Hunting Mostly Haunted Ghost Adventures

When I was a young, I had a fascination with ghosts and the paranormal. When I was in elementary school, the teachers would always give us these forms where you could order various books. I remembering asking my parents to order a lot of books. Among them were various books on talking about real ghosts and other paranormal activities. As I grew up, this fascination faded.

However, in recent years, I have discovered various reality TV shows involving ghosts and the paranormal. The general theme of the shows is a group of people go into a supposedly haunted location at night and investigate the activity over the evening using various pieces of equipment. Here's my take on the shows that I have watched.

MOST HAUNTED (Travel Channel)
This was the original show I discovered while watching the Travel Channel one day. The show is actually a British production but was picked up for play on the Travel Channel. As the first show I watched, I was fascinated by what the people were doing. The Most Haunted team brought minimal equipment (video cameras) but brought people who were supposedly "spirit mediums" that could sense or possibly talk to the spirits in the various locations. If you read the various information available on Most Haunted, you will see there is some notion that the show is fake. Obviously, I can't prove or disprove this notion.

However, as I have now watched other shows and compare them back to Most Haunted, I feel like Most Haunted is a little boring. The show has pretty much stuck to it's formula over the years. The show doesn't do a lot of scientific investigation. It feels like the team just wanders around aimlessly trying to contact spirits. All in all, while the show is one of first, it may have been surpassed by other shows.

GHOST ADVENTURES (Travel Channel)
If watching Most Haunted wasn't enough, Ghost Adventures debuted on the Travel Channel in 2008. The two shows usually play back to back on Friday nights so you get a double douse of paranormal reality TV.

When I first watched, the most fascinating part of Ghost Adventures was they used a lot of equipment. They used digital audio recorders and a lot of cameras to try to record any activity that might occur.

The interesting part of this show is the approach the team takes in communicating with spirits. The team takes a very confrontational approach which they feel is best. In the show, this approach has sometime not worked in the team's favor as some spirits have scratched team members or done other things.

While the Ghost Adventures team does bring in a lot of equipment, I feel like they overplay the drama a little too much. Of course, the drama is a part of the charm of the show. If what they present on the show is real, you're always curious what will happen to the crew when the continually use their confrontational approach.

GHOST HUNTERS / GHOST HUNTERS INTERNATIONAL (Syfy)
Ghost Hunters originally appeared on Syfy in 2004 with the spinoff Ghost Hunters International premiering on Syfy in 2008. Both shows take the premise of Most Haunted and Ghost Adventures to it's logical conclusion.

Whereas Most Haunted and Ghost Adventures focus an entire hour on one location, the Ghost Hunters team usually does two locations (occasionally three) in one hour. The reason for this is the Ghost Hunters shows minimize the drama and focus on the facts. If there is activity that is recorded, the team tries to find ways to prove or disprove what they have seen. Unlike the other shows, the team is shown analyzing evidence and the viewers get to see the most compelling pieces. With this approach, that is why the Ghost Hunters show usually do two locations in an hour. Sometimes though, you wish that they would have spent more time on a particular location.

All in all, while all the shows have their pluses and minuses, I enjoyed all of them. Is what we see on TV real? That is something you'll have to decide for yourself.