Syfy’s Stranded Looks For Ghosts, Probably Doesn’t Find Any
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Syfy is back at it again, making things difficult for people who enjoy science and fiction, as well as a proper combination of the two. We’re at the point where their abysmal monster mash-ups aren’t worth an incidental giggle anymore, and the bulk of their normal programming has become possessed by the paranormal and…oh, let’s just nip it in the bud. It’s another paranormal show.
Starting February 27th, Stranded will do what nearly every single paranormal reality show has done before them and stick people interested in the supernatural inside of locations across the country that are supposedly haunted, then record them not actually finding any ghosts or evidence of ghosts. Only this time, they’re not even going with people you’ve never heard of who are paranormal “experts,” but are instead using people you’ve never heard of that can’t even claim to be paranormal “experts.” And the group members — each episode will feature teams of three — will change for each episode. Check out the all-too-familiar-looking trailer below.
The Paranormal Activity franchise, Insidious, and Sinister, while pretty good in places, are certainly not the best films to be namedropping when you want an audience to consider their product to be of a higher quality than nice-smelling shit. I’m not saying these guys should be making shows that I want to watch, and if you readers like this kind of stuff, there’s plenty of it out there for you, but how about some fictional paranormal shows where the characters actually do find things?
Part of Syfy’s description of the show is as follows:
Each team of three will be stranded at one of the most haunted locations in America and record the entire experience with hand-held cameras, creating a suspenseful, completely unscripted first-hand account of each group’s stay. Over the course of the confinement, the group will cope with increasingly pervasive feelings of fear and desolation, resulting in an experiment that represents a unique combination of psychology and the paranormal.
“Increasingly pervasive feelings of fear and desolation” sounds like the name of a painting that I might, but probably wouldn’t, be interested in paying $5 for, but it damned sure isn’t the phrase that draws my attention towards a particular TV show. Check the video below to watch the group from the premiere episode talk about the weather.
If anything would save this show, it’s that it was created by Josh Gates, the man behind the often amusing and somewhat more reality-based Destination Truth. But seeing as how he probably won’t even appear in any episodes, I have nothing to give this series credit for. I hope it haunts my dreams at night.
