We don’t usually do blog posts here at The Occult Section on Sundays, but I just stumbled across this story and had to write about it. One, for its timeliness (the show premieres tonight), and second, for…well, just read on.
REAL AND CHANCE: THE LEGEND HUNTERS — The Stallionaires, brothers Real and Chance, travel the wilderness in search of such legendary creatures as Hogzilla, the Chupacabra, Bigfoot and the Megashark. Each episode follows the siblings as they get the lowdown on these mythical creatures from the locals, then embark on their quest to find them. (9 p.m. Eastern, VH1).
I found this story on the Cryptomundo website run by Loren Coleman, and then checked on VH1.com to make sure it was for real. And it is. Take a moment to soak this all in. I had no idea who Real and Chance were, but upon further research, it turns out they were contestants on I Love New York. This is course is the spinoff of the VH1 series Flavor of Love starring Flavor Flav. Can you see where I’m going with this? I love the idea of more shows out there focusing on the paranormal, especially when it broadens its scope beyond ghost hunting. But I mean…come on! It seems like they’ll give a show to anybody these days. And that’s just fine if it’s someone in search of VD with some washed up pseudo-celeb. But in a field that is struggling so hard to find credibility, shows like this just slow whatever minuscule progress it is making (and I’m not even sure it’s making progress anymore). Maybe next year we’ll have The Situation and Snookie searching for UFOs?
The problem is that people will keep watching these shows. Not for their scientific value, but for purely entertainment purposes. So they will get wrong information. They will keep believing that pictures of dust show “orbs” and that these orbs are the spirits of the dead. They will keep believing that every strange piece of white noise is a voice, because they will tell you it’s a voice and also what it’s saying, so you can’t hear anything else. The light in the sky will most definitely be an extraterrestrial spacecraft, and the dark, fuzzy looking blob 100 yards from the camera will be proof of Bigfoot. Because that’s what gets ratings. It’s hard staying in this field these days and not feeling embarrassed almost constantly. And still everyone moans and complains about how the skeptics won’t take us seriously. I’m going to do my part and not watch this tonight.
I agree about what was said about the Real and Chance show ruining the credability that many have struggled to bring to the field of supernatural research. The shows that are being produced with ” pseudo celebrities” running around pretending to find proof of the paranormal just makes it harder for the people in the field of paranormal research to be taken seriously. I think if more programs were produced with experts that have a lot of experience in the field of paranormal research, it would lend an amount of credability to the show. Half-wits from reality shows running around screaming like blithering idiots at their own shadows may be enough to entertain an amount of brainless couch potatoes that we have in this country, but there “are”intelligent people out there that would like to see “real” cases of paranormal activity. We would like to hear informed experts discuss the
research and progress that is being made in that field, instead of all the mis-information that is broadcasted to get ratings. I refuse to waste my time watching any show that does
not approach the audience with an intelligent view of the subject matter. Hopefully, there will soon be a program that takes more of a scientific approach to informing about the supernatural.