On Feb. 4, 2016, “Buzzfeed
Unsolved True Crime” premiered
on BuzzfeedBlue. Originally hosted
by Ryan Bergara, the show’s creator,
and Brent Bennett until Shane
Madej took over for Bennett in late
2016, the first season of “Buzzfeed
Unsolved True Crime” was closely
followed
by
the
premiere
of
“Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural.”
Both
shows
became
almost
immediate
sensations.
Within
two years the Buzzfeed Unsolved
Network was established to house
everything Unsolved, and as of 2021
the shows had pulled a combined 1.3
billion views and over 16.6 billion
minutes
of
watch-time.
While
typically staged as an armchair
detective show with a presentation
of a case and evidence, Bergara
and Madej would also venture
to locations where the episode’s
central event had occurred. Much
of “Buzzfeed Unsolved”’s success is
owed to the high production quality
of the show, the entertaining and
well-researched
presentation
of
cases and the chemistry between
Bergara and Madej, a supernatural
believer and a skeptic, respectively.
However,
all
good
things
must come to an end. Recently,
Bergara, Madej and Steven Lim
—
another
now-ex-Buzzfeed
employee — left Buzzfeed to found
their digital production studio
Watcher
Entertainment.
They
exited on a wave of other creators
in a Buzzfeed mass exodus, with
Bergara citing a desire for “other
creative opportunities” and “actual
ownership of the content we make”
that they would not have had with
Buzzfeed. Bergara and Madej kept
contracts with Buzzfeed to finish
“Unsolved” in 2021, before leaving
to produce content on the Watcher
YouTube channel. At the time of
writing, Watcher has amassed
2.27 million subscribers and has
produced
15
shows,
including
“Dish Granted” in which Lim cooks
lavish meals for friends, “Puppet
History” in which a puppet host
retells stories from history, “Too
Many Spirits” where Bergara and
Madej get increasingly drunk while
reading audience-submitted ghost
stories and, most recently, “Ghost
Files.” “Ghost Files” is essentially
Watcher’s version of “Buzzfeed
Unsolved,” but it is the fully-fledged
older brother of the original — it’s the
show “that I (Ryan) wanted to make.”
“Ghost Files” follows virtually
the same format as “Buzzfeed
Unsolved” — Bergara presents
Madej with a supernatural case of
some kind, and the two explore the
evidence and explanations together
in armchair detective fashion. Each
episode since the show’s premiere
on Sept. 23 has also seen Bergara and
Madej explore the corresponding
supernatural locations to attempt
contacting whatever is haunting
the sites. Where “Unsolved” was
rooted mainly in history and
folklore, however, “Ghost Files”
pulls evidence and anecdotes from
audience members and uses these to
shape the investigation. In the first
episode, Bergara and Madej visited
Waverly Hills Sanatorium, the
supposedly haunted tuberculosis
hospital they also explored during
their time at Buzzfeed. Revisiting
the same location may seem like
beating a dead horse, but it actually
allows audiences to see where
“Ghost Files” excels and shines in
comparison to its predecessor.
The
production
quality
of
“Buzzfeed Unsolved” was always
top notch for a YouTube show, but
“Ghost Files” takes this quality to
new heights. The office in which the
presentation segments are filmed
is industrially outfitted to truly
resemble an underground bunker,
whereas the “Unsolved” set looked
more like a detective’s office from
a noir film. During investigations
on site, Bergara and Madej are
still kitted with lights, camera and
gimbals when not handling other
equipment, but now they wear
matching colors, green and orange,
and “Watcher” branded clothes that
offer the look of a cohesive team and
production rather than two dudes in
their plainclothes. There is also more
team involvement in an episode of
“Ghost Files” than in “Buzzfeed
Unsolved” — the audience now
catches glimpses of the team during
on-site investigations, and they
occasionally engage in dialogue
with the hosts which adds to the
feeling that this is a fully-fledged
production. Of course these changes
are largely aesthetic and surface-
level, but even minute changes
like matching clothes gives “Ghost
Files” a sophistication that I didn’t
even realize “Buzzfeed Unsolved”
lacked. This time around, Bergara
and Madej have produced something
that feels like a real television show
without the restrictions that a
television show poses (namely being
allowed to say “fuck”).
In
the
same
vein,
the
investigation
quality
has
also
improved
in
“Ghost
Files.”
I
mentioned before that “Buzzfeed
Unsolved” took a slightly more
historical approach to investigations
where “Ghost Files” approaches
things
more
anecdotally,
but
these elements aren’t necessarily
comparable other than to say that
“Ghost Files” is able to employ more
audience engagement. Nevertheless,
this audience engagement allows
Bergara and Madej to go more in
depth with their investigations
on site as they recreate scenarios
related by audience members, and
the last approximately 10 minutes
of each episode is now devoted to
each of the hosts going on a solo
adventure in their location, which
also gives viewers a chance to get
each of their unfiltered explorations
of the investigation.
Additionally, Bergara and Madej
are now using more, and more
sophisticated, technology in “Ghost
Files.” “Buzzfeed Unsolved” always
employed some kind of tech — the
spirit box, motion detectors and
infrared cameras, to name a few —
but it seems that the “Ghost Files”
budget is bigger when it comes
to equipment. This time we’re
playing with pieces like the spirit
box-Honeytone
combo,
which
better allows for spirits’ voices to be
heard, with REM Pods that create
an electromagnetic field and alert
users when something enters it and
with the Ovilus, which is able to take
environmental readings that ghosts
manipulate and translate them into
words or phonetic sounds. All of
these technological improvements
add up to an investigation that not
only feels more reliable, but far
more professional, sophisticated
and
thought-out
than
past
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
In his new collection of
short stories, “Liberation Day,”
2017
Booker
Prize
winner
George Saunders flexes his
talent for writing the human
perspective. As readers, we’re
often shown distorted, or at
least incomplete, narratives
— from wiped memories to
multiple points of view, the
narrators of Saunders’s latest
work rarely tell the whole
story. And they’re all the more
human for it.
In an email interview with
The Michigan Daily, Saunders
wrote about his approach to
these conceptual narratives.
He pointed out one story in the
collection, “Elliot Spencer,”
which is written from the
perspective of a man who has
had his memory wiped.
“I just thought: I wonder
what a person would sound like
if you wiped out everything
in their brain and made them
start over,” Saunders wrote.
“And that was challenging and
fun, and as I tried to find and
refine that voice, the world
appeared and the story started
getting told, in that voice.”
Saunders’s
characters
are often linked to or are
even
reflections
of
their
environment. Like much of
his work, the stories in this
collection tend toward the
speculative:
In
the
titular
story, we read of people known
as “Speakers” who are bound
to a wall and launch into vocal
performances like a sort of
sentient
instrument
when
given prompts from a man at a
computer.
But the tone of the collection
is easy and light. One character
tries to reassure the Speakers:
“There are many of us who see
this thing for the monstrous
excess it is. You’re human
beings. You are … help is
coming. It is. Soon.”
They’re unfazed. “Lauren
and Craig and I exchange looks
of: Wow, thanks, adult son
Mike, we did not know, until
you just now told us, that we
are human beings.”
That
tone,
and
the
personableness
of
the
narrators, helps the reader
ease into even the strangest
settings. These worlds are so
naturally constructed, with
their
exposition
sprinkled
through the narration of their
characters.
“The main thing is to keep
yourself in the mindset of
the character — don’t let her
tell the reader anything that
feels unnatural for her to be
thinking,”
Saunders
writes.
“Just like now, we don’t think,
‘Clive took out his cellphone —
a small digital communications
device — and called Sally.’ So,
the world gets built naturally
when you try to think like a
person in that time and space.”
Even in the most extreme
situations — like an amusement
park
in
an
underground
bunker, with a suspiciously
rigid set of social codes —
Saunders’s
character-first
world building never feels
artificial. And while there are
certainly political or cultural
themes
baked
into
these
worlds, the author says these
ideas arise naturally in his
process.
“My method is to write,
mostly by sound and humor,
and then rewrite endlessly
until something starts to take
shape,” Saunders writes. “I
do almost no pre-thinking
or planning of the ‘What do
I want to say?’ variety. I’m
writing, really, to find out
what I will say.”
In
reading
“Liberation
Day,” you feel much of this
spontaneity,
and
therefore
closeness, with the characters.
As the reader, we’re not living
in an underground amusement
park, we’re living in the head
of the person assigned to play
Squatting Ghoul #3 in that park.
So of course we’d be served
soup with a single KitKat for
dinner. And of course we’d
dutifully participate in the
public beating of a coworker
who misbehaved.
It’s this absorption that
gives Saunders’s short stories
such
impact.
And
visceral
effect is his intention.
“I’m
guessing
that
something got into my head
about the way social media is
mastering us,” Saunders wrote,
“injecting us with agenda-
laced opinions that we then
mistake for our own, and so
on — but if that’s all I wanted
to say … I could’ve just said
that, you know? So I see my
goal as being similar to that
of a roller-coaster designer: I
am trying to make something
that will give the reader such
a thrill that, for a few minutes
after, she’s just sort of happily
stunned and quiet.”
To young writers, Saunders
offers some advice: “It really
is all about rewriting … Instead
of thinking of rewriting as
‘fixing problems,’ I think of
it as chance after chance to
get more of myself into the
story. I think of revising as
being a little like that bit in
‘The Matrix’ where time slows
down during a fight. We get
a chance to look at the events
of the story with more care
and curiosity than in real life,
where everything is always
happening so fast.”
“Liberation Day” is now
on sale. Saunders will be in
Ann Arbor on Oct. 28 to speak
at
First
United
Methodist
Church, in an event organized
by Literati Bookstore.
An interview with Booker
Prize winner George
Saunders, author of
‘Liberation Day’
Wednesday, October 26, 2022 — 5
This image is from the teaser for “Ghost Files” uploaded to YouTube by Watcher Entertainment.
JULIAN WRAY
Books Beat Editor
Hey there demons, it’s them, the boys
MADDIE AGNE
Daily Arts Writer
puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com
By Baylee Devereaux
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/26/22
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis
10/26/22
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2022
ACROSS
1 Homes in
Honduras
6 “Let’s put a
smile on your
plate” breakfast
chain
10 Chop (off)
13 Like a brand-new
candle
14 __ drum
15 Mimic
16 Receptionist at
a high-rise hotel,
one might say
18 Pothole filler
19 __ card
20 Kunis of “Black
Swan”
21 Sharp cry
22 Instagram
influencer, one
might say
27 French article
28 Orchestra
leader
31 Capital city on a
fjord
34 Give up, as a
right
36 In the know
37 Bartender
pouring a
selection of craft
beers for tasting,
one might say
41 Black Mission
fruit
42 Eggs on
43 Rolls the credits
44 “The Office”
sales rep
who solves
crosswords
during meetings
46 Actor Meadows
48 Pathological liar,
one might say
53 “Take a __
breath”
55 Fútbol cheers
56 Female sheep
58 Part of BYOB
59 Audiophile with
an extensive
collection of club
mixes, one might
say
63 Top of a
semicolon
64 Place of refuge
65 Unleash upon
66 Approves
67 Bring (out)
68 Cereal tidbit
DOWN
1 Talk a blue
streak?
2 Those opposed
3 Replay tech
4 __ guitar
5 Completely
stump
6 Kin by marriage
7 “2001”
supercomputer
8 Some
underground
rock bands?
9 According to
10 After
11 Birthstone for
some Libras
12 BOLO target
14 Advice from
a nervous
stockbroker
17 Spanish aunts
21 “Be glad to”
23 Heavy shoe
24 Fails to mention
25 Carry on
26 Sharp
29 Cocktail garnish
30 Chooses
31 Send-__:
farewells
32 Buttonhole, e.g.
33 Bone-connecting
tissues
34 Japanese cattle
breed used for
Kobe beef
35 Had a bite
38 She-__: Marvel
role for Tatiana
Maslany
39 Ancestry.com
printout
40 Singer Lovato
45 Short snooze
46 Taxing trip
47 In and of __
49 Hypothesize
50 Stout and porter
51 Nasal partitions
52 Tinker with
53 Long-extinct
bird
54 “Star Wars” critter
that looks like a
teddy bear
57 Art Deco icon
59 Spicy
60 Lifeboat blade
61 GI morale
booster
62 Electric __
SUDOKU
WHISPER
“Why did
Sally fall off
the swing?”
“She had no
arms. Happy
Halloween.”
WHISPER
By Doug Peterson & Christina Iverson
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/19/22
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis
10/19/22
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Wednesday, October 19, 2022
ACROSS
1 Creature in the
2019 animated
film “Abominable”
5 Break sharply
9 Owlet’s home
13 Smartphone
border
14 Fine-tune over
time
15 German spouse
16 Aquarium
decoration
17 Kate Middleton,
to Archie and
Lilibet
18 Tree trimmer’s
target
19 Items sold in a
pop-up shop?
22 “Geez!”
23 “Insecure”
actress/writer
Issa
24 Items sold in a
pop-up shop?
32 Game with a
numbered board
33 “The Fiddler of
Dooney” poet
34 Actress Mendes
35 Stage award
36 Tigger’s creator
37 Home of Iowa
State
38 Nemesis
39 Corral, as cattle
40 Floors
41 Items sold in a
pop-up shop?
44 Post-ER place
45 Animated Olive
46 Items sold in a
pop-up shop?
54 Many-axled
vehicle
55 Lawn care brand
56 In base eight
57 “I Dream of
Jeannie” star
58 Nefarious
59 Take one’s sweet
time
60 Pizazz
61 Start of
something big?
62 Give a hand?
DOWN
1 “Everything
Everywhere All
at Once” star
Michelle
2 Old Testament
scribe
3 One wearing a
matching jersey
4 “None for me,
thanks”
5 Layered style
6 Life or death
7 China __
McClain of “Black
Lightning”
8 Sleeping spot for
some dogs
9 TD caller
10 “The Devil in
the White City”
author Larson
11 __ Club: Costco
rival
12 Oleo container
13 Email field
20 Tiny member of a
collective
21 Big galoots
24 Party game “of
unspeakable fun”
25 Projecting
window
26 Looking over
27 Shrine artifact
28 Sheryl Crow’s
“All I __ Do”
29 Madagascar
primate
30 Makes true
31 Smart talk
32 Tip
36 Restaurant
option
37 Had a farm-to-
table meal, say
39 Guitar accessory
40 Malicious
trackers
42 Prep cook’s forte
43 Oft-pranked
Simpsons
character
46 Rey of the “Star
Wars” films, for
one
47 “Too true!”
48 Stellar
explosion
49 Cereal whose
flavors include
grapity purple
50 Hindu spring
festival
51 Tide
alternative
52 Surname at the
O.K. Corral
53 Artful
54 “__ who?!”
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Cover art for “Liberation Day” owned by Penguin Random House.