Recap – “Ghostfacers Webisode 1”

Incidentally, I had no intention of tossing my hat into the recap ring until Dany, Julie, and Jasminka asked me to take this on in a CBOX conversation one day, so if you like what you read, thank them!  If you don’t, the fault lies completely with me.  Also, recaps are hard, man, and I only have to worry about a few minutes of online content!  How do you do this for an entire episode, Alice?  (From Alice – I still can’t answer that one myself.  Days of no sleep I guess).

Episode 1

All right, I’ve got my laptop all set, I’m at the CW website, I’ve clicked on the Ghostfacers video link, and it’s playing!  Yay!  I can’t wait for…a cat named Mr. Beacher playing the piano?  The huh?  Did I click on the wrong thing accidentally or — oh, no, here’s Harry and Ed.  Ah, I see what you did there, guys.  Clever.  Cut to…

Bwa ha ha!  Seriously, the leash is a great touch.  Harry has himself a pet dog, but he and Ed warn the viewers that it’s time to “stop petting your kittens and face the preternatural.”  It seems we’re in their world now, and we’ll be facing our worst nightmares every night, or at least for the next 10 episodes.  Ooh, ominous! And cue the theme song!  Surely we can all sing along by now.

After the Ghostfacers theme song is over, Harry informs us that the Ghostfacers are in Hollywood to continue their quest for the supernatural. Ed and Harry warn us about impostor ghost hunters before launching into a diatribe against the Winchester brothers for ruining their “absolute proof of a ghost haunting.”  But they’re really not bitter about it or anything.  They call the Winchesters jealous douchenozzles, and cut to…

That’s funny!  I like how Sam looks kind of wistful and like he’s about to break out some serious puppy-dog eyes and Dean looks like he’s about two seconds from punching someone.  That’s vintage Sam and Dean.  Also, where did the Ghostfacers get these pictures, the CW publicity department?  It’s not like Sam and Dean just stood around and let Maggie snap some photos or anything.  I’m overthinking this, surely.  Moving on.  Harry and Ed do admit, however, that:

Harry: We got bucked.
Ed: Bucked hard.  Mm-hmm. We got back on, and we let that horse know who’s bucking who.
Harry: And we’re some pretty badass broncos.
Ed: [ stares at Harry for a moment ] No, uh…we’re the cow– we’d be the cowboys.  ‘Cause the bronco, we’re on the horse, yee-haw!
Harry: Oh, right.

Hee!  And it’s at this point that I first wonder how much of the dialogue between Ed and Harry is scripted and how much is improv because the two actors, A.J. Buckley and Travis Webster, are really good at playing off each other in this back and forth, give and take sort of thing.

The poor Facers haven’t caught a ghost on film since the Morton House, but they’re not worried because if something’s out there, they’ll find it and capture it on film.  Or as Harry puts it, “If you’re dead, you better stay dead, ’cause if not, we’re gonna kill you.”

And now it’s time to meet the rest of the team!  First we get to catch up with Maggie, who is showing off a new toy to cameraman Spruce.  It’s a camera with a thermal imaging mode, and Spruce can’t help but try it out.

Next up, we meet Dave, the new Ghostfacer intern.  When Maggie asks why he wants to be a Ghostfacer, Dave admits that he studied mysticism at UC Berkley for four years and heard about Ed and Harry there.  This is Dave.  Dave seems nice, but he makes me miss Corbett.

Cut to Ed singing the praises of new intern Dave, saying he knows his stuff, is good with the equipment, that he’s no Corbett, but… At this point Harry interrupts with “he’s alive.”  Ouch, Harry.  That’s kind of a low blow.  Ed thinks so, too, because he gets a bit emotional and needs to take a moment away from the camera, which is kind of nice, actually.  I really like that Ed here is showing some genuine emotion over Corbett’s death.  Corbett cared a great deal for Ed, though Ed didn’t recriprocate those feelings.  But he’s clearly taken to heart the sacrifice Corbett made for the team, and especially him, and it’s a nice bit of character growth for the usually snarky Ed.

New scene, and Maggie, Harry, and Spruce are sitting around a table while Ed practices his ghost martial arts and Dave the intern serves them coffee.  Maggie mentions that she just found a hit on the Ghostfacers website about a haunting at a rundown theater in Hollywood called the Grand Showcase.  There have been five separate confirmed sightings of a ghost there, and three people claim to have been physically attacked.  Ed thanks his “adopted” sister, which still makes me cringe when he says that, and tells the team they have their next mission.

And that’s the end of Webisode 1.  That one was almost 4 minutes long, so they’re pretty short and sweet.  The first one did a good job of setting up the new team, touching on the loss of Corbett, giving us the case, and there were some good lines in there.  I expect the next ones will be funnier and zanier because there will be less of a need to set things up.  And really, they did a very good job of putting things in motion in only 4 minutes.  I’m looking forward to the rest of the series!  I plan to recap all 10 webisodes, so keep checking back to see what the Ghostfacers have in store.