'Chasing UFOs,' New National Geographic Show, Reexamines Famous Flying Saucer Sightings (VIDEO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SX43D0_i6Rs
For most people, looking for UFOs is more of a hobby than an actual occupation. Not so for Erin Ryder, James Fox and Ben McGee, members of a dynamic team starring in the new television series, "Chasing UFOs," that premieres Friday on the National Geographic Channel.
One can imagine the theme music of the old "X-Files" series playing in the heads of Ryder, Fox and McGee as they travel the country looking for the truth behind reported unexplained UFO encounters, alien abduction and military cover-ups.
The three investigators bring different points of view as they chase UFOs.
Chasing UFOs S01E02 Dirty Secrets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWT_xLyo83Q
Ryder, a thrill-seeking adventurer who costars on the Syfy Channel's "Destination Truth" series and also the "Chasing UFOs" tech supervisor and lead researcher, calls herself the "skeliever" of the group -- sort of a half-skeptic, half-believer.
"I couldn't find a word to best describe how I felt my stance was and I really am somewhere between a skeptic and a believer," she told The Huffington Post. "I've always had a fondness for the strange and unusual, and I go on the facts and base my findings from the evidence we collect and the testimonies we hear."
Fox, who is often referred to as a UFOlogist and has produced two previous UFO documentaries, "Out of the Blue" and "I Know What I Saw," is the believer here. "My goal is to create something that is entertaining, yet very informative and also dispels the myth that there's nothing more to UFOs than swamp gas, misidentified aircraft and mass hallucinations," Fox told HuffPost.
McGee, a geologist, field explorer and aerospace consultant, is the scientific skeptic of the group. "This material tends to be so toxic for scientists, so my first impulse was to run for the hills," McGee told HuffPost. "But I believe very strongly in education and science outreach, and I thought this would actually be a vehicle to help engage people in the conversation about our place in the universe and the possibility of extraterrestrial life."
Watch part of episode 1 of "Chasing UFOs," "Texas Is for Sightings."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mSx0I0UDenU
So, what can viewers expect to see over the eight-episode arc as the team talks to eyewitnesses, examines photographic evidence and even tries to find their own evidence to present?
In "Chasing UFOs," the investigators visit several states to try to make credible sense of lights spotted in the skies, in cases involving numerous eyewitnesses and photographic evidence, always mindful that most UFO reports can be explained as misidentified conventional aircraft, planets and meteorological phenomena.
One segment brings the team to Roswell, N.M., the location of the legendary, albeit alleged, UFO crash of 1947. Ryder, Fox and McGee visit that famous site with metal detectors and find an old button, shown below, that appears to be from a military uniform or jacket. This, they speculate, might confirm that someone associated with the military had traveled to the field at some point.
But does it prove that a UFO crash landed there? To be fair, no. But the investigators are on the lookout for compelling evidence that some UFOs might indeed be unexplained. Even the smallest pieces of evidence could be parts of the larger puzzle.
"Our job, in many of our programs, is to explore the unknown, and this is a way into a topic that, while it's been done before, we hope it hasn't been done in this particular way," said Michael Cascio, National Geographic Channel's executive vice president of programming.
"UFOs is a topic of endless fascination, not just for me, but for viewers. And we have an opportunity here to look at UFO cases in a format that allows you to go into detail and enjoy the ride as you go," Cascio told HuffPost.
Chasing UFOs S01E03 Alien Cowboys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYbWpABFxVQ
"We dig up as much information as we can and say to the viewer, 'Here's what we've discovered,'" Cascio added. "We also hope that [our team's] personalities come out and that viewers relate to them and find them interesting and entertaining."
Among the subjects of one of the last episodes of the first season of "Chasing UFOs" is something odd that reportedly happened in Brazil's coffee production town of Varginha in 1996 and reported by multiple civilian and military eyewitnesses.
"It's the Roswell of Brazil," said Fox. "An aerial object was spotted coming down and appeared to crash. Within 24 hours, people reported seeing two creatures in the town, which by then had been closed off by the military.
"While nobody actually called them ETs, they were described as 5-foot-tall creatures (see illustration at left) with dark-brown, oily-looking skin, split toes, red eyes and ridges on their skulls, and they were reported looking feeble or weak," Fox added.
"The hardest thing to do is to go and have an open mind and no preconceived notions that will taint the investigation," said Ryder. "To be completely objective is what we try to do and a lot of the time, I still end up in the middle somewhere."
As the scientist of the team, McGee said he's open to investigating any question anyone has and to illustrate the process of what it takes to make a scientific determination.
"We have a social responsibility to try and help people understand what it is up in the sky, even if it is a low-angle star blinking or maybe something exotic," McGee said. "I'd be no less excited if something truly strange ended up being upper atmospheric electrical phenomena we don't know about yet."
Chasing UFOs S01E04 UFO Landing Zone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvXj7WkKIKM
Paranormal TV shows. They’ve been around for years, entertaining audiences with stories and videos from all parts of the unknown. But the show that really took this genre of TV show to the next level of popularity was “Ghost Hunters” on the Syfy network. Whether you hate it or love it, you can’t deny the impact it had on paranormal TV. Ever since then, many networks have tried to come up with their own paranormal show in hopes they can recreate the boom “Ghost Hunters” had. Travel Channel has the very popular “Ghost Hunters” staring Zak Bagan’s and his two friends where they hunt ghosts by themselves without any camera crew with them. The show even today is STILL popular (I even watch it). But as the years went on, these kind of shows have become progressively worse. Now, TV’s newest paranormal show hoping to rake in the ratings is non-other than National Geographic’s “Chasing UFOs”. A show were three people go around the US trying to capture evidence of UFOs ranging from interviewing key witnesses or even hunting the UFOs out at night. The best way to describe the show is it’s a mix of “Ghost Hunters”, “Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files”, and even a bit of “Destination Truth”. The only problem, it fails in EVERY way possible to the point where you’ll either be laughing your ass off or face palming the entire time. So, let’s get on with the review! NOTE: I watched the first 2 episodes of the series, so my opinion is based off of what I could bear saw.
National Geographic Chasing UFOs S01 E05 Abducted In Arizona
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wi-7lQXAgq8
1) The episode structure. OK, so what is a typical episode like? Well, each episode follows or team of investigators.
Ryder, the only female of the group who is a tech and recon expert. She is what she calls a “Skeliever” a mix of a skeptic and a believer.
Ben, who is the physical scientist of the group. He is the skeptic of the group.
James, who is the UFO expert of the group, or “ufologist”. He is the believer.
So those are our three members. Now, let’s talk about how the episode usually plays out. It usually starts with the three looking at some video evidence from a local area (i.e. a small town in Texas) and then interviewing witnesses, then doing a night time hunt (which doesn’t make sense to me), then they do more day time research and then back to night time hunts and then the episode ends with each of the member’s thoughts on the whole case.
OK, so let me critique. The problem with the show is that once you find out the show has a pattern for each episode, it becomes REALLY boring to watch. Now granted all shows of this nature have a pattern, but those at least shake things up every episode. The two episodes I watched were almost IDENTICAL to each other in terms of when they captured their own evidence and so forth. It’s also worth noting that you can tell the three of them are acting. From the obviously forced jokes between each other to the way they react to witness testimony. Out of all of them, James has to be my favorite. Not because he says things that make sense, but because of how he treats the others. He loves to very subtly make fun of the other two and doesn’t seems like he really wants to be there. Also, Ryder while she seems like she’s suppose to be a smart/tough/sexy woman says some really dumb that don’t seem like she’s really the one saying it. For instance, in the first episode, they are all looking into the crash of a UFO back in 1891 in Texas. Ryder suggests that they go to the crash sight and look for debris from the crash. Wait, the crash happened in 1891, how would there be PHYSICAL EVIDENCE over 100 years later?! It would be impossible. It’s hilarious to watch because of unprofessional it all is and it’s surprising that National Geographic airs this kind of stuff on their channel now in place of the old educational stuff about the world and it’s history. But in this day and age, it’s not about content, it’s all about ratings, and this doesn’t seem to have the potential to be a ratings grabber.
2) Behind the scenes stuff. OK, so in the second half of this review, I’d like to talk about the behind the scenes stuff about the show such as the music and the editing. Music wise, it’s OK. The main theme is completely forgettable to be honest. I can’t even remember it right now and I literally JUST got done watching the show. But who cares about that, what about the music throughout the show. It tries to be suspenseful and keep you excited, but it fails. Forgettable in my opinion, but when your listening to it its OK. The editing is pretty standard, nothing bad nothing good. They do use sound effects and it’s apparent they are sound effects and it’s a pretty cheap ploy to get suspense up. Overall score of the behind the scenes stuff: 5/10
So what are my overall thoughts. I think the show is VERY bad. The three people are bad at what they do almost to the point of being annoying, the pattern of the show is VERY predictable and never shakes things up to where it feels like it’s at least semi-new, and just the overall unprofessional attitude from the whole crew just make for a bad TV show that probably won’t last long. It tries to be like “UFO Hunters” but with a twist, and since in my opinion “UFO Hunters” was already a great show, this show is a flop. Overall score: 2/10 I say watch the first episode if you want to laugh, but after that you’ll just be slumped in your seat asking, “When is this over?” To me, this show is WORSE than Fact or Faked, and I think you all know how I feel about that show.
So that’s my “review” of “Chasing UFOs”. I hope you enjoyed it!
Un second code caché dans l’ADN ! MAGONIE
