OK, so any good investigator tunes in to these shows to see what to make of them. I have to say when I saw this previewed several weeks ago – that there would be a Ghost Hunters Academy – my hopes were pretty much gone in the world. BUT, I’ll give anything a shot. A few minutes into it, my realizations were all validating themselves. First off – the show’s title should sum it up for us all… “Web of Deceit”. Why they decided to call it that is unbeknownst to me; perhaps it is the reason that is plain as day to me, but – no – they probably have some underlying and much cooler reason for it of course.
Of course, the lucky few that are vying for that golden spot as “new blood” on the TAPS International team, have to earn their keep – lead by the all-knowing Steve and Tango. Yeah… Spider boy and his side-kick head this one up. Thousands, of course, applied to be a part of the magical journey that is TAPS, but only five were chosen and have to prove what they are made of. You have a mix of newbie investigators, science students, mediums, and the average Joe – young students who really have no experience all coming together to learn from “the best” the field work of investigation. Of course Jason and Grant kick the whole thing off to let them know where they stand… (and BTW, what is Jason wearing?? What IS that jacket??) According to them, there are things that you have to have going in… because it’s not something that can be taught: Professionalism, Skepticism, Honesty, Composure, Respect. Make note – because as soon as you join the TAPS team, those things go right out the door.
So off they go in their RV with the academy logo plastered everywhere, so the world knows there’s one more Ghost Hunters show to add to the roster on TV. Once they arrive at Fort Mifflin, they prep to go on the introductory tour of the place – the medium girl decides to stay behind so as to not taint her own information that she receives once inside. Steve actually rolled his eyes at her!! Now, I’m not saying I buy mediums or what they do necessarily – but a true leader in investigation has to respect that a LITTLE and where’s that solid gold “Professionalism” that Jason and Grant were touting? Oh yeah – that goes out the door when you join the team, I forgot. However, she’s missing out on all the great advice Steve is getting out there on the walk-through. Yeah… the walk-through was basically all the crap they had “happen” on their investigations there. Then the pop-quiz of what would the newbies do to set up equipment in those “hot-spots”. One lucky wanna-be actually gets a gold star for knowing that it’s not an EVP when you actually hear a voice with your own ears – that it’s a disembodied voice! YAY for him!! Gold star from the masters!! Your existence in life has been validated! All investigator trainees are armed with specially marked Ghost Hunter Academy notebooks and furiously take notes from what the professors of paranormal say as they go.
Then prep of equipment commences, and Steve decides to pop quiz them again on his half-hearted statement of what they’ll do next. One girl decides to be cute and coy and suck up, and bats her eyelashes and tries to repeat what he’d just said… of course she misses about half of what he said. Aww… she loses – no gold star for her I guess. Sad day. Is it a big surprise, Steve, they weren’t listening to you? You’re there for your paycheck and don’t give a shit about really training these lemmings.
The newbies get briefed on the locations before heading out in teams of two to the various hot spots to catch their first bits of evidence. Chris and Karl start out with EVP in the casement – moments in they start seeing shadow movement nearby, and not long after that the same guy is touched. Steve and Tango are monitoring remotely aggravated by the fact the two guys sat together. The all-knowing mentors tell them to break it up and spread out to a larger area. OOOH did you guys just learn something??
Heather (the medium) was allowed to investigate alone, despite that going against what their team protocol is (???). But is was “ok” because they could monitor her via the IR cams set up in the dungeon where she was at. (Now… if it’s against team protocol, and they got pissed at her for just missing the walk-through – WHY is she off on her own? I’m not saying… I’m just saying…) She starts seeing the image of a man who was hanged (because that’s a stretch…) no description or what he looks like – but “Winston” or whoever was giving her a headache so she decided to move on.
Susan and Ben went out to the powder magazine to check things out. Ben is equipped with mini dv and quickly they start hearing things – which turns out to be the rain. Go Go Investigation skills! They head out after 40 minutes to go sit back on the porch of the control area… Steve and Tango quickly appear to ask why they were back. Poor Susan loses another gold star opportunity when she tells them that they were told to come back after they were done, but couldn’t tell them WHO told them that. Wow… these are the ones CHOSEN for this show. Wow… From the way things looked, they only sat in those individual locations – they never got to investigate the whole location… seemed a little odd to me, but bow to the masters – they know better than I. After all, they have a show and I do not.
They do go back for a second night of investigation, however, where they do get to investigate areas where they didn’t the night before. Chris and Heather went to the magazine for their first round, immediately Chris announced he smelled cigarette smoke – which Heather, of course, agreed too. Chris actually had the foresight to call on the walkie to Steve to find out if anyone was smoking in the vicinity (gold star!), and then was instructed to “find the source”. The masters come to facilitate the activity by finding the source of the smoke, not where the new investigators were standing, but about two feet away… And Steve, in his wealth of knowledge – deduces that it is not a present-day cigarette, but rather a hand rolled one from days gone by. Wow. Impressive work. You got that from a smell? I am not a smoker, so all you smokers out there will have to fill me in on this one. But of course the kids agree, and Steve of course called them on it that he was filling their heads with ideas proving power of suggestion. Interesting way of teaching, but I get it.
Nearby, Ben was investigating with Karl in the dungeon – when Karl began hearing a sigh. Then Ben heard a secondary one that Karl claimed – along with footsteps down the corridor. They ran out of the building to see what the source could be, then meeting up apparently with Steve and Tango. At one point Heather finds a voice recorder that the other two had left behind in the officer’s quarters and calls them on it – and of course Steve gets on their case for having left it in there and trust values – blah blah blah.
Heather begins investigating with Susan in the officer’s quarters and Susan was apparently affected by paralyzing agonizing sadness and had to leave the room. She went back to the RV to take a break. The huge outpouring begins that she is an empath and feels everything when this was divulged at the beginning – so she is three strikes now… but *dunh dunh duuuuuhn* will Steve and Tango find out??? That is the question!
The wrap-up undertaking seemingly went well and they took off to go over their evidence in the RV. They came up with some dust and (IMHO) a crap EVP – and apparently a second EVP that whispers the name of one investigator (Ben Smith).
During their performance review of Susan, of course they had found out that she was hiding her “ability” from them and they called her on it. They were hurt and dismayed (yeah right) that she would hide such a thing because they were dealing with Heather’s ability (oh this is where I add the “yeah right”)… They come to a compromise that she would stay on as long as she was truthful and not keep anything any further.
All in all, Dave and Tango are disappointed in the team’s investigative skills as a whole and one more time called “crap” on the medium and empath of the group before the show closing (but that is them working in tandem with them apparently…). Well guys, I am pretty much 100% sure you started out pretty similarly to what their performance was on the show. Hell, I watched the early days of Ghost Hunters and know your beginnings from that aspect and what you’ve “grown” into. But, oh, the masters are not fallible… how dare I attest to so much? Sorry guys. So as the professors themselves say, “time will tell”… It’s on the DVR to see what becomes of the newest group of lemmings to the Ghost Hunting world. And chock one more up to the Pilgrim Films’ roster of crap viewing entertainment on the SyFy.
