Ghost Hunters 3.6: "Attack of the Irish Elemental"
Case #1: Leap Castle, Ireland
Well, here we are, the mid-season hiatus. I know a lot of fans are annoyed at the scheduling, but it’s hardly surprising, since SFC has been doing this with almost every series on its slate over the past few years. But it does make it harder for the network and production company to find a solid episode to mark the end of the fall episode run. One is left wondering if the editing in this particular episode was designed to play up the drama for that exact reason.
At this point, I think it’s clear what the third season dramatic arc will be. In the second season, the editors had a field day with Brian’s personal issues, and they tried to pull together something of a story arc around it. It was easily the worst element of the second season. This time around, I’ve noticed that they won’t stop mentioning that Dave Tango is hungry for a personal experience with the paranormal.
Here’s my problem with this. It’s one thing when they take a person’s real world troubles and play it up a little through editing and staged scenes. It’s annoying, but it’s a version of something that is relatively harmless. On the other hand, if the third season is playing up Tango’s desire for a powerful paranormal experience, it follows that he must eventually have that experience. And since paranormal activity is notoriously random and rare, if that does happen, skeptics and naysayers will have a field day claiming fakery for the sake of drama.
At any rate, this episode highlights the Irish contingent of the TAPS Family. I must say, I’m less than impressed. Granted, Barry Fitzgerald fits the mold of a traditional Irishman quite well, and I wasn’t at all surprised to learn that he takes elementals and other such folklore seriously. For the Irish (and truly, many Gaelic/Celtic peoples), lore of the faerie folk and Otherworld is taken as seriously as Catholicism.
For that reason, I wasn’t particularly surprised that Barry was “assuming the result” when stepping into Leap Castle. I was just a bit shocked that Jason, Grant, and the rest of the team fell into the step with it so quickly and completely. There were a couple times when Jason and Grant looked at Barry like he was going insane, but they all seemed to be falling into an uncharacteristic hysteria.
The Evidence
Unlike the first season, where we saw Frank getting smacked down by his own soundboard, Dustin’s experience is completely off camera. So it’s a little harder to take seriously as proof of paranormal activity. His reactions appeared to be authentic, but I can already hear the skeptics ripping into that part of the show. Similarly, all that talk about the “face with a beard and hood” took up a lot of time, but without anything on camera, it’s not particularly substantial.
The EVPs were interesting, but the only one that struck me as impressive was the wailing woman. If it was English (and I have my doubts), then I think it says, “Oh God, (two unintelligible words)”. Neat, but not exactly proof of a haunting.
I also noticed something that wasn’t mentioned at all on the show. When Dustin was describing his experience, I heard an odd mish-mash of conversation in the background. I hit the rewind on the TiVo twice to confirm it. It didn’t sound like normal background chatter, and while it could have been added in post, I’m still not convinced. I’d love to hear any thoughts on that one.
Much like the previous episode, Jason and Grant conclude that the site is haunted despite a relative dearth of data or evidence to support it. While the episode was definitely entertaining, the questionable depiction of the personal experiences made it hard to follow the logic.
Chill Factor: 8/10
Well, here we are, the mid-season hiatus. I know a lot of fans are annoyed at the scheduling, but it’s hardly surprising, since SFC has been doing this with almost every series on its slate over the past few years. But it does make it harder for the network and production company to find a solid episode to mark the end of the fall episode run. One is left wondering if the editing in this particular episode was designed to play up the drama for that exact reason.
At this point, I think it’s clear what the third season dramatic arc will be. In the second season, the editors had a field day with Brian’s personal issues, and they tried to pull together something of a story arc around it. It was easily the worst element of the second season. This time around, I’ve noticed that they won’t stop mentioning that Dave Tango is hungry for a personal experience with the paranormal.
Here’s my problem with this. It’s one thing when they take a person’s real world troubles and play it up a little through editing and staged scenes. It’s annoying, but it’s a version of something that is relatively harmless. On the other hand, if the third season is playing up Tango’s desire for a powerful paranormal experience, it follows that he must eventually have that experience. And since paranormal activity is notoriously random and rare, if that does happen, skeptics and naysayers will have a field day claiming fakery for the sake of drama.
At any rate, this episode highlights the Irish contingent of the TAPS Family. I must say, I’m less than impressed. Granted, Barry Fitzgerald fits the mold of a traditional Irishman quite well, and I wasn’t at all surprised to learn that he takes elementals and other such folklore seriously. For the Irish (and truly, many Gaelic/Celtic peoples), lore of the faerie folk and Otherworld is taken as seriously as Catholicism.
For that reason, I wasn’t particularly surprised that Barry was “assuming the result” when stepping into Leap Castle. I was just a bit shocked that Jason, Grant, and the rest of the team fell into the step with it so quickly and completely. There were a couple times when Jason and Grant looked at Barry like he was going insane, but they all seemed to be falling into an uncharacteristic hysteria.
The Evidence
Unlike the first season, where we saw Frank getting smacked down by his own soundboard, Dustin’s experience is completely off camera. So it’s a little harder to take seriously as proof of paranormal activity. His reactions appeared to be authentic, but I can already hear the skeptics ripping into that part of the show. Similarly, all that talk about the “face with a beard and hood” took up a lot of time, but without anything on camera, it’s not particularly substantial.
The EVPs were interesting, but the only one that struck me as impressive was the wailing woman. If it was English (and I have my doubts), then I think it says, “Oh God, (two unintelligible words)”. Neat, but not exactly proof of a haunting.
I also noticed something that wasn’t mentioned at all on the show. When Dustin was describing his experience, I heard an odd mish-mash of conversation in the background. I hit the rewind on the TiVo twice to confirm it. It didn’t sound like normal background chatter, and while it could have been added in post, I’m still not convinced. I’d love to hear any thoughts on that one.
Much like the previous episode, Jason and Grant conclude that the site is haunted despite a relative dearth of data or evidence to support it. While the episode was definitely entertaining, the questionable depiction of the personal experiences made it hard to follow the logic.
Chill Factor: 8/10
posted by John Keegan | 15:18
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