THE DIVIDE

I don't have too much to add to my previous comments regarding Episode 1 of Skinwalker Ranch Season 2. I think a lot of my criticism still applies, however I did see a upward trend of improvement towards the back half of the second episode. The show really seems to be establishing that, presumably due to the complete randomness of the events, the experiments and investigations will be similarly jumbled. For instance, we seem to have completely dropped the previous episode's investigation of the disappearing water mystery, however, we're introduced to what is clearly a set of glyphs carved into a rock on the mesa as well as the continuing investigation of last season's mysterious cow death. Like I said, it's pretty clear that the glyphs are carved into a rock using some sort of tool. They bring on an expert to analyze them, and he concludes that they portray some sort of portal. Hmm. Playing into the lore of the area, perhaps? I found Travis Taylor's theory of th...

As soon it was announced, I knew History Channel's newest investigative TV show The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch would prove to be controversial. Until recently, the northern Utah ranch had been something of an enigma: there wasn't a whole lot of information about it beyond Colm Kelleher and George Knapp's 2005 book Hunt for the Skinwalker , already a controversial work itself. Claims of UFOs, Men in Black, Werewolf-like creatures, portals, and of course, the ranch's legendary namesake: the shapeshifting demons of Navajo folklore known as Skinwalkers surrounded the ranch, but there was little proof of any of these events beyond the word of Knapp, Kelleher, Robert Bigelow, and anonymous NIDS scientists. To this day I don't think we've gotten any sort of tangible findings from NIDS' activities on the ranch beyond Hunt for the Skinwalker.   (https://flixable.b-cdn.net/hulu/large/the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch.jpg) I was quite surprised when the new owner of the ...

It's been a while since we got a proper "boots on the ground" investigative docu-series exclusively on UFOs from one of the major television networks. Since the abrupt and allegedly mysterious cancellation of Bill Birnes' excellent 2008 series UFO Hunters, and the unfortunate failure of National Geographic's maligned Chasing UFOs, UFO reality shows have mostly followed a standard narrative documentary format, relying heavily on talking head interviews and cinematic recreations. (https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/52903/ufo-witness) While we've seen a little bit of deviation from this trend here and there—notably, Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation features some on-location investigation and eyewitness interviews—shows that follow a person or team of investigators as they look into mysterious sightings have been mostly ghost and Sasquatch-related.  The truth is, UFO investigations are the hardest to mold to this format. You can go to a haunted hous...