January 23, 2009
GHI: Casa Garland
So, for this second-halfer the announcer (at the beginning of the episode) said, "Then the team heads back to Peru" and I thought, No. No they didn't. It's fine to show investigations "out-of-sequence" from the order they were filmed in, but to me there is a line being crossed when people say things that clearly aren't true; aka lie. To be clear, my gripe here is a minor one focused solely on the principle that yes — this is TV and that means not everything should be taken at face value — but please don't actually lie, no matter how "white", unimportant or irrelevant to the investigation the lie is. It further reduces the credibility of a show that claims to be truthful, scientific, and entirely non-fiction (despite the network it appears on).
…but yes, back in Peru and once again with Robb's friend Paul the team investigates an residence, which I believe is a first for Ghost Hunters International. Jay & Grant like to tell us that helping families who don't feel comfortable in their own home is their top priority, but Robb & Co. haven't yet had that opportunity. In this case, the home in question was estimated to be 500 years old — which surprised me because that would date it to within a couple of decades of Christopher Columbus's first voyage — and therefore within a couple of decades of the continent being exposed to the sort of European building techniques this home is clearly constructed by. Now maybe the 500 year estimate is entirely accurate, or maybe it's only a small exaggeration — I don't know enough to be sure but it certainly struck me as both impressive and potentially false.
One of the pieces of evidence presented to the team before the investigation was a photo taken in a room of the house which appears to show a mustachieoed gentleman in the glass behind a family photo. My immediate impression was that it did indeed look like a guy with a mustache (and possibly even like the grandfather they believed it to be the spirit of) but realistically our brains are programmed to see patterns in noise and this looked like just the camera flash reflecting off the glass in a coincidental way. Also, I suspect in life their grandfather was not eight feet tall, so it would seem odd for his head to appear in a pane of glass seven or eight feet up from the floor, no?
There was some mildly interesting reports, such as a cleaning woman who said the entire house shook when she tried to clean the second floor and has since refused to go back. Maybe this woman really experienced something (and maybe what she experiences was a minor earthquake tremor or something equally unmysterious) or maybe she's just lazy and came up with a good story to avoid dealing with the very large and very dirty second floor of the home — who knows? We can't, so I'll move on.
One consistent report was that of loud noises coming from the second floor and Dustin & Brandy discovered a number of cats living on and traversing the rooftop. This did involve Dustin and a ladder, so I question whether he is going out of his way to "be Andy" but if he is I certainly don't mind. He's come up with some good debunking and I hope he continues to do so.
There's really not much more of interest to say about this investigation though, Barry was able to snap some example photos that also showed faces in the windows near where the family's original photo was taken and they declared the place not-haunted. Once again I am left to wonder if the outcome was pre-determined (consciously or subconsciously) because the client was a family afraid to live in their own home. Either way, this investigation lent itself well to the 15-20 mins it was given in the episode — which is to say it was rather borish and thankfully they kept it short. I guess they also should get an honorable mention for not padding their investigations with irrelevant nonsense like Steve daring Dave Tango to go into a crawlspace or touch a spider.
Filed under Ghost Hunters International, Posts by Logisti
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Comments on GHI: Casa Garland »
StanTheMan @ 12:21 pm
Another boring second halfer. I have a real problem with the two attempts to recreate experiences. First Robb with the sweeping and then Barry with the portrait. Unless the woman was sweeping in the dark and the portrait was taken in the dark the reenactments weren't even close. Turn on the damn lights.
Nosfer @ 1:19 pm
Awww, but the effect is so much better for the audience when it's dark. The music would be childishly hilarious in daylight
That said, I agree completely.
Hal @ 5:37 pm
I'm surprised none of you commented on the obvious, even more so this time, blunder GHI made in this private home IN PERU!! Even with fluent-Spanish-speaking Paul Winter (I wonder if he was adopted?) along once more, what does "repeating" Rob do again? TALKS TO THE SPOOKS IN ENGLISH!!! Not once, that I noticed, did Paul even attempt to speak to the walls in the native "Peruvian!"
Alas! Why even bother anymore?
The Doctor @ 6:59 pm
"Hey guys, when you were here a few weeks ago, It slipped my mind about a friend who is having haunting problems — would you mind flying everyone about 14,000 miles R/T to check out her house ? "
" A family having ghost problems …?? We are on our way ! "
But at least they didn't find anything … not like J&G telling a family they were perfectly safe after having a coat hanger tossed at them in the dark.
Hal @ 9:03 am
I hope "The Doctor" had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek during that last post!
Hal @ 3:30 pm
And besides, how much real damage can a flying coat hanger cause, Doc?
Learjet @ 3:25 am
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye! (by coat hanger)
Hal @ 8:37 am
Then let us hope Jason keeps his eyes closed next time faker Grant is anywhere near a closet in the dark! HAR! HAR!
CrowTRobot @ 11:19 am
@ Logisti
I've disagreed with you before about these 'white lies', (ie: GHs' opening plumber shots, etc): they never really bothered me. But I'm starting to come around. What is particularly annoying here, is that this would have been so much better as the first episode anyway since nothing happened, and would have made "Next, GHI travels to Denmark." believable – and probably true. So, if they're going to lie, or at least not bother to be more accurate, about something as insignificant as this; what would stop them from ..hmm…stretching the truth a bit on more important details – like evidence.
The thought process is already in place:
"Well, we didn't really catch anything, but there've been so many reports that there must be something to it; so let's go ahead and put this 'evidence' in. It's not really lying because so many have already reported it. We just didn't catch it on this trip."
Handsty @ 2:55 pm
Love the "laziness" theory. I have one of my own. The shaking could have been caused by large trucks and/or trains going by. Did they ever mention if they were near railroad tracks?
Brenda Lee @ 5:03 pm
I think they always play the "better" portion of the episode first like a newspaper presents its columns. Newspapers are written with the assumption that most people only read the first three paragraphs, so the most important information is in the top of the article. GHI is presenting their most ghostly evidence first, and figure some viewers will bail on an investigation that seems lackluster.
SJ @ 6:43 pm
@ Logisti and others:
Maybe I'm the only one, but I look forward to Steve and Tango's antics. I think it's mostly because it gives THEM more camera time, and they seem to be the only investigators who A) don't seem to want to fake evidence and B) don't have an unrealistic opinion about their station in life.
I get so sick of Jason and Grant giving off an air of arrogant importance: DUDES! YOU'RE FREAKING ROTO-ROOTER PLUMBERS WHO GOT LUCKY WITH A HOBBY. Quit being so SERIOUS. Obviously, they have to take a semi-professional approach when leading the team or it would all fall apart, but they're NOT employers; they try to catch ghosts with their friends, and are not superior to them simply because they (might have) spent more money on equipment and came up with a name.
Wow…I'm not even sure where that rant was going…anyway, good post, Logisti.
Nosfer @ 6:52 pm
They don't seem to have too unrealistic of an opinion about their lot in life, but I'd rather see serious investigators with a bent towards actually advancing the field rather than two clowns daring each other to eat bugs…that doesn't really do much for me and makes light of the whole paranormal field, which I don't particularly appreciate.
Course, we also see in the unaired clips that J&G can be just as childish and guest investigators just as stupid ala drinking hot sauce or whatever they were doing on the boat. Is it Fall yet?
iactuallyknowhistory23 @ 1:30 am
Hey, umm…whoever wrote this clearly never took a history course, the Spanish were sailing and conquering North and South America starting in the early 1500's. Columbus sailed for Portugal and to the Eastern part of the Americas anyway, so he is kind of irrelevant. Francisco Pizarro went to Peru in the 1520's and founded Lima. So, give or take about 10 years that rounds out to an even 500. Also, since Spain was sailing for empirical purposes so they would have started building as soon as they could to establish their dominance. Smooth.
Nosfer @ 9:58 am
Actually the Spanish didn't land in Peru until 1531 and Lima was founded in the mid-1530s (1535 I believe) There was quite a bit of unrest (Inca Revolts and in-fighting among the Spanish which broke into open warfare amongst the factions) in the first years following the Pizarro conquest so the climate was not very conducive to getting a colony running smoothly. The point is that for the description to be even in the realm of accurate (ie within 30-40 years), this would have to be one of the first buildings built in Peru by the Europeans.
Bobarino @ 11:52 am
Well,
I am no history buff, but when I read the above summary of the episode I was in no way left with the feeling Logisti was telling us how things happened in Peruvian history. Additionally he said "It surprised me but"…"Maybe it's accurate" … "I don't know". So to me this is really a non-issue.
Bobarino
Exert:
In this case, the home in question was estimated to be 500 years old — which surprised me because that would date it to within a couple of decades of Christopher Columbus's first voyage — and therefore within a couple of decades of the continent being exposed to the sort of European building techniques this home is clearly constructed by. Now maybe the 500 year estimate is entirely accurate, or maybe it's only a small exaggeration — I don't know enough to be sure but it certainly struck me as both impressive and potentially false.