GHOST LAB: Disturbing the Peace

Discovery Channel - Original Air Date: 10/6/09

My first question is, how will this show differentiate itself from SyFy's Ghost Hunters?  The set-up, with the Klinge brothers & their Everyday Parnormal society, seems pretty similar.  The show is heavier on graphics and 3D in introducing the cases, but the MO is pretty similar -- with set-up and investigation while the narrator (a voice-over in this case) explains what they're doing, the equipment they're using, and the jargon of ghost hunting.  Fortunately, like GH, they seem to be going about this semi-scientifically (as opposed to chasing unproven ghosts with unproven psychics and mediums). They use similar equipment to GH, and take baseline EMF readings, then -- in the first part -- they poke around a Louisiana auditorium.  They leave EMF "data loggers" like breadcrumbs in the building to record abnormalities, and run the usual EVP sessions.  Interestingly, they contact a physicist and explore the idea that EVPs may be coming from a parallel dimension.  They then try to bring out the spirits by re-creating things the ghosts might have experienced (in this case, staging a rock concert) using a technique they call "Era Cues."  But the most they get is closing doors, "personal experiences," and EVPs -- not much in the way of hard evidence.

They then go to the Myrtles Plantation which boasts a famous blurry "ghost" photo -- with which I am unimpressed.  They've been here before and supposedly got a very clear EVP on a previous investigation.  (Their EVPs are so clear as to seem likely fakes to me.)  They "Era Cue" the Civil War, and get some EVPs they think apply.  But the scientific value of their evidence -- like all EVP evidence -- seems elusive, at best.  And, I gotta say, I'm not sure I trust these guys as much as I do Jason and Grant.  They seem a bit more hucksterish and less real.  Though they do get points for sometimes leaving the lights on during their investigations.  While an interesting spin on GH, at least at first viewing, it's not replacing TAPS in my viewing queue.