In the first part of the "Empire State" episode, we begin with the astonishingly abrupt departure of Britt and Kris Williams. Jason calmly informs them that GHI is shorthanded, and that those two will need to immediately uproot their lives in the US and spend the next year chasing the ghosts of fictional characters and filming colorful locations in black and white. Kris displays some acting skills in pretending that this is welcome news, while Britt merely nods. I do wonder, though. Was Britt was ever expected to actually join GHI? (ETA: Apparently, yes. Which means we're not done with him quite yet.) Or was this just a way of writing him out of the show after his dismissal from Syfy, due to his declarations of being homophobic and armed with deadly weapons? Was this the equivalent of saying that they've sent him off to live with a nice farm family?

The artificiality of the opening sequence infected the whole show for me. When watching the walkie-talkie sequences, I kept remembering that these scenes are shot completely separately from the rest of the show, and often afterward. That they'll actually spend multiple days shooting in the same location, and that they do re-shoots of scenes. That the "time-lapse" analysis segments were actually filmed in about the amount of time it takes to watch them. This is not just a TV show about people that I don't particularly trust; it's a fiction about characters I don't trust. Just to complete the artificiality, they are investigating in a replica fort!

Read more on GH: Empire State (Ft. William Henry)…

I had an unusual experience watching Ghost Hunters, since I had been one the same day. A friend of mine, knowing of my love/hatred of paranormal TV and my unstoppable hamminess, asked me to take part in a haunted house held in the bookstore where she worked. I put on some blue coveralls on which my wife had emblazoned the letters "TAPS" in yellow (Totally Awesome Paranormal Society, OK? No copyright infringement!), and showed up to lead children around to various "haunted" parts of the bookstore. My ghost hunting team consisted of small children brandishing whatever small props I could find around the house that I could pass of as paranormal detection equipment. Did America's most popular ghost hunting group do any better while investigating the Bissman Building? Read more on GH: Chopping Block…

I guess that the title is a clever pun. Light houses are signal lights, and, uh… pitchers and catchers use signals, so an episode that visits both an island with a lighthouse and a baseball hall of fame gets called "Signals from the Past". Who am I to argue?

Read more on GH: Signals from the Past…

This week, the Ghost Hunters visited the Philadelphia Zoo. Whenever TAPS hits Philly, I get mixed feelings. See, I went to college in Philadelphia and have many fond memories of the city. Yet the only place they've ever shown that I recognize is a cheesesteak place on South Street. I guess I'll have to wait until they stop visiting historical sites and start hunting in sleazy college bars.

The most dramatic "finding" was a mysteriously falling FLIR camera. While Jay and Grant were investigating the attic of Solitude House, Jay went upstairs to investigate while Grant stayed down below. As soon as I saw them separate, I wondered if something was going to happen. As we've been pointing out here for some time, things tend to move on their own around Grant when no one can see him. My anticipation was rewarded pretty quickly. Grant put the FLIR on the stairs two steps up. While Jay was upstairs, the camera (according to Grant) fell on its own and rolled down two steps. Of course, this could be accidental. This would mean that Grant is unable to tell the normal action of gravity from the work of a ghost.

Read more on GH: Philadelphia Zoo…

(Note: I'm shifting style a bit and offering more commentary and less recap. Let me know if I should switch back.)

It was pretty disorienting to see a good, old-fashioned Ghost Hunters fake-plumbing opening, with Jay and Grant pretending that, A., they have a camera crew follow them around while they fix air conditioners, and that B., they fix air conditioners. I mean, does Roto Rooter even do that? Never mind, rhetorical question. Kris Williams calls them up to let them know that they have a case at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, but I'm still too distracted by the mechanics of this bit of nonsense to care. Which bit do they shoot first, Jay and Grant's, or Kris in the office? Do they memorize the script, or is it written down somewhere in that cramped little room? These are all questions which are, honestly, somewhat more interesting to me than the episode itself.

Read more on GH: Otesaga Resort Hotel…

This video was originally posted as a gag in the Possibly Paranormal section of the forums, but I thought it might be worthwhile to write up what I did and make a bit more serious post out of it.

Read more on The Flashlight Trick (aka The SFT)…

When a little boy told his parents about other children playing with his toys and a mysterious man in his room, none of which seem to actually exist, his parents became quite frightened. As members of a local paranormal group they believed this most likely explanation was some sort of haunting, and called in the TAPS team hoping they could offer some assistance. This is precisely the sort of investigation Jay & Grant have always said takes top priority for them, but I believe this is the first time Pilgrim has cut such an investigation to take an entire episode by itself (thereby conveying the importance… or something).

Read more on GH: Scully House…