If ever there were TV programs that could be considered guilty pleasures for our whole family, they would be the ghost shows on the Syfy, Travel and Discovery Channels. Our two favorites are the Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International franchise which anchor SyFy.
The reality show format uses creepy camera work and is generally filmed in almost total darkness with night vision video. When the Ghost Hunters visit a locale, they’re briefed by the owners or managers of the place, then they set about debunking the ghostly activity. More often than not, they come across things they can’t explain. And thus, fun television is born. Whether it’s ghostly voices heard on tape or the ubiquitous doors that open or close on their own, there’s always something cool to watch, whether or not you believe in spooks.
We’ve gotten to know the hunter’s individual personalities. We love how Grant and Jason, the founders of TAPS — The Atlantic Paranormal Society — take a no-nonsense approach to spirits of the departed. It’s fun to watch Steve and Tango mess around with each other until they scare themselves silly. And in an unusual twist, my wife and I like to speculate on the personal goings-on of Amy and the recently departed — to another show — Kris.
We even love their newest investigator Maddie. She’s a real dog. Literally. They rescued her from a pound and trained her to sniff out ghosts. She visited Mackinac Island with them on a mid-winter investigation of Mission Point Resort, a place we’ve actually been to before. Their best piece of “evidence” was the front door of the place slamming shut all on its own. Pretty cool.
Don’t think we accept this stuff as real… all the time. Our tastes are very discerning too. We’ve dismissed as hokey, the silly Ghost Adventures guys who seem to taunt the spirits before getting completely freaked out and run away like sissies. Just as we’ve turned up our noses at the ridiculous shows where actors play the part of apparitions and fade in and out trying to illustrate a long-told tale of terror.
No, we want “cutting edge” science where electromagnetic detectors tell us that ghosts are nearby and voice recorders sometimes hear things that the normal human ear doesn’t at first.
Perhaps all of this fascination is due to our wanting hard evidence that life continues after death. This is a holy week for some major international religions, one of which celebrates a ghost coming back to life. So don’t knock our fun little diversion.
It’s also serious business as a market share report indicates visits to the show’s website are only slightly behind The Real Housewives series and well ahead of the O’Reilly Factor. I’m not saying they’ll eclipse stalwart denizens of the number one and number two cable web slots, Spongebob and Jersey Shore, but they do hold their own and are probably pulling in some good advertising dough for Syfy.
We are not alone. Particularly considering more than two million viewers watch the shows each week.
Ghost Hunters had its season finale last night. Ghost Hunters International premieres in July. Until then, I’ll have to content myself with watching Detroit Tigers games. I fully believe they have a ghost of a chance this season. And besides, one of the ghost team members is going under cover behind the plate.