I had pretty much pre-judged this show as being a cross between ghost hunters and psychic kids: all the poor methodology of the former, with the unethical nature of the latter. I figured I should at least watch one episode, so I could have some substance to my opinion.
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.
My initial impression is that here we had a group of reasonably intelligent, honest, and innocent teens. We didn’t (at least on camera) have a group of adults hinting and implying and trying to convince them to believe a certain way. I thought the teens assumptions, comments, conclusions, and reactions, were reasonable for a bunch of ghost-busting tv-influenced kids wandering around in a dark building. But what this highlighted was that the adults in the other shows react EXACTLY the same way, the way that you would expect children to react: the adults made assumptions like children, comments like children, and came to child-like conclusions. And all the ‘experience’ that the investigators in the other shows profess to have, make absolutely no difference in the final results.
I also liked the honesty of the show: for instance, when one kid was describing his role as the “Tech Manager”, he didn’t go into all his expertise or detail his resume, he said to the effect “I’m the tech manager because I like playing around with all the new equipment we get in here”. Besides being a refreshing answer (and likely the real reason most tech managers are in those roles), I think it may prompt others to actually question the real qualifications of the adults. And I liked the evidence review phase: Rather than a load of questionable theories, it comes down to a check box and a vote: Haunted YES or NO. Again, a wonderful contrast to the other shows that pretend to justify their baroque conclusions on some kind of expertise.
Sure, I think there were many poor conclusions, some based on probable trickery (the moving chair, the bang in the elevator), or misinterpreted data (the person who walked by the thermal video). But even the misinterpretations were educational: the EVP was first interpreted as saying one word (Sienna?) and then after they had found a similar prisoner’s name, it was reinterpreted (Serona?). I think this is a first step in showing the audience how their interpretations can be changed and influenced, and how subjective EVPs really are.
And of course, one of the most damning things to the other shows: this one did it all in 30 minutes, instead of an hour.
I don’t know if this show will last: if it does, I expect the adult shows to begin flocking around it, trying to get guest appearances, and to try to protect their adult roles and expertise that these kids are handily revealing to be nothing more than children playing in the dark.
