After a year of preparation, the newest offering of the Ghoul Boys is here.
Ghost Files finally premiered on Watcher with Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej continuing their quest to find authentic supernatural evidence. They donned new gear, they have a cool intro, and they have a nice set of gadgets.
Also, I want to steal their production tools (their camera and entire production suites).
But do I like the first episode?
Yes...
... and its flaws.
It would have been better if they premiered the series in a new location. That's just me though. I am also a history nut and I have heard the Waverly info from their Buzzfeed Unsolved episode. I also have the same sentiment with the second Sallie House episode - although it was more nostalgic (since it's the last episode of the series) and the "demons" also set the bar that you wanted them to at least replicate the torment they dished out on Ryan.
With that said, the introduction of the gadgets and how insane the scenes were made the second trip worthwhile. Shane getting scared in the morgue, the sound engineer farting, the Ryan prank, the ghost dog, and them bugging Timmy are episode highlights. Again, there are ghost-hunting programs that are shitty in their production as well as in their interactions.
This comedic tandem ranks first in each and every one of these "serious" ghost hunters.
Meanwhile, audience participation is hit-and-miss. Yeah, maybe Ryan-centric fans will love the spooky fan visits but I can live without the "life-changing" experiences. I believe that there are ghosts and there is an afterlife but I don't want an episode to stretch out for the sake of hearing "experiences". In some ways, I think the production team feels this as well because they tried hard to give character to the interviews by adding video filters.
Again, this is just me.
The hour-long episode is also a bit much.
As I said, they can cut the glorified Zoom calls.
I will not be surprised if the same people show up as the series wears.
In terms of production, I like this in the sense that it differs from the original. I miss the "wheeze" and the scrolling dialogues and the royalty-free theme but I get that they need to differentiate this from the original especially since this could scream a lawsuit if they stay on the course a bit too much.
Now, with that said, I watched this because of Ryan and Shane's interactions. Shane's attitude is also a nice twist (as the dude who wants to be proven wrong). This is basically a pick-up from his perspective in the last season of Unsolved: Supernatural. They have been doing this for a decade now so if Ryan has become braver then Shane also needs to develop some sort of character level up.
And yeah, as a production guy, I like the grungy video cuts and how glossy their look is. I know this is kind of odd considering that grunge and glossy shouldn't really mix but I think their cameras are better here as compared to what they had at least in the initial seasons. The blueprint effect and graphic is for large areas but they can also work with small spaces as well.
When I re-watched the episode, I still can do away with the Zoom calls. I feel their narrations are staged and rehearsed. I guess it would be awesome if one of Ryan or Shane would just talk to them and have a silly moment with them than face the camera as if they are reading from a teleprompter.
And yeah, the new tools are awesome.
I'll probably be more embracing as the series wears on. I hope Shane messes with Ryan more during their solo explorations. Again, I watch this because of their interactions. On Buzzfeed, I would rather watch the True Crime Unsolved episodes but it's hard to resist not rooting for the ghosts whenever Ryan's face goes blank and whatever shit Shane starts to pull.
With Shane kinda thirsty for evidence and Ryan a bit braver, hopefully, this series would exceed fan expectations.