Mountain Monsters

I checked out these guy's personal web site at "www.aimsa.org" (the one apparently not related to the "Destination America" channel), - and as an experiment to see if "A.I.M.S." (The Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings)actually even existed - I sent "Trapper", the leader of this gaggle of semi-pro actors, a personal email - giving him a little additional data that I had sought out about the "Devil Dog" of Logan County after I had done some armchair research, and my email came back "Return to sender - address unknown". Suspicions confirmed! An obvious bogus dummy site! I won't lie and say this show is not entertaining, it is, especially if your Ten years old. My issue mainly is that it pretends to be something that it's not (much like Pro-Wrestling and American politics). It will insult your intelligence brutally if you are actually watching it for real information or actual journalistic truth - and not merely as a diversion in order to surrender your higher brain functions to a nice catatonic stare, and a greater appreciation of the merciless butchering of the "Blair Witch Methodology" of media production.

Several of the gang seem to me to be vaguely recognizable as both bit part actors in other things that I may have seen them in over the years - and various cameos as other people here and there throughout the universe of premium / pay T.V. past times. Especially "Trapper", and the "Youngster" (The young fat guy whose habitually clumsy, and that wears painfully cliché red neck Bandannas) - both of which I feel like I have seen before in some other programming somewhere. It doesn't really matter though because it's obvious from the bad acting, the CGI "Witness Videos", the "over the top" characterizations, the Saturday morning cartoon / Three stooges delivery, and the obvious lack of real knowledge that any of the characters have over the core subject matter and background histology - that this show is a complete farce.

Look at this this way, it takes a little more than just a talent for "scarin up possums and coons" to catch something that has evaded people with PHDs and decades of serious zoological / expeditionary field research under their belts. And the "shoot first and ask questions later" approach does not bode well with a potentially endangered species that may technically be federally protected defacto.

Watch it if your desperate for low brow entertainment - just don't be gullible or stupid enough to buy it.

This show is absolutely fantastic in that it never fails to keep me entertained. Granted I am usually howling with laughter, it is still fairly funny if you don't buy in to it (which I'm sure some poor souls do). I would love to be a producer or editor of the footage because it has to be great to go through all of it. Well put together that's for sure. At least it makes me laugh, unlike all the other "reality" but not reality shows out there. This season (dedicated to Bigfoot) has started off on the right foot. It's a bit like those wrestling programs on TV that have been around for decades or a good soap opera. At least they don't pretend to be trying to get scientific evidence. They walk off without one sample of that Sasquatch skat! Keep at it boys, we'll be watching.

...is the title of a real movie. This program is not far removed.

I often find myself defending Appalachians. Most descend from Scots/Irish settlers, so one can reasonably assume they're intelligent. (If you ignore the twang, you'll hear that most use good grammar, pronounce words correctly, and have a solid vocabulary.) This program, unfortunately, makes me think I should abandon my defense.

Even allowing for the fact that humans are, in general, irrationally credulous, how much of this are we supposed to believe? The Devil Dog episode is plausible (though I question the existence of coyote packs -- coyotes are generally solitary). The Wolf-Man episode is maybe, kinda, sorta believable -- if one accepts the possibility of a wolf with an excess of growth hormone.

The Moth Man and Lizard Demon episodes are beyond ludicrous. Thinking you saw something doesn't mean you saw what you thought you saw. I'm particularly bothered by the Lizard Demon's footprint, which looks fake. //All// the footprints look fake -- as if they'd been carefully crafted and pressed //just so// into the dirt.

As with "Porter Ridge", the best part of the show is the cast -- some of whom are drop-dead handsome (Willy, especially).

To summarize, I can only say... "Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a man a thermal-imaging camera, and he'll turn it into a profitable TV series."

This is just plain old mindless TV entertainment for a relaxing evening. I enjoy watching. I knew it was silly watching the promos. I would rather watch this than some dancing with the has been stars or hearing no talent American idols. I look forward to it knowing what is gonna happen. Building traps like the 'Moth Man' episode. That was great. Knowing these guys never catch anything and watching the mess they get into is funny. Plus how many more of the same old alien shows can we stand? For me the big draw was the Appalachians, I can watch anything about that region. I am not a hillbilly basher but they make for TV.

Since I am a native of West Virginia, it is disappointing to see another stupid show making us all look bad. However, it's even more disappointing to see that other people who have written reviews on here have clustered all of the Appalachian population together and called us all the stereotypical names and made all the stereotypical comments, especially since I'm sure most of you are not from Appalachia and don't have any factual knowledge about it. But here's the funny thing. I have all of my teeth, I am actually about to start my junior year of college at a school IN West Virginia, and I have a pretty high GPA. I'm not stupid. In fact, most of the people here are not stupid. West Virginians have been made fun of forever, but I can guarantee you that the people from West Virginia are some of the nicest and most friendly that you will ever meet and would give you the shirt off their back. I am proud of where I come from, regardless of any of the ignorant comments that any of you have made or will make.