Paranormal TV December 22, 2007

Of all my television peccadilloes, my unusual appetite for paranormal TV is perhaps, my biggest sin.

I am so exited every Wednesday when I get to watch my newest paranormal TV crush. Recently, I stumbled upon a new-ish show on Court TV that I think is the most intriguing deployment of the ghost hunting arts meets reality TV that I have seen in a while. Before you go passing judgment, you have to understand that paranormal TV has always been an essential part of my entertainment pallet. Every since my dad use to put me on his lap on Sundays when we would watch Leonard Neymoy in the groundbreaking television show “In Search of…” and the time my mother and aunt took me to the drive-in to see Amityville horror (the first one), I have been intrigued by the media representation of paranormal phenomenon.

So, every Wednesday there is a new episode of Haunting Evidence. The series “takes the paranormal/crime-solving phenomenon one step further by following psychic profiler Carla Baron, medium John J. Oliver, and paranormal investigator Patrick Burns as they visit “haunted” crime scenes.” Working together, this unconventional team of experts finds clues that will provide new insights into real-life cases that have gone cold. The show is like a cross between Cold Case Files and Ghost Hunters. Deploying some of the tactics of my favorite plumbers by day, ghost hunters by night friends on the show Ghost Hunters, the Haunting Evidence crew takes it to a whole new level. The focus is less on proving a paranormal plane exists and more on helping police catch the bad folks who have murdered the spirits lingering in the world beyond.

Recently a dear friend and out of town house guest had the opportunity to experience with me, the joy of Haunting Evidence. He had a slightly different take. He was concerned with the families of these involved, being lead astray and given hope by these paranormal charlatans. I admit, the very construction of Haunting Evidence encourages and condones spectacle. Of course my favorite Medium, John J. Oliver, could do his paranormal “thang” outside of the TV frame. There is no real reason to record and broadcast his psychic insights while he wears fabulous designer sunglasses BUT the camera allows me to be there with him. The framing and composition encourages me to see the world through his sunglass covered eyes…. it encourages me to meditate on the very same evidence and use my own psychic ability to solve the case (By the way, I went to the show’s website and took their psychic ability test and scored unusually high).

In the last two weeks, a new paranormal TV show has made a splash on the re-run saturated screen. Paranormal State follows a spiritual team of students out of Penn State University who investigate haunting phenomenon currently terrorizing folks in the material plane. I am fascinated by Paranormal State because it is like a cross between Ghost Hunters, Dr. Phil and the Exorcist with a tad more emphasis on spiritual warfare (demons vs. angels) than most of the shows in this genre. The paranormal team descends on a family with the usual investigating team and equipment but also brings along priests, occult experts, family therapists, and the folks you call when one needs an exorcist. The camera functions as evidence of the omnipresent battle of good and evil ranging around us, including a reoccurring guest spot of a demon (whose name we will not speak) that seems to be chasing the lead investigator.

The Camera As A Tool of Spiritual Upheaval: My primary preoccupation with this genre of television is the varied ways in which the camera functions to construct a spiritual world. The use of inferred heat cameras to record moving spiritual energy, the deployment of sound recording to capture Electronic Voice Phenomenon and the inclusion of people who have heightened psychic ability to register the kind of paranormal activity in the air all rests upon the assumption that there is a world in play beyond our reason and sense perception. In the TV show Ghost Hunters, the images captured with the camera function as proof to affirm or deny the existence of paranormal phenomenon. On the other hand, the Haunting Evidence camera encourages the audience to play along with the investigation, the images function to affirm actions taken in a police investigation where psychic phenomena is legitimized as an important tool of knowledge production. Finally, Paranormal State uses the camera as evidence of spiritual warfare, a soldier in the Army of good (so to speak). We are encouraged to mediate on a spiritual battle around us. Like we don’t have enough to worry about in terms of a real war on the material plane?

…a confession about crime documentaries March 20, 2007

Crime shows are one of my dirty pleasures. I believe the television show Sex and the City coined these kinds of activities “secret single behaviors,” things you do in your home under the eye of no one. I am a little embarrassed when my partner Dan catches me watching these shows. I just pretend not so see the puzzled look on his face.

I never jumped on the CSI bandwagon, the shows just stink like splashy-sensationalist gore to me. The whole production aesthetic makes me uncomfortable. It’s like a cross between US magazine and NBC’s dateline (both of which I like in moderation) coupled with some really bad taken-myself-too-seriously acting.

Why do I prefer the interview (performance) of a homely forensics expert superimposed on a still photo of her laboratory? Why am I intrigued by the visual comparison of the evidence, edited to the meditative pace in which the viewer is placed in the role of judge? Its not a “how-to” of the CSI variety, its a “how come this happened” wrapped around the logics of a bloody forensics puzzle. I guess that is why I am so intrigued by and prone to having a bender watching A&E’s Investigative Reports or Cold Case Files.

I hate cops. And most of the time, the inevitable workings of the legal system make me want to throw-up in my mouth a little bit. However, there is something inviting about listening to the most uncharismatic scientist explain the discovery process of a brutal murder. Most of the time, the show leaves me thinking that if I am ever to die an awful and violent death, it will likely be at the hands of some unsuspicious loved one.

Maybe in some ways the show is subversive. It deconstructs our conceptions of what murder is in our society. It isn’t the dark, cold alleyway we should be concerned about. It isn’t the scary man in a dark corner I should look out for. These dark brutal acts have the potential to be in our homes and in our families. These acts could possibly come from the people we least expect. Because it isn’t about being good or evil, murder is about these desperate and unacceptable things people do. Maybe I appreciate the show’s honesty and the implied hot tips about how NOT to marry a serial killer.

Anyway, lately I have been fascinated with the production process of these shows. I am inserting a little ditty on the sound production of Cold Case Files and Investigative Reports.