fairly substantial caseload, but SFC only gets to film a certain percentage of cases. If I understand the situation correctly, the cases that make it on “Ghost Hunters” are either cases lined up by SFC or cases where the proper clearances were given by the owners/civilians on site. It’s incredibly hit or miss, and of the many locations where SFC does film, the cases that actually make it to the series are probably chosen after the fact.

This gets back to what I was saying before. There’s very little indication of when the cases were actually filmed, though a general timeline is evident. Even so, I can easily imagine a situation where the cases are shuffled to allow the scientific debunking to be established firmly in the audience’s mind, before something truly unusual occurs. It may just be wishful thinking, but that’s all I’ve got.

So, onto the first case:

Ho, hum…EMF, vague feelings, whatever. Though I have to say, I’m getting tired of hearing the entire team butcher the actual meaning of EMF. Perhaps Paula can educate them a little on the topic, since she’s clearly the smartest person on the team when it comes to the science. And not only is she scientifically oriented, but she’s so very hot. When a woman looks that good in both normal and night vision…well, it’s rare!

And the second case:

A little more here, but not much. It was mostly all about the lack of Brian-ness and…more EMF readings. The bit with the surround sound system was interesting, but mostly as a technical exercise. This case really demonstrated the fine line between deeming a situation “paranormal” and going to great lengths to find “real world” explanations. Science points to the frequency issue, which is indeed true. Outside sources can send the right signal to activate remote devices.

However, it doesn’t take much to recognize that millions of people live in cities and manage to use remote devices utilizing radio and IR frequencies all the time without interfering with one another. Certainly I have a lot of electronics in my house, and I live in a very busy area (and a block away from a police station). How likely is it that the frequency explanation explains this? (And for that matter, an IR thermometer would not work to switch on a stereo like that. Some claim that it would, in their zeal to criticize TAPS.)

But here’s the thing. Jason and Grant clearly don’t believe that the place is haunted. But they also know that the firefighters want to believe it. Are they going to come right out and say it’s not haunted, or are they going to try to manage the situation and leave the clients happy? It’s not brain science to recognize that they would say what they need to say to smooth things over.

Chill Factor: 4/10