Chasing UFOs

this reminds me of ufo hunters. the "ufo chasers" go out and of course they hear sounds and see the stupidest excuses for UFOs. they see a white stationary light and "oh my gosh what's that?!"... scary music. commercials. show comes back on. oh, it's nothing. but you probably already knew that since it wasn't headline news before the show was even broadcasted huh? they act like they are solving the mystery for themselves and catching it on camera! yayyy!! i'm a believer in UFOs. i just think the past 10 years or so just keeps producing shows that make the whole thing look as dumb as the ghost hunter shows and all that other garbage.

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 read the reviews before watching this, and so I knew that the majority of people thought this series was rubbish, but I usually give things the benefit of the doubt, so I have watched 3-4 of the episodes now, hoping that it would get better. It hasn't!! I have just finished watching the Brazil one, and that's it for me...no more. It's one of the worst UFO series that I've ever watched! The majority of the program comprises of 3 grown adults walking through forests, or maize fields in the middle of the night, getting so spooked at any little noise, that they then run away! It's ridiculous! The witness testimonies are interesting, but even they are extremely short, with no detail, and no follow up. How on earth they get funded for this, is beyond me!

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.