Proof - A New TV Series

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nbtruthman

New
#2
#2
More information, from http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/proof-tnt-orders-new-supernatural-drama-32378/ :

"In Proof, (Jennifer) Beals plays Dr. Carolyn Tyler, a brilliant surgeon with a caustic edge. Carolyn has suffered the recent, devastating loss of her teenage son, the breakup of her marriage to Dr. Len Barliss (Gleeson) and a growing estrangement from their daughter (Thurman). But Carolyn’s own trauma hasn’t deterred her from her charitable outreaches, which include helping disaster victims in far-flung trouble spots throughout the world.

Despite her skeptical, hard-science attitude, Carolyn is persuaded by a cancer-stricken tech millionaire (Modine) to investigate cases of reincarnation, out-of-body experiences, hauntings and other supernatural phenomena. Her goal is to find verifiable proof to life’s greatest questions: Is death truly the end, or is there something else beyond?"

This sounds good maybe, but it is likely that the new series will descend into soap-opera schlock while leaving the ultimate question open, where each case still has an apparently plausible skeptic/materialist explanation. This would presumably be in the hope of avoiding alienating any large group in the audience demographics, while continuing to dangle the bait for the afterlife believers to keep watching. Of course the brilliant surgeon character will never find proof - there will never be any unequivocal evidence. The show will always be ambiguous, to keep drawing the audience on episode after episode. So I predict frustration, irritation and boredom on the part of both proponents and skeptics.
 
Craig Weiler

Craig Weiler

Associate
#4
#4
nbtruthman said:
More information, from http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/proof-tnt-orders-new-supernatural-drama-32378/ :

"In Proof, (Jennifer) Beals plays Dr. Carolyn Tyler, a brilliant surgeon with a caustic edge. Carolyn has suffered the recent, devastating loss of her teenage son, the breakup of her marriage to Dr. Len Barliss (Gleeson) and a growing estrangement from their daughter (Thurman). But Carolyn’s own trauma hasn’t deterred her from her charitable outreaches, which include helping disaster victims in far-flung trouble spots throughout the world.

Despite her skeptical, hard-science attitude, Carolyn is persuaded by a cancer-stricken tech millionaire (Modine) to investigate cases of reincarnation, out-of-body experiences, hauntings and other supernatural phenomena. Her goal is to find verifiable proof to life’s greatest questions: Is death truly the end, or is there something else beyond?"

This sounds good maybe, but it is likely that the new series will descend into soap-opera schlock while leaving the ultimate question open, where each case still has an apparently plausible skeptic/materialist explanation. This would presumably be in the hope of avoiding alienating any large group in the audience demographics, while continuing to dangle the bait for the afterlife believers to keep watching. Of course the brilliant surgeon character will never find proof - there will never be any unequivocal evidence. The show will always be ambiguous, to keep drawing the audience on episode after episode. So I predict frustration, irritation and boredom on the part of both proponents and skeptics.
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My thoughts exactly.
 
Quantumfog

Quantumfog

New
#5
#5
nbtruthman said:
More information, from http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/proof-tnt-orders-new-supernatural-drama-32378/ :

... will descend into soap-opera schlock while leaving the ultimate question open, where each case still has an apparently plausible skeptic/materialist explanation. ... continuing to dangle the bait...Of course the brilliant surgeon character will never find proof - there will never be any unequivocal evidence. The show will always be ambiguous, to keep drawing the audience on episode after episode. So I predict frustration, irritation and boredom on the part of both proponents and skeptics.
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Your review should be standardized in the form of a meme.
 
RoseGardener

RoseGardener

New
#6
#6
Everything you all say is accurate. .... I don't expect that TNT will stay true to the current science (without bias)....

But... what this does show .... is another step forward in the discussion...

They may not manage the discussion the way I would prefer. But.... they are doing the show .... and it's not something any major media would have even considered 10-15 years ago. The fact that they're even testing the premise says something about the larger discussion in our culture.

Materialism is dying, it may be a slow and agonizing death..... but step-by-step ... the discussion against strict materialism is growing....
 
Alex

Alex

New
#7
#7
Hi RG... thx for this... looks great... we'll see what it's like when TNT is done with it :) I'd be happy to interview these folks on Skeptiko, but probably won't pursue it unless they expressed some interest (too many other folks to track down).

Let me know if you're interested enough to send them an email and they are interested enough to reply.
 
Vault313

Vault313

New
#8
#8
RoseGardener said:
Everything you all say is accurate. .... I don't expect that TNT will stay true to the current science (without bias)....

But... what this does show .... is another step forward in the discussion...

They may not manage the discussion the way I would prefer. But.... they are doing the show .... and it's not something any major media would have even considered 10-15 years ago. The fact that they're even testing the premise says something about the larger discussion in our culture.

Materialism is dying, it may be a slow and agonizing death..... but step-by-step ... the discussion against strict materialism is growing....
Click to expand...

Yes, it will be interesting to see how this is received by the PAL. I think most people are just ignorant of the research done with NDEs and psi in general. They might remember those old Time Life book commercials that aired all the time when I was a kid, and they freaked me out! Made me scared to death of psi, especially OBEs.

Maybe this show will do what other popular shows like Medium and Ghost Whisperer did. It won't convert any hard nosed skeptics out there, and hopefully it isn't portrayed all cheesy, but like you said, maybe it will start the conversation in a more mainstream way.
 
RoseGardener

RoseGardener

New
#9
#9
Let me know if you're interested enough to send them an email and they are interested enough to reply.
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Alex - I'm definitely interested. Just have to figure out how to get to the right person. TNT's website doesn't make it straight-forward, but I'll see what I can do.

Maybe this show will do what other popular shows like Medium and Ghost Whisperer did. It won't convert any hard nosed skeptics out there, and hopefully it isn't portrayed all cheesy, but like you said, maybe it will start the conversation in a more mainstream way.
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Yes - that's what I'm most interested in, is how they treat the subject matter. Do they stay true to the latest science, without bias? Will they make it "cheesy"? Will they make the characters "real" or just caricatures of "believers" and "skeptics"? Those kinds of questions....
 
Craig Weiler

Craig Weiler

Associate
#10
#10
RoseGardener said:
Alex - I'm definitely interested. Just have to figure out how to get to the right person. TNT's website doesn't make it straight-forward, but I'll see what I can do.



Yes - that's what I'm most interested in, is how they treat the subject matter. Do they stay true to the latest science, without bias? Will they make it "cheesy"? Will they make the characters "real" or just caricatures of "believers" and "skeptics"? Those kinds of questions....
Click to expand...
Find out who the executive producers are and then find out who their assistants are. You can generally get an email address for an assistant.
 
Pollux

Pollux

New
#12
#12
The show might have potential, but it started out kinda clichéd. A kind of dickish/bitch doctor, who likes to bully her co-workers - and who writes everything off that doesn't fit her narrow minded materialistic, "scientific", worldview, as bollox - gets in touch with a Steve Jobs-like, IT-billionaire wizard called Turing (yeah Turing) who has terminal cancer (Steve Jobs-hint) - who are interested in New Age-ish stuff, and wants to know what happens after we die.

For us, who are deeply entrenched in all the lingo, and elementary history, different elements, moments, and sections of the NDE-phenomenon, gets to hear them all expressed through somewhat strained dialogues in the show. Yeah, I know; for those who never heard of NDE's they have to baby-step the viewers through it, step by step. But they use the, so worn-out, clichés that skeptics and proponents has hashed out for decades, so it gets a bit tiresome to hear them repeated in a somewhat stale dialogue, in the show. It's like a cliché-shower.

I might might sound a bit cynical about it, but I like the show anyway - and think it has potential, when (if), it passes through this initial "educating-the-viewers"-phase, and gets more serious. So I will definitely keep watching.
 
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Morning Fog

Morning Fog

New
#14
#14
I watched the pilot episode last week on OnDemand. I think it has a lot of potential. And the fact it's on TNT instead of one of the major networks, may mean it may have some staying power. I just hope the writers keep the show interesting.
 
T

Trancestate

Member
#18
#18
T

tradingdavid

New
#19
#19
I've watched the first three episodes and I think it's okay. Since I read about this sort of stuff I might tend to pick it apart. For one the show would drive skeptics nuts. They talk about science but every case so far is at best an anecdotal case.

I think perhaps the show is an interesting commentary on normal people ie scriptwriters thinking science = careful reasoned examination versus reality that it is a tool to arrive at conclusions with a high degree of confidence with adherence to the specific dictates of the tool reaching near dogmatic levels as the only way to arrive conclusions that something is more likely to be real then anything else.
 
Bertha Huse

Bertha Huse

New
#20
#20
I like the show. Obviously they have to cater to a general audience but the production values are very good. Acting is
really good. And I like they way they approach the psi material. Tough but fair. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the
material they are using came from actual cases. Worth watching.

My Best,
Bertha
 
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