SWAMP MONSTERS SEASON ONE: REALITY?

With the success of shows like GHOST HUNTERS and FINDING BIGFOOT tons of real life adventure stories are making their way to the small screens on several channels. Almost all of them feature some person or group searching out something mysterious with the hopes of either catching it on film or capturing whatever it is they’re after. The two aforementioned shows at least present programs where they’re willing to say this is a hoax or there is a reasonable explanation for something. But others leave much to be desired.

SWAMP MONSTERS falls into that category. Following the tried and true pattern being followed for these show we’re presented with a group who call themselves the Bayou Enforcement Agency for Supernatural Threats (B.E.A.S.T.). Love the acronym. This group sets out to capture and prove the existence of several threatening creatures down in the swamp lands where they live. They seem like nice enough guys but as if someone is trying to make normal people appear to be the cast of DELIVERANCE in search of legendary monsters.

This DVD offers the group in search of three well known (?) monsters from the swamp. The first is the Grunch. No, not the Grinch, the Grunch. Then there’s the Honey Island Swamp Monster. Lastly is the Cajun werewolf. Each episode has the group doing research on the monster they are after, which is normally them interviewing colorful characters from the swamplands nearby who tell them the tales they’ve heard all their lives and their personal interaction with each one. Then they scout out the area that they’ve heard these creatures live in. They formulate a plan to capture it, creating traps that make you wonder why they think they would work. Lastly they head out for the night to catch their prey.

The one thing that holds true to this show that does for nearly all the rest is that they never catch anything. We might hear something stirring in the woods, the trap might snap and catch something but they always seem to escape. Then our boys go home having and on to the next creature. It never seems odd that they spend perhaps three days to find information, get set, fail and then give up. They never stake themselves out for any longer amounts of time to catch anything which if you seriously had that goal would seem to make sense. Then again perhaps they are accountants during the week and do this on the weekend to shoot the show.

There is some entertainment value to this program just like there are the rest. They guys on the team seem to have fun with one another and are honestly friends. The footage of what they never catch makes for some interesting and fun moments as do the interviews with backwoods swamp living people they know. It’s not a bad show but not one I’m likely to visit on a regular basis.

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