My mom (who is pretty awesome, btw) grew up watching the original Star Trek with family, so when she had kids she shared Star Trek with us. I'm the only one who really got into it, but it was still cool. Point is, I grew up watching William Shatner on TV, so maybe I'm biased when I say I just love the guy's onscreen presence. Sure, he's over the top, but there's just something about him. Yeah, he's been in some other stuff since Star Trek, but I never really got into any of that, and recently he's only really done bit parts in various series. So, when I heard that The Shat had a new series on SyFy, even if he was just hosting, I got very excited, and for the most part, I wasn't disappointed. Still, this may just be my bias again, as I love weird phenomena even more than I love Bill on TV, so let's really break this thing down and see if it's as good as I thought the first time through.
How to describe Weird or What? The fastest way would probably be to ask who out there remember's the old series hosted by another Star Trek star, Jonathan Frakes, called Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction? For those who don't, it was a fantastic show where every week they came in with five fresh stories, claiming that some were written based on true stories, while others were completely fabricated, and then challenged the viewers to guess which were which, only revealing the answers at the end. It was great. They had to get new actors every week, for each story, so sometimes the performances were a little subpar, but still it was always fun to watch. Weird or What? is a lot like Beyond Belief, except that instead of making a clear distinction between fiction and non-fiction, each episode has a theme, and each story is a story of a true event, it is only the interpretation of the event that is up for...well...interpretation. For example, the first episode was about spirits and the afterlife, looking at stories that claim that contact has been made with the dead. The stories were told very cinematically, often with some good reenactments, the claims were looked at with little or no bias, and it's up to us, the viewer, to draw our own conclusions based on what we can go so far as to believe. While several of the stories are ones that supernatural buffs (like me) would already know, by the end of the episode they get a little more in depth. The pacing is good, and its a good way to introduce those who have no exposure to the supernatural genre to the supernatural genre. Not to mention the Big Shatner's unique method of delivery really works well in the role of a host.
While Weird or What? is just getting started, and I think it could really go a lot further digging into the depths of the supernatural for some much more interesting stories, I think it got off to a good start and shows a lot of potential. Anyone with any interest in ghost stories, monster sightings, or alien encounters, even slightly, should give this show at least one go and see what they think. I give Weird or What? a score of 8 out of 10.
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