Tonight is the second season premiere of Ghost Hunters Academy. So far, I’ve heard plenty of promises of change to the show. But, for me to become a loyal fan, there are 7 things I need to see this season:
First, the show needs set some rules early. My biggest pet peeve about the first season of the show is it didn’t really have a set format. Team members would be eliminated, but not on a regular basis. And, it wasn’t clear whether someone added a couple weeks before the end of the season had a legitimate chance of winning (they later revealed many students would be retained for this season).
This season, I would like to see the show be clearer about the process.
On that note, I would like to see an end to the eliminations. I know it won’t happen this season (they’ve promised to eliminate one person each week). But, I never really could see the point of kicking students off the show. It’s one thing to get rid of a person who lies or doesn’t do the work. But, when you cut people and add new people on a regular basis, you are doing two things; you are putting the new people at an obvious disadvantage (especially late in the season) and you are discouraging team work.
If the show makes it past this season, I would like to see that modified so all the students (minus the really bad ones) make it to the end before a decision is made to graduate them, flunk them or invite them back.
Third, let’s actually learn something this time. I started watching this show last year in the hopes I would see and learn something I wouldn’t normally see on Ghost Hunters. Instead, all they did was re-hash the same stuff I already knew. Teach us something already! Anything!
And, can we get out of Ghost Hunters shadow? Last season, the show was pretty much “the best of Ghost Hunters” with the GHA class being taken to places that had a lot of activity with TAPS was there. The problem with this was the GHA team never found anything when they were at these places. This raised a few red flags with me because it meant either the students weren’t very good or it meant the “evidence” TAPS collected should be re-visited.
Please, let’s not see too much of Jason Hawes. Hawes, of course, is going to be involved with the final decisions this season. I know he’s the founder of TAPS and the reason for this spin-off. But, I think he gets enough air time already without being a big part of this show too.
Just as important as above, can Dave Tango please show up this time? Last season, it was Steve Gonsalves’ show and Tango was more or less in the background offering very little insight. I would love to see him get more involved this time around. If nothing else, put him in charge of reviewing the evidence so he can point out things the GHA students might have missed during their review.
Last, can we have a few less cheap shots at ex-investigators? Last season, Steve seemed to use every opportunity to take a shot at former TAPS member Brian Harnois (even though he was never mentioned by name). As any regular Ghost Hunters viewer can tell you, Brian wasn’t the best investigator. But, that many negative comments can be a bit classless.