I am not really a skeptic when it comes to these sorts of things, having had my share of some at least semi-mystical experiences, so I approached Paranormal State with an open mind, but I quickly became appalled by what is on its surface at least a very exploitative element to virtually every episode. We are privy to families, often with young children, in a state of incredible distress, sometimes obviously having little to do with any unseen "entities" (though Buell avers that these demons "feed" on the disorder they find). Kids from broken families, some with obvious emotional problems, are trotted out before the cameras, and asked (albeit sometimes by an actual psychologist) what those icky monsters are doing to them in the dead of night, and it left me at least with a palpable distaste in my mouth. It's completely disingenuous as well for several episodes to revolve around a supposed demon whose name is so dangerous its mere mention is bleeped out. And yet that same name is paraded in repeated quick-cut superimpositions that anyone with a pause button on a remote or DVR can read with alacrity. Not to mention the fact that the name is fairly well-known to anyone with even a passing interest in the history of the apocrypha.

There's also something at least a little odd with some apparently intelligent and accomplished people (at least in some episodes) spilling their guts to "researchers" who are all obviously in their late teens or early 20s. Personally if I'm being attacked by denizens of the third ring of hell, I would want help from someone who isn't young enough to be my child or even my grandchild. In fact some cases are deemed so potentially "dangerous" that some of the younger researchers do not participate. It's also hard to take the proceedings totally seriously when various participants seem to be on the verge of laughing as they're being filmed--is this actually some elaborate "Punk'd" that we haven't reached the punchline of yet? Another episode segues from the researchers battling a demon in a trailer park to them frolicking in the snowy outdoor environment a second later. Stay focused, people--maybe it's a tornado demon, considering what always seems to happen to mobile homes in weather disasters. There are occasional "guest psychics," for want of a better term, like Lorraine Warren, the lady who helped with the Amityville Horror, who at least bring a little gravitas, not to mention age, to the proceedings, though her wizened visage and occasional grammatical misstep might inadvertently evoke Ruth Gordon's Minnie Castavet from Rosemary's Baby.

What really bothers me the most about the series is its patently Christian, and even more specifically, Catholic, take on reality, with God and Satan battling it out day by day for every last soul they can muster on their particular side. Therefore you get one client avowing, "Well, I believe in God, so you pretty much have to believe in the Devil." The use of crucifixes, holy water, and even the occasional Priest (albeit Episcopal, though the Catholic Church is repeatedly referenced in several episodes) and/or exorcist gives this series the uneasy imprimatur of the radical religious right, however unintended that may be by Buell or the series' producers. Jesus is repeatedly called on by the researchers to banish the evil spirits disturbing various clients. What happens if, heaven forfend, the Paranormal Research Society gets called on to aid someone Jewish? Or Hindi? Or atheist? Or do these meanie phantoms only go after believing Christians?

The reveals in all of these episodes are uniformly underwhelming, with supposedly spiritual phenomena being indicated by the sound of breathing or a closing door or faraway footsteps. What's difficult to discern, however, is whether these are foley effects added post-production to "beef up" the scariness of it all. The show is full of whiz-bang effects like that, with whooshing noises, creepy music and a lot of high-tech gadgetry like thermal imagery or radios equipped to converse with the dead that I guess is supposed to convince us that some element of the invisible can be seen or at least heard.

There's obviously a gaggle of believers in this kind of stuff, and perhaps they won't be bothered by some of the elements mentioned above. Me, I'm sticking to The Twilight Zone.

The DVD

Video:
The series is presented in an unenhanced 1.78:1 image. Colors are acceptable and contrast is OK, though so much of the series is shot at night, and with infrared cameras at times, that a lot of the series is very murky.

Sound:
There are quite a few sound effects on the standard stereo soundtrack, all of which help create a feeling of uncertainty. There's not a whale of a lot of separation, but fidelity is excellent.

Extras:
There are commentaries manned by Buell and other team members on three episodes, where they come off as even younger and, dare I say it, goofier than they do in the actual series, probably not a good thing for establishing credibility. Buell also makes for some unintended irony when he waxes about how much they don't include in the series out of deference to their clients' privacy. There are also shorts showing Behind the Scenes footage, the PRS Team Members, Guest Experts (watch how the director the Underground Railroad Museum looks a little embarrassed to find himself in these trappings), and Additional Footage, which reveals the PRS team as simply fun-loving youth who also like investigating ghosts.

Final Thoughts:
I'm not sure what bothered me more about this show, the frankly exploitative treatment of its clients, some of whom are obviously people in great emotional turmoil, or its patently right-wing Christian solutions for everyone's problems. Either way, there are better examinations of paranormal phenomena on most cable channels without the smarmy elements contained in this particular series, and if you're interested in this sort of thing, I recommend you start with those. As for Paranormal State, skip it.

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"G-d made stars galore" & "Hey, what kind of a crappy fortune is this?" ZMK, modern prophet