Paranormal State – Season 2

Published April 6, 2009 | By RottenOne

Ryan and his team are back for more adventures and even more unusual cases. Tagging along of course is Chip Coffey, who to me, is a real gem for the show. While the season is shorter this time around, the group seems a little more serious about the cases they take on. While the first season dealt with people who heard noises and felt uncomfortable, the second season deals with much darker forces bordering on the demonic. There seems to be a lot more bitch slapping from the spirit world and Ryan is going to step in and put someone or something in a sleeper hold.

We have a family who believes their parents are trying to identify their killer from beyond the grave, a young man who believes he is being visited by the spirit of his grandmother who took her own life in the house, and even a girl Ryan and the team think is actually possessed and a priest who performs the exorcism ritual. Throw in some animal abuse and a dark voodoo doll and you basically have a little bit of everything and a whole lot of events that really make you think.

While Lorraine sits this season out (Ryan does call her a couple of times, especially during the exorcism), Chip is on the scene through a vast majority of the episodes. He feels the presence of evil just about everywhere he goes, but you have to ask, can someone really pick up those kinds of things just by walking into a house? It makes you wonder, good guess or psychic impression? And even more compelling, what impressions does he get when he goes into a Starbucks?

PRS is branching out, going to locations in a variety of different states. They are crossing the country in their efforts to do battle with the demonic. Again, the evidence they collect is minimal at best and while they don’t capture anything on their thermal cameras and EVP sessions are non-existent they still move forward to cast out the demons. I think the best piece of evidence they gathered was a chair that moved slightly. However, people were near the chair with dozens of explanations on how it could have happened. While certainly cool if it were real, nothing suggests that only the paranormal could have done such a thing.

There is no doubt they come across some interesting situations with people who seem to have some odd things going on around them. The two most interesting episodes are about a teenager who sees and feels the presence of his dead grandmother in the upstairs of his house, especially the bathroom. He sees shadowy figures, nearly broke his leg running away from something he saw, and feels queasy repeatedly when he’s upstairs. The one part that really bugged me was that the father knew of the death, knew the details of what happened, but didn’t feel it necessary to share those details to Ryan when he was being interviewed. Those are the kind of details you should mention.

The other compelling episode is the finale which involves an exorcism. A young girl and her parents believe she is in fact possessed by an evil entity. Not just that odd things are going on, but that an actual evil spirit has invaded their daughter’s body. The evidence mounts that a spirit called “Six” is in charge of her and an Episcopal priest is called in to exorcise the demons. Real or not it would be one hell of thing to witness and would probably scare the hell out of me. That priest didn’t seem to be fooling around. He was liberal with the Holy Water and those beads of sweat looked real enough to me.

So is Paranormal State still worth watching? But of course. It’s too much fun not to. Again, these people believe, truly believe something has invaded their homes and that alone makes the problem real. Do Ryan and his team find compelling evidence of the paranormal? I have to say no. They don’t really discover anything that defies some other type of explanation. Even the exorcism could be nothing more than an unfortunate girl with a mental condition. But the stories are interesting and it would be so cool to be a part of them. It’s certainly one of those experiences that would be hard to duplicate. Plus, there’s plenty of atmosphere and things that make you think while you’re watching it at night, with the lights off.

I like Ryan and his style. In fact all of them have level heads even when they see some really bizarre events. And Heather is a take charge kind of gal as she heads down to the basement alone to see if the spirits want to have a bit of a chat.

This season was far too short for me. Let’s hope the next season gives us some more episodes to work with. I like what these guys do and there is no doubt I’d tag along if given half a chance.

For those that already believe this show will support their beliefs. For those that don’t this certainly won’t change their mind.

Paranormal State: The Complete Season Two (Amazon)
Paranormal State: The Complete Season Two (Netflix)

Paranormal State – Season 2

Other Articles of Interest:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply