Trending Fear Review
Trending Fear debuted in December 2019 as part of Travel Channel’s new wave of ghost hunting TV shows. It follows the #DearDavid viral videos from Twitter. Get the scoop after the jump.
Adam Ellis, of the #DearDavid viral series of tweets, and 2 investigators check out paranormal happenings submitted through social media. If you remember, #DearDavid followed Adam and the haunting in his apartment.
Now, he gets different requests for help across the US. Once he vets the case, he heads out with with BFF, Jen Lewis, and gadget guy, Paul Bradford.
The show takes social media seriously. They vet with Facebook Live, throw in hashtags, and display Twitter-first graphics. I don’t think the show really needs it. My little focus group of 4 people thought it was more of a distraction, too.
During investigations, you don’t see much advanced gear used by Adam and Jen. It’s obvious to me that they’re new to the ghost hunting world: Adam looks uncomfortable with a MEL meter at times. But Paul gets enough screen time to show he can whip up some gadgets when they need them, like the crystal ball episode. I think Paul is the guy behind Ghost Stop‘s gear, which I buy … often.
Trending Fear bucks the trends with other shows because they don’t get immediate haunting evidence; and, there’s no focus on demonic entities. But they do try to resolve the haunting at the end, like with the Voodoo priestess in Voodoo Vendetta.
What’s Good:
It’s not over-the-top, bonkers ghost hunting. Sure, you get an occasional jump scare, but the producers play this show straight. It’s more like Ghost Nation than Ghost Adventures. Adam and the crew seem like normal folks, who just fell into a paranormal journey. For the most part, it feels real, even though the haunting resolution seems contrived.
What’s Bad:
Adam doesn’t feel comfortable with the gadgets yet. I hope he gets some lessons from Paul soon. It’s just weird to watch a ghosty show and people don’t know how to handle the gear. Prolly my bias in this case.
The resolutions made me groan a few times. It’s kinda like, “Surprise! We’ve got your problem solved!,” when it should have more build up.
Should You Watch It:
Yep, it’s one I watch on-demand. If you like Ghost Hunters and Ghost Nation, you’ll probably like this show. If Destination Fear and Ghost Adventures are your thing, then you might get bored with it.
Trending Fear airs Friday nights at 11 PM ET on Travel Channel.
Destination Fear ©2019 | Travel Channel and Texas Crew Productions
Jacob ‘Jake’ Rice is a cozy ghost hunter, who solves ghostly mysteries like an amateur sleuth. He began ghost hunting in 2009, and he’s written 3 books on the subject. Jake lives in Olympia, Washington with this pack of rescue mutts.
3 thoughts on “Trending Fear Review”
Ratings Update: The December 27th episode pulled in 336,000 viewers. It was the 40th most watched show that night. Not very strong numbers, but there was a lot of college football on TV that night. We’ll see how it holds up after the holidays.
Source: http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-top-150-friday-cable-originals-network-finals-12-27-2019.html
Ratings Update: I checked the season finale and Trending Fear pulled in 270,000 viewers. I think this show is toast.
If this is genuine, then what they are finding is too important for the manner in which it is produced. They are reducing interesting material to a Scooby Doo level. If genuine, the material is sufficiently interesting and exciting to stand on its own; lose the ‘music’ which hamfistedly signals every ‘revelation’; stop the face pulling and ‘Golly, gee whiz!’ response to every event; stop the silly special effects which merely lead one to believe that the whole thing is phoney, and keep the cameras focussed long enough to allow the viewer to see what is happening.
Read the situations cold; going in primed with expectations which, golly, turn out to be verified by your experiences, is unimpressive.
Treat the viewer with a little more respect; we do have more of an attention span than a goldfish and are able to remember what has happened across the commercial breaks, (I realise the the constant repetition is a trope in all/most documentaries and find it one [of the many] irritating aspects of (American) documentaries. Maybe you should try to adopt a more adult approach; you could start a trend.
In short, there is the possibility of there being some fascinating material in this; the question is, how much of it is real and the production method does not do anything to promote authenticity. I would be fascinated to be in attendance at one of these investigations to see what really happens.