Caçadores de Alienígenas

Wow. Most pathetic UFO show I have ever seen.

I have a big interest in UFOs, but even I can't stand to watch this reality-type UFO show. What they do is get three people together, one who believes in UFOs, one who doesn't, and then one person who is in the middle. It shows them periodically interviewing them, hence the reality TV show style. But just like many reality shows, it comes across as very fake and unauthentic.

They try to add suspense by pretending that they see something, but it is so terribly fake. I'm totally convinced these are actors, and they aren't even trying to "chase UFOs".

They should also present more evidence.

These shows are all the same formula:

1) A sad sack scientist who paid attention in school and earned an advanced degree in some unrelated field surrounded by a group of infinitely credulous actors who are frightened of their own shadows and attribute the most banal things to aliens or ghosts or whatever.

2) Investigations that only take place at night because the aliens or ghosts or whatever apparently have day jobs.

3) An exotic location that has been visited by a jillion paranormal investigators in previous series.

4) They interview several sorry individuals suffering from paranoid delusions who should be encouraged to seek the services of a mental health professional.

5) The actors act scared of every noise and attribute every flicker of light in sky or glimpse of something moving in the woods as definitive proof of ghosts. The other films crews working in the same area use that same evidence as proof of Bigfoot and aliens and time travelers and ancient aliens plus whatever else they can make into an episode.

6) Though the area has been the subject of intense scrutiny by other investigators for decades, this investigation lasts a couple of days because that's all the budget they have.

7) They find nothing, which they take as proof positive of the aliens or ghosts or whatever they were looking after.

8) The scientist, ridiculed and ignored the entire episode, is coerced into a voice over the closing credits to the effect that it is still a mystery.

9) Filming stops and everyone high fives one another and toasts the gullible dupes that comprise their audience.

Five stars for having the stereotypical infinitely credulous cast member, the one convinced a Big Mac is proof of ancient alien Bigfoot ghost time travelers, as a male instead of the more typical female actor. Five more stars for the laughs. Minus five stars for going to Roswell. Roswell?! Five stars.

The top of the heap, as UFO investigation on TV goes, was "Sightings" (on Fox then SciFi) which, in its weekly newsmagazine format, did its level best to be journalistic, and to report on new cases (or at least those we might not have heard of). And Then...despite being a solid hit on both networks, it was GONE. Almost as though it was making Someone nervous. So what's come along since then to fill the void? The History Channel had the excellent "UFO Files," which did not avoid controversy...it pointed fingers and named names, and managed to be shocking at times. And Then...it was GONE. Then History's "UFO Hunters" in which our intrepid 'investigators' never managed to look into anything more recent than the '70s; History's ongoing "Ancient Aliens" which, while intriguing, leaves you wanting to throttle those silly-haired geeks over such blockheaded assertions as that there was NO indigenous science in ancient Egypt, ONLY alien science. Sheesh. And now there's THIS, which could be mistaken for an unsold 3 Stooges pilot. THIS intrepid troupe shows up at sites where someone saw something 10 or 20 years ago...they come back at night with their expensive night-vision gear, huffing and puffing, assuming that if someone saw something once upon a time, then they'll see it too (one of them is James Fox, a once-respected ufologist with a couple of solid docs on his resume, who obviously always wanted to be an action hero). What those entries from "UFO Hunters" forward have in common is that they're all new-age Cold Case Files, seeking out the over-reported and the unsolvable, and they are ALL wastes of time. There are Some who'd have you believe that this is because there haven't been any new sightings in years'n'years. BUSHWAH!! There's a terrific website which will convince you otherwise. In the meantime, I'd rather have NO UFO programming on the air than this fol-de-rol. Someone...PLEASE...Bring Back "Sightings"!!!!

I love the National Geographic magazine. In the world where quality matters less and less, it's still surprisingly professional and inspiring.

However, seeing shows like this on their TV channel makes me think that one day - sooner rather than later - it too will join the cheap entertainment(?) media. How such an idiotic production ended up on National Geographic channel is beyond me. It seems to go against all the values that I thought the National Geographic society had. But I rarely watch TV and mostly read the magazine, so maybe this show isn't an exception. Maybe it's a direction in which the channel is headed. In that case, I have nothing more to say.

Every episode shows the team of paranoid chasers bungling in the dark, shrieking with fear when they hear an animal or slip in the mud, carrying expensive equipment and filming close-ups of their green faces with the night vision camera, and they never gather any credible evidence. All the fright seems to come from their close calls climbing fences and hills and almost falling down. They curse (beeped out) and say things like, "There's definitely more than meets the eye here!" But no credible evidence. It would be more interesting if they were arrested for trespassing occasionally or if they were chased by a bear. There is a lot of whispering into the microphone and running in the dark with the camera bopping up and down on their face, then they rendezvous to share their horror stories and to share their suspicions. But unfortunately, no credible evidence. The best part is the interviews with the witnesses--they are the only believable and interesting part of the show.