Encounters

As a UFO-buff, I have been excited to watch this show since the trailer came out, especially because of the Ariel School UFO incident involving 60 school-children in Zimbabwe seeing 3 real aliens communicating with them telepathically.

Instead, we are introduced to a very vague "light in the sky" incident, without any compelling evidence at all. Disappointed and sad? No, it's more than that - this is intentional, to ridicule this topic as much as possible and cover this phenomena, which is as real as the nose on your face.

There are so many good encounters out there, such as the Nimitz incident, Travis Walton abduction, Ariel School, the Pascagoula incident, Phoenix Lights, Ingo Swann Moon Penetration, Philip Corso reverse engineering testimonies, Robert Salas Nuclear Missile Station incident, the list goes on and on and on and yet, they choose a "mysterious light in the sky"-incident as the first episode??

This is clearly intended to ridicule this topic further. I give it a 7, because we need to push this topic in the open, even though it means, doing it in a ridiculous way.

This documentary explores cases of UFO sightings in different places on earth, from giant noiseless orbs of light seen by over 300 residents of Stephenville Texas in 2008 to a spaceship and big-eyed man-in-black seen by 62 students of Ariel School outside Ruwa Zimbabwe in 1994, spaceships and tall long-armed men seen by residents of Broad Haven Wales in 1977 and lights seen over the Fukushima Power Plant after the nuclear accident in 2011.

Featuring interviews of witnesses including those conducted by psychiatrist John Mack of Harvard University who risked his career and reputation when he made sure the schoolchildren of Ariel School were heard, this series also airs dissenting views about the Ariel School sightings.

The opposing stand of one student from Ariel School is like a splash of cold water over the whole incident because it makes sense. As much as I would like to believe the professed UFO sightings by the other students, I can't ignore the fact that children tend to have overactive imagination. The same argument holds for the UFO sightings of school children in Broad Haven.

The Stephenville Texas sightings are the most credible as they are backed by radar data. And I like to believe the Japanese witnesses of the lights over Fukushima Power Plant who think that the lights reduced the severity of the damage and were generated by non-humans who are watching over us and cleaning after our mess.

After seeing several reviews about how the first episode is just about a few possibly crazy people seeing lights in the sky with no evidence, I actually had to check and make sure this was the same show I watched. The "few crazy people" were actually 100s of witnesses, including prominent members of the community who risked their jobs and reputation by going on record. And after the military said there was nothing on the radar but refused to release the data, a reporter still obtained it through FOIA -- and it corroborated exactly what the witnesses described. Obviously this doesn't mean it was aliens...but it was SOMETHING, and that's compelling enough for me.

The filming and storytelling are really great as well. It definitely had me hooked, and doing some Googling later. I'm not sure where such negative reviews are coming from on here, though. Unless they were expecting the filmmakers to interview an actual alien or something...

I was really excited for this, and having watched it in its entirety, I can say I am thoroughly disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too heavy. It just didnt really seem to be about what I thought it would be about. This was somehow the most boring show about UFOs that I've ever seen. Giving it a 5 for the aesthetic appeal. Obviously there was a lot of care that went into this project, but it just fell so flat for me!!! There's nothing that saves it for me or is worth a rewatch. Very empty feeling. Maybe it's just me. I've run out of ways to explain how much this disappointed me. If you enjoy, GREAT!

When you start your documentary or documentary series about UFOs, or anything else really, with a religious fanatic, your credibility is almost immediately shot by most critically thinking individuals. One could argue that critically thinking people wouldn't watch a show like this, anyway, but that's not true. We are always looking for evidence. Expecting someone who believes in an invisible man of the sky is not the way to present it. This series doesn't really present anything else, either. If you are interested UFO phenomena, then watch it at least for that. Just don't expect anything new or evidentiary.