I like watching shows about world and universal mysteries. Things that touch upon the supernatural, paranormal, crytozoological topics.

Paranormal State is a 30 minute program that follows the Penn State Paranormal Research Society as they investigate paranormal activity across the USA. They are led by Ryan Buell who had terrifying experiences when he was younger and vowed to do everything he could to help others going through similar experiences.

The reason I'm typing this up, is that I'm still at odds to the believability of the show. In some instances, it feels forced and setup. But in some episodes I have a hard time believing that it's fake. For instance, there was a great episode with a girl in Las Vegas who was seeing the ghost of a dead girl. The young girl drew a picture of the ghost and also gave the team her name. After some searching, the Paranormal State team found an ongoing case of a young girl who was raped and killed in Texas. The girl in Las Vegas knew information that had either never been released to the public or not even released by the family of the victim. Creepy.

The main problem I have with the show is that it's too short. At a little of 20 minutes, there is not enough film to cover 1-2 days of footage and incidents. I think the tone and style is way too flashy and they focus on Ryan way too much. Finally, a lot of episodes feel way too scripted, which leads me to believe that it could be more fake than honest.

What do you guys feel?

Stew

I remember watching some episodes of this show and I do enjoy it, though, like you said, I feel as though a lot of it is forced. There do seem to be a lot of instances where things happen off screen (or where they're in one room or outside of a house, and something happens in another room or inside of a house). For example, there was one episode where the group left a mobile home to talk with each other, they heard a scream, and they ran in seeing that all the crosses in the room have been turned upside down while the family members are in it. Also, they were in one room later that night, and in another room, an alarm clock started to go off at 3:33 AM. I don't know if the family members (or scriptwriters) would want to do something like that (like taunting the Devil), but it still leaves me questioning the show.

Creepy show nonetheless, though. I always miss it on Monday nights so I haven't seen a lot of episodes.

Sean

The main issue I have with the show, aside from being obviously scripted at times, is nothing ever happens. It's offscreen if something DOES happen so gosh, we never see it...or most times...nothing happens. It's bad to the point of being laughable.  

I love paranormal shows and I'll stick with some hokey ones ( Ghost Hunters, Most Haunted) but this one is absurd. All that hogwash about some demon chasing the Ryan and he Cannot Utter His Name, but the name is clearly flashed across the screen several times. The ridiculous "director's log" he dictates...the silly opening narration "sometimes we're warriors"..well we've yet to see you battle a damn thing :P

The recent MothMan episode was a great example...not a darn thing happened, aside from the fishy "psychic" making his pronouncements. I started watching the show with extreme high hopes but they were dashed after just a few episodes. If you MUST dramatize events as they do at times....geez at least make them exciting.

A HUGE missed opportunity here, shame.