Paranormal State latest episode is Requiem. I had to catch it on the late run and I was about5 minutes late. There wasn’t much for evidence for this show. Basically some coincidences that happened. I have a feeling that A&E is taking this show a different direction and might just be able to pull it off.

This episode has a very happy warm feeling which in some situations is odd to feel after what you expect to be a paranormal show. I think that Ryan and his group at A&E has figured out the other portion to this equation of the paranormal show money machine. What others shows didn’t quite get, is the spectrum of corniness of the science-fi paranormal shows.

On one end of the spectrum

Intentionally Corny Paranormal Shows
A haunting

Most Haunted

Corny Paranormal Shows that Don’t Know they are Corny

Ghost Adventures

Ghost Hunters International (Not the original)

Almost any other show I’ve seen fits in here

Not Corny but Not Science<->Fiction

??Paranormal State??

Science <-> Fiction Paranormal Gap Shows

Ghost Hunters

I personally think that they have carved out something special. I think that some shows set out to be corny like Unsolved Mysteries, or if they didn’t they sure better not say they intended to be taken seriously.

Then there is the original Ghost Hunters which new episode’s air in march. They aren’t the best scientists in the world but they are pragmatic and bar far the longest running series. Long time veterans of the show know how they use to be, but they got the benefit of doing it in the earlier seasons, getting it out of the way when it wasn’t really popular to hunt ghosts.

What we are seeing today in all the other shows is a bunch of people trying to do the same type of things but failing miserably because I hate to say it “Ghost hunters did it”.

Now Paranormal State I feel differently about. They are mixing in a interesting balance of corniness, little bits of evidence (nothing worthwhile), and good karma. Every show now ends with them attempting some way if even symbolically or ritualistically to appease not only the dead but also the living. As an Investigator myself I can really identify with that, because there is nothing like saying “Sorry didn’t find anything” and leaving the client feeling like you just told them they were “a freaking moron, how could you even think that your dog was you grandma Selma coming to look over you”. In early Ghost Hunters episodes Jason use to do all the talking to the client, now he doesn’t as much and you see Grant nowadays trys and smooths things over.

No, Ryan Buell and Paranormal State have found how to sorta remedy that with only losing a small group of the die hard science fans, without isolating skeptics unlike some other shows. There is something in the manner of the way the show is conducted, such as camera angles, scripting, cut scenes that gives this show a different feel that is almost like a wholesome feeling… I must be wanting cereal, anyway.

At the end of this show, they decided to do an Honor Guard which I thought was actually kinda fitting, as far as being Paranormal State. This would have no place on any other show. If what all we do is leading us to believe that there is indeed some type of life after then I would think for the living it would bring closure and for the dead it would perhaps send the appropriate signal.

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