Perhaps I’m just spoiled. Maybe I’m biased. Or, perhaps I’m annoyed that The Discovery Channel is trying to capitialize on the success of Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel. Either way, the debut of Ghost Lab last night was all around weak.
For starters – I love Mike Rowe. Dude has a great voice for narration. But, his persona is somewhat comedic, and no matter what, he’s always going to be “The Dirty Jobs Guy.” This makes him all wrong for narrating a show about Ghost Hunting.
Of course, there’s not a lot of scary stuff for him to take away from. While the Ghost Adventures guys intentionally seek out environments that are naturally scary (even the Ghost Hunters guys do a decent job of that) – Ghost Labs came out with a decidedly weak first location – the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium. To top it off, they also travelled to the overdone Haunted Plantation (whose name escapes me at the moment). Neither of which are anything more than curiosities in the paranormal world.
Add in a strong overemphasis on the tools of the Ghost Hunting trade, and a lack of any interesting evidence gathered, and I give this show about half a season. I didn’t even make it through the first episode.