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Kevin Bacon comes to the small screen in The Following

Kevin Bacon is jumping into a new role which from the description sounds pretty gripping:

A brilliant and charismatic, yet psychotic serial killer communicates with other active serial killers and activates a cult of believers following his every command.

So we have a serial killer inciting other serial killers to act out and kill. Ok, no good will come from that. I have no idea how this story is going to come together, but I will be tuning in to see what happens. It seems like this could be some mix between Criminal Minds, Helter Skelter and perhaps a tinge of the serial killer Red John from the Mentalist?

The premiere episode is this Monday, the 21st. It’s definitely worth a look.

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Ghost Mine – S01E01

There is no shortage of shows about gold mining and there is no shortage of shows about ghost hunting. So what do you get when you go out on a limb and combine the two? Quite right, you get Ghost Mine.

So what’s the premise? Well, a newly purchased mine is expected to have a last few veins of gold that need to be retrieved. It could mean big money for the owner and for the work crew. However, there is a slight snag – the mine is said to be haunted. The last crew up and left without warning. They were spooked by something and decided now is the time to get out. The new owner still believes there is gold in them thar hills and has hired a new foreman who has hand picked a crew who will brave the spirits and pick out the last remaining bars of gold. But, to be on the safe side, he’s brought in a couple of paranormal investigators to keep an eye on things and determine if the mine really could be haunted or if there are other more worldly explanations. It’s an unusual premise, but it might be world riding along for a little while to see how things go.

Right off the bat there is tension. While the miners are superstitious, they don’t want someone investigating the paranormal while they try to work. Even though the investigations will take place at night, it distresses the miners.

Then there is fact that a woman, and a redhead at that, has been brought on site. We’ve heard multiple stories about miners who said it was a bad to work when you saw a redhead in the street. They show their distress with a multitude of "bleeps" at seeing her. Stay Classy!

But this is what the owner wants so the two teams need to work together. The accommodations suck, the food sucks, the conditions suck and everyone is on edge and hostile right off the bat.

Patrick and Kristen begin by taking readings of the mine before any work starts. They want their baseline reading so they can see if things are getting "hot". Overall, it looks pretty quiet. They do make the comment that the dirt is full of quartz and this might hold on to residual spirit energy and as the miners blast and pick away at it, that energy could be released and activity will increase. Any validity to that?

Shortly after things get going, two of the miners, Duck and Jay begin to hear odd noises from in the mine. Duck, who is actually superstitious and fearful of "tommyknockers" decides it’s time to get out of there. Patrick and Kristen have been watching on their monitors and meet up with him to hear what happened. As they venture into the mine the see a small cave-in has occurred not to far from where Duck and Jay were working.

Patrick and Kristen explain their finders and there is nothing left of Duck but a vapor trail as he hauls ass off the mountain. That’s it for him, he takes it as a bad omen and wants nothing more to do with the place.

The rest of the miners want to know what’s going on and ask Jay and Kristen for some evidence, which they provide. They show the dark figure they captured moving over their laser grid, they play the couple of recordings they have of voices in the mine and explain that Duck and Jay heard tapping right before the cave-in.

It’s not looking too good here. So what are they going to do? Even though they’ve lost a man, they don’t like the investigators and they’re falling behind on the work, they decide to press on and see if they can come up with some gold. They all need the money and while they seem a little edgy, there isn’t enough of an incentive to quite. Families need to be fed and work needs to be done.

I guess we’ll see what happens next week as they go back into the mine and clear the cave-in and make the best of the situation. Is there digging stirring up the spirits or is this mine just a little too old and little too unstable for excavation?

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Ripper Street – I Need Light – S01E01

 

The spree of Ripper murders has just come to an end and the streets of London reel from the murderer who hasn’t been caught. The H Division is in charge of keeping order in Whitechapel and eye out for Jack the Ripper. Any violent crime makes them cringe as it could be a new calling card.

This is not the story of detective Aberline that many of us are used to, this a whole new group that needs to protect undesirable Whitechapel and continue the investigation into Jack the Ripper. Detective Inspector Edmund Reid leads a new band of agents as they work to keep order in the streets. And what an odd band they make. The opening sequence looks like it’s been shot for Fight Club.

For this opening episode it appears Jack the Ripper is back on the streets. As a tour groups recounts the murders and visits the sites, they discover a body. Soon, there is another. Is this the work of the Ripper or some twisted copycat? With some help from the Ladies of the Night and a doctor who frequents their establishment, the group puts together the clues that leads down some very dark roads. What appears to be a copycat might actually be the work of the media looking to make a story. What looks like more random prostitutes being killed may have roots in another form of entertainment.

This is indeed a dark story and certainly darker than we might except from the BBC. The threat of Jack looms large and they see him and his work in everything they do. Every clue makes them think he’s back at work. Every victim shows his violence. But they get so wrapped in the details they don’t see the forest for the trees. Soon, they have to separate themselves and work smartly. It’s an interesting story with the first episode being rather gritty and rough. It fits the time though. Whitechapel is riddled with squalor. There are no clean streets or satin sheets on this side of town.

I’m curious to see where they head with this idea. Will they offer clues as to who Jack the Ripper might be? Will suspects from the major books make their way onto the screen so a case can be presented for each one? Will Jack be caught? Will there be a new spree that was never revealed in the papers? An interesting an touchy subject to be sure. Will this new team present some new evidence and shed some light on the current day mystery?

Either way, I’m a sucker for a period BBC drama and one that centers on Jack the Ripper has my full attention. We have all the makings of something quite interesting, the head detective with the mysterious past, the second in command who settles disputes with his fists, the doctor who has some interesting night time habits of his own, the ladies of the evening who know all that goes on in the streets and might be willing to let a few details slip if the price is right.

I’ve only seen the one episode with two more in the wings waiting for viewing. I’ll have to jump into those and see where this takes us.

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Ghost Adventures – Snug Harbor Sailors – S07E19

Zak and team head out to Staten Island to investigate the old seaside town of Snug Harbor. In it’s previous years it was a haven for retired sailors, a place where they could go and be amongst other sailors. There are tales and legends of a matron who had an illegitimate son with one of the sailors and through her shame she locked the boy in the basement. He once escaped, killed his mother and then the townspeople turned on him and hung him from a tree. There is also a confirmed report that after giving Sunday service a Reverend was gunned down by one of the sailors for motives that remain a mystery. The sailor then turned the gun on himself and took his own life. There are also reports of a white female figure that appears on-stage in the theater. The theater manager took a picture and there is a completely white figure standing several feet above the stage along with the practicing orchestra. The figure is completely white as though all the pixels for the image have been removed.

A couple of interesting stories, so does the investigation go? For this investigation "Dateline" is going along with the investigation to document them documenting the location. That’s a bit different.

One thing to note about the first story, there is no evidence to support the idea that one of the matrons had a child with a sailor, that there was a child, that the child committed murder or that the townspeople hung him. There are no newspaper items, no written accounts from trusted sources, no journals, no corroborating evidence whatsoever to suggest this is a true story. They don’t even have a name of the matron, the sailor or the boy involved. Right off the bat this story is nothing but legend. It’s been handed down for so long that people just accept it. Until some piece of evidence comes to light this story is nothing more than a farce and needs to completely discounted. For Zak and the show to make such a big deal about it with their horror effects of a child stabbing his mother with a pair of scissors all the while soaked in blood is simply ridiculous.

The investigation yields very little in the way of evidence. As you can almost predict, there is the sound of footsteps and bangs throughout. For an old building that’s clearly settling that hardly seems surprising. Zak claims to capture EVPs of the extremely faint variety, most of which don’t make any sense. "1-D" how do you put that together?

The first part doesn’t really yield much so they head over to the church where the priest was murdered. Instead of doing the investigation outside where the event took place, they go inside and sit in the pews of the church. You kind of overshot there guys…

Nick says he hears something down in the basement of the church, but they don’t actually find anything. Zak keeps claiming that he sees shadows and balls of light that indicate the presents of spirits.

When they head over to the theater they continue to get orbs moving around and Zak is firmly convinced this is spirit energy moving around and paying them a visit. While Nick hears voices and movements on the stage, Zak gets pictures of orbs out in the audience. Are these really piece of evidence? Is there more to this than just illuminated specs of dust? Whatever the case may be there is certainly no "woman in white" making an appearance on the stage and certainly no clear cut figures like the one in the photo.

In the end Zak feels the three buildings still resonate with the energy of the departed. I’m going to disagree. There is nothing to suggest the captured anything more than the sounds of a settling building and captured cars moving past the obvious building and street lights. They certainly didn’t capture the sound of a boy committing murder against his mother because that story never happened. To be honest I’m pretty disappointed they glamorized such a weak story and tried to make it sensational for television ratings.

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