Finding Bigfoot

They go into an area. They interview witnesses. In many cases they have a little town meeting. Now they triangulate their favorite interviews and try to pick a spot in the middle. So far they have heard tree knocks, howls, walking, whistling and talking. The last two things were very recently mentioned, and instead of being evidence of people in the woods, were presented as evidence of Bigfoots too! There is no anti evidence! Everything is proof! There's a dissenter, they give her 15 seconds to say she doesn't agree, and then show at length the other three dismissing her viewpoint. You just know if the show continues another season, they'll insert Matt saying "Not her again, look.." right after she questions something.

They have personal cameras on their faces. They have hand held heat signature cameras. They have at least two camera people filming them. This stuff is par for the course in TV ghost hunting. But there's a big difference between hunting animals and ghosts. In ghosts, there's a specific area usually no bigger than a warehouse where there's lots of activity. In looking for animals, the animal might wander miles, upon miles and try to avoid humans. This is why most shows pick an area and lay Camera traps. But this show isn't really about finding anything. It's about making four people the Beatles of Bigfoot hunting.

They sort of act like forests everywhere are teeming with Bigfoots. Unlike shows like Ghost hunters where they occasionally tell people they didn't find anything, you get the feeling these guys could go into Central Park NYC and come away convinced they found some.

Also, that town meeting they have would alert fakers from miles around it's time to start some faking! They're not exactly stealthily blowing into town, are they?

Another comparison to Ghost Hunters is you'll have the two lead investigators almost always temper any beliefs with "it's believed that", or "it's theorized" On this show it's "We know" or It's been proved" and very often even "I discovered" or "I was the first...".

What they have proved is that Ego maniacs do indeed wander the forests of North America!

It is great TV! A modern day Ahab shows up with his crew and looks for the great White Bigfoot. Yelling and screaming, and declaring himself master of all.

This show is ridiculously bad. The absurd claim of "facts" that Matt Moneymaker and Bobo make are inane to say the least. Matt Moneymaker is especially annoying. Everything is a "Squash" to him. No matter how absurd the claim, how fake the so-called evidence (usually a sound miles away in the woods, a muddy shoe print, a broken twig, a far away and blurry photo or out of focus video), he utters his annoying phrase "There's a squash in these woods." Sadly, both him and Bobo claim they have been looking for Big Foot for the last 25 years. Yet, with never finding Big Foot, no evidence of Big Foot, no photos, no videos... Matt claims to be an "expert." He takes the credit for coming up with "wood knocking" because he claims Big Foot's go around wood knocking. He also takes credit for Big Foot Calls, because, you guessed it, he claims Big Foot's go around screeching in the woods. Even when videos are clearly people or hikers, he claims they are a Big Foot. And Matt and Bobo verbalize about how Big Foot try to drown deer, how they wrap their bodies in moss to sleep, and the reason no bones have ever been found is because Big Foot's "hide" the bodies. Matt and Bobo are so stupid they are an insult to stupid people.

I watch this show all the time, although I know the outcome is going to be like the dozens of Loch Ness Monster specials that have been done: Nothing will be found. At this point I watch not expecting them to find anything, but rather to see and hear the asinine things that will be said and done.

I find it comical that certain cast members are certain that they "know" many things about sasquatches, although they have never observed or verified any of them. Arrogant, self-assured Matt "knows" what sasquatches eat, how they track and kill game, that they're nocturnal, and that they use howls and knocks to communicate. On one show, he proudly announces that he was the one who "discovered" that they communicate with wood knocks - never mind that the creatures may not even exist. The fact that he attended law school in Ohio and chose his school in large part because of its proximity to alleged bigfoot sightings tells you where his focus is. Matt has been accused of using a reverse scientific method - taking his desired conclusion (that bigfoots exist), then cherry-picking evidence, no matter how thin, vague or inconclusive, to fit his desired outcome. Matt considers himself to be one of the foremost experts on these creatures, yet to call what he does "science" would be a considerable stretch.

Then there is hopeless, gullible Cliff. A one-time schoolteacher in California who quit his job and spent almost every night for the next year living in his car and searching for sasquatches, which he never found. I know that this will come as a shock, but he is divorced. Cliff frequently chimes in about bigfoot habits, which he knows even less about than Matt (who has allegedly at least seen a bigfoot). Then there is the inane chatter. Cliff, about a particular search area: "There are a lot of bears around here. There are some, but not many." I'm surprised that the editors didn't catch that he completely contradicted himself in two sentences. While talking about finding sasquatches, Cliff also injected the gem, "Water is the key." You can't get knowledge like this on just any program. When the team went to South Dakota, Cliff ran across a bison in the wild during a night investigation. He gushed for probably five minutes about how rare it is to see a bison in the wild. The next scene, an aerial view, showed probably 40-50 bison grazing on a hill. In one episode Cliff plays his guitar in the woods, which supposedly attracts any sasquatches looking for a concert or a dance hall.

Ranae, the trained scientist of the bunch, is the daughter of a professional daredevil (you can't make this up). She is the only non-Californian of the bunch, and the resident skeptic. While Cliff is ready to believe anybody, Ranae believes nobody. She comes up with implausible explanations for what people have allegedly seen - which the guys ridicule, because they have already decided that the people saw a sasquatch.

Bobo is the only member of the group who doesn't have apparent delusions about being a serious scientist. He is just out there for the fun of it. He is the only one of the bunch I would go out on an expedition with. He lost a bit of credibility with the statement that sasquatches speak Native American languages - which, if you smoked enough peyote, I'm sure you would hear them doing. Setting off fireworks in the woods was one of Bobo's brainchildren for attracting sasquatches. I'm sure animals came from all around to investigate the explosions and flashing lights. Right.

Whenever the team seems on the verge of finding anything, something invariably goes wrong - like four cameras in a remote watch location all failing at the same time (highly suspicious) or the DNA in supposed bigfoot hair being too degraded to identify what kind of animal it came from.

I am totally convinced that the crew is operating under false pretenses, and that they will never encounter a bigfoot (if they exist) doing what they are doing. Matt in particular is convinced that the creatures are nocturnal, yet a very large portion of alleged sightings have taken place in broad daylight. The crew also makes a great deal of noise in the woods, believing that they are stimulating curiosity in these creatures. If I wanted to drive away every animal within a five-mile radius, I would do exactly what they do: Go into the woods, yell and bang on trees. They don't seem to know even the most rudimentary things about animal behavior.

The shows have taken on an air of considerable predictability, which they will have to fix if the series is renewed. They follow a set pattern, with only a change in location each week.

To their credit, the cast has done a cute commercial for Wendy's in which they encounter a sasquatch coming out of the restaurant carrying a bag, and all they can talk about is the sandwich he is carrying.

This is hands down one of the worst shows I've seen on animal planet (and that's saying a lot). However this proves to be so entertaining that the "quality" of the show has no real importance.

The 4 squatch hunters seem to be borderline retarded and are willing to accept their hilariously lackluster findings (broken branches, vague knocking sounds etc) as "proof" of the existence of "Bigfoot's". Yet despite this infuriating lack of scientific method, they happen to provide some of the most entertaining T.V around. There are few things more fun than laughing at there ineptitude, especially if some kind of drinking game is involved.

Overall it is both an abomination of a T.V show and one of the greatest comedies of the 21st century.

Listen everyone, these creatures are real! I am 67 and saw my first Bigfoot standing by bridge in NJ. Never have they been aggressive, however I am being harassed every night as one of them keeps trying to get into my windows! It's very scary for me and I am now moving to a retirement home. I first saw them at the new house the day after I moved there! There is a family and they all travel together. Even during the day they lay behind the bushes and watch me??! The third day in the new house I was faced down by one of them, Lady dog and I went out back, I looked up and there he was standing by the big tree!?? I was in shock and could not move! There we were staring at each other not moving an inch!! Mean was what I was getting ... this is not a friendly visit! Lady and I want right back inside. Day and night they are out there ...I had a beautiful Dog that they made sick and I had to put her to sleep. She would just lay in the closet all day and night by herself? These are creatures - not just animals- I see lights around them sometimes, Red Eyes that light up ... not just shine from other light source! These creatures work as a Military Unit to keep watch vigils ect! I can't stay there anymore, been in a Hotel for two weeks now and moving next week I hope to my new safe place.