The Proof Is Out There Season 4 Episode 18 Review
Vampiric dogs, alien meteors, enormous craters, and more lie in store for audiences in the latest episode of ‘The Proof Is Out There’, with Tony Harris and the crew digging deep into more mysterious mysteries. It’s an episode hat indulges a bit too much in the conspiratorial side of things, with plenty presented to watches, even if the conclusion of these events is mostly rational. It’s a surpise that these are being entertained for audiences to consider, and frustrating when the explanation is sane and logical.
A fantastic illustration of this is the great hole in Russia. For far too long this section talks about troglodytes and hollow Earth, before eventually moving on to more rational ideas about why it might exist. Once the section moves past this, there’s much more rational discussions about the types of phenomena for the hole’s existance.
Of course, this isn’t the only occurance of this. When exploring an alleged Chupacabra corpse, the episode won’t stop talking about vampires. It eventually moves on to conclude that these vampiric creatures aren’t real, as many people would have suspected, but this again takes far too long to happen, recklessly scaring people that they might be attacked by one of these creatures. This type of speculation is dangerous, and Harris ought to be aware of that.
A final bit of deranged activity is ignoring experts. The first is during a segment over an alleged UFO sighting over Brazil, which experts can’t agree what’s happening. Instead of making a decision to side with either one, Harris just bats the issue away, claiming the case remains unresolved. But the second time this happens is far more dangerous. Towards the end of the show, experts come up with different, equally plausible theories for why a man can mimic crows. Instead of choosing an expert to side with and justifying his logic, Harris makes the baffling choice to instead go with what the locals think, which isn’t where the facts took him at all.
Past episodes are guilty of reheating old conspiracies and failing to add anything of value – and this episode is no exception as it travels back to 1950s Brazil – but it somehow gets worse when Harris and the team do “solve” the case. The whole Titanic was swapped theory was debunked long ago, even within a HISTORY Channel article published over five years ago, so Harris claiming to be “happy to sink this rumour once and for all” rings hollow. It’s inclusion is also weird, as apart from the unfortunate submarine accident in 2023, the Titanic isn’t newsworthy, certainly solved conspiracies about it aren’t.
Thankfully, this episode doesn’t fully vacate reality, and manages to retain some of the either more educative and quick debunking of theories that can make it interesting to watch. One is exploring a meteor that arrived in Somalia, and the other is dunking a video of alleged dinosaur babies. Both include intriguing science that might help to teach audiences about how different minerals are formed, what dinosaurs roamed the Earth, or the types of different editing tricks hoaxers will use to try and trick poor people that their conspiracies. It’s not much, but it saves the episode from just being an advert for conspiracies.
Indulging in conspiracy theories is an occupational hazard in this type of show, as there has to be enough to explain what the theory is, but too much and it sounds like the show itself is positing it as a rational conclusion. Unfortunately, season four episode 18 crosses that line with potentially dangerous effects. There are still flashes of being tethered to reality, but it’s far too few and far between. Worse still, Harris and his team veer away from their experts twice in the show, and while their split decision certainly makes things difficult, at no point does Harris look at the facts for himself to make a rational decision.
