Ever since the early days of reality TV, paranormal programming has been a hit. Viewers spend just about the same amount of time squinting at the always-fuzzy videos taken in hopes of deciphering a UFO, a cryptid or something even more sinister as they do making judgements on the evidence at hand. It’s almost like a game to the outside parties, who have no vested interests in it all.
But what if the person(s) responsible for the evidence was actually told, face to face, that their sighting(s) was real or fake after studying the evidence? Then you’d have the general concept for the new program, Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction!
Filmed on location at the Variety Bar & Lounge in Roswell, NM among the locals, Mitch Horowitz (author and historian with investigative research into the unexplained) and Chrissy Newton (investigative journalist with a concentration in space, science and the unknown) have teamed up with a bunch of off-screen data analysts to determine once and for all, the believability factor of so many social media posts that you may have seen through a variety of platforms.
Presenting their testimony, along with any video evidence, hard proof and reactions to their experiences, a trio of witnesses present their cases each episode. And after their video recreations have aired, our hosts attempt to determine what exactly they saw.
“Finding something that’s real is the purpose of this mission…”
In Northern California, a farmer truly believes a strange aerial sighting is linked to a dream he had, paired with his father recently passing away. A local geologist claims to have found a piece of the Roswell wreckage from the original UAP crash site. And in Vernal, UT, a teacher was exposed to something unknown that flew above her car (while she was driving), giving her severe radiation burns, which led to deteriorating health conditions. She has since seen similar objects about every other day of her life.
These are the scenarios that are presented in the series premiere, “You Saw a UFO.”
As for the first case, NORAD data debunked the unknown sighting as the International Space Station (ISS), but our guest was absolutely unconvinced by the facts. For the second scenario, test results revealed the fragment’s composition was pure aluminum, which isn’t found as a non-alloy naturally on the planet, and a former AATIP government source revealed pure aluminum has been found at other reported crash sites. The ruling for this evidence was alien, indeed. And the final scenario, which involved submitted medical reports and images, revealed similar reactions to eyewitnesses of UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). This witness appeared truly terrified at what she has endured throughout the years, but relieved that she finally has some sort of resolution.
The face-to-face nature of our hosts and the confrontational responses to the witnesses’ claims makes this an awesomely awkward show, although it would’ve been nice had some of the hired professional analysts appeared to discuss their findings. I absolutely love that these people are exploring strange encounters and weird events within the alien capital of the world. Speaking of which, I’d still like to see Horowitz delve a little deeper within each cases’ paranormal elements, since that seems to be his specialty (from his appearances on Ancient Aliens, The UnXplained, The UnBelievable and Shudder’s Cursed Films).
It’s obvious each of the witnesses who have appeared on the show (so far) believes that he or she is experiencing a rare event. While trauma is sometimes tied to these appearances, I’d be curious to see some actual skeptics brought onto the show, who are later proven to have witnessed something special. Turning a disbeliever into a believer would be more impactful than proving a believer to be correct in their assumptions.
I’ll continue watching this new Discovery program, which currently airs on Wednesday nights or is available via the network’s streaming channel.