Ghost Hunters 2.13: "19 Oct 2005"

Case #1: Crescent Hotel
Case #2: Dr. Ellis’ House

I haven’t commented at all on the ratings this season, because that information hasn’t been easy to find. Also, it’s hard to correlate data when two seasons run for different periods at different times of the year. I also didn’t want to get depressed at the effect “Lost” would have, since even I TiVo “Ghost Hunters” under these circumstances.

Well, now the genie is out of the bottle, and the ratings are available. I have to say, I’m impressed! It’s impressive to think that “Ghost Hunters” is getting ratings, at least for the “season finale”, that approach “Battlestar: Galactica” numbers. This show deserves to be a success, and by gaining viewers against “Lost”, I think it clearly has succeeded.

So we’re getting a Halloween Special at the end of the month and 9 more episodes starting in January 2006. Excellent! That’s a grand total of 23 second season episodes, which is more than the typical one-hour drama gets these days. Another sign of success! Now would be the perfect time for SFC to take a good, long look at their approach to the series.

What would I like to see? Less of the goofy effects and more of the investigation. It wouldn’t kill them to focus on one investigation per episode, or in lieu of that, cover three investigations across two episodes of time, like the first season. Less of the manufactured drama, which was ramped up this season. Oh, and the more Paula Donovan, the better!

Since this was the apparent season finale, they clearly saved the best for last. And I mean “saved”, because these investigations clearly took place earlier in the season, just after Dave joined and Steve took over the technical department. I can only imagine that the post-production process revealed that the subsequent investigations weren’t producing much, so the apparent apparition was saved until the presumed end.

First case:

Well, obviously, this is all about the apparent apparition. I know that there will be a million naysayers picking that one apart, but based on what was demonstrated and revealed, I can’t see how that’s a fake. Not only that, but the apparent apparition actually moves as if turning to look into the camera. It’s rather impressive as a whole, especially since they took quite a bit of time to debunk it and couldn’t.

Here’s the thing. This really brings the whole “real or fake” question to a head. Now, I’m sure someone is going to claim that this was digitally manipulated and the whole thing is a hoax, but as usual, I have to ask the logical question: why would they go through so much trouble and risk exposing themselves just to capture something on camera? Naysayers never consider that it’s much more work to fake something like this than it is to do it right. After all, if it were easy, it would probably look and sound a lot like the obvious fakery on “Most Haunted”, and there’s a clear difference.

Second case:

Now, this I find a bit harder to swallow. It’s not that I completely dismiss psychic phenomena; I just don’t buy what happened in the episode. The “far too specific” reading was anything but, at least on film, and that temperature gradient could have been explained by the heating system in the house itself. I do accept that Jason and Grant would have checked into that, but since it wasn’t shown (in favor of the more unusual explanation), I can’t make assumptions. Even so, it was very interesting as a starting point to a different realm of experimentation.

Despite my doubts regarding the medium, I have to say that this is probably the best episode they’ve ever had. Not only did they highlight their own attempts at debunking at all the right moments, they also managed to do something that is rarely done: they caught an apparition on film. What else is there to say?

Chill Factor: 10/10