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On the Trail Of… Bigfoot Review

June 7, 2019 | Posted by Bryan Kristopowitz
On the Trail of...Bigfoot
8.5
The 411 Rating
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On the Trail Of… Bigfoot Review  

On the Trail Of… Bigfoot Review

Seth Breedlove– Host

Directed by Seth Breedlove
Written by Seth Breedlove

Six episodes
Approximately 180 minutes

Not Rated

https://www.smalltownmonsters.com/

Buy it here

OntheTrailofBigfootPoster

On the Trail of… Bigfoot is a six part mini-series that attempts to look at the Bigfoot legend all across America, both in a historical context and in a modern, right now context. Hosted and directed by Seth Breedlove of Small Town Monsters, On the Trail of… Bigfoot is an engrossing examination of the creature that some people really, really believe exists and some of the people that not only believe Bigfoot exists but are trying to capture him. Using interviews with prominent people in the field of Bigfoot research and trips around the country to visit with real life people who do things like spend weeks upon weeks in dense forest hoping to spot a Sasquatch, Breedlove puts together a fairly sober show that might make some skeptics quasi believers, at least for the duration of the series.

On the Trail of… Bigfoot works best when the interview subjects come off as “regular,” down to Earth people who are not goddamn lunatics, and for the most part that’s what we get in the first three episodes which mostly deal with the history of Bigfoot. The Bigfoot story has been around for centuries, in one form or another, something I was completely unaware of. As a bit of folklore, Bigfoot seems almost plausible. How can so many different people and cultures all over the country and, hell, world, all tell the exact same sort of story if there’s no hint of truth to any of it? The Bigfoot story and its plausibility go off the rails when speculation about the creature moves into UFOs and “space alien” territory (there’s also a brief section on the creatures possibly being from some other dimension that just screams bullshit. It belongs within the context of the history of the creature, sure, but how many people within the Bigfoot world really believe in the “they’re aliens from another dimension” angle? That’s way too “out there” for me).

The last three episodes focus on Breedlove travelling to various part of America that are sort of known as Bigfoot hot spots and meeting with the various groups that do the research and field work. There are very few “real” scientists in these groups. For the most part they’re people with day jobs who hunt Bigfoot as a kind of serious hobby. They spend their vacations in the woods, looking and collecting as much data as they can. The most fascinating group, at least to me, is the North American Wood Ape Conservancy, which spends quite a bit of time in southeastern Oklahoma, a place that looks like a goddamn rain forest and could very well be a place where a Bigfoot population could exist without being detected. This group has several hunters in it who want to kill a wood ape so people will finally believe that Bigfoot exists and so the government and the mainstream scientific community will show interest in the subject and come up with a conservation plan. This is another aspect of the Bigfoot world I had no idea existed.

Breedlove approaches the subject as a mild skeptic but, at the same time, hopeful that, if the stories and history are true, he might be able to see one for himself. Breedlove spent a year with the various groups and people and researchers, getting to know them and seeing for himself what they do. Breedlove isn’t interested in belittling anyone, an approach that can get weird when the subject gets, well, weird (again, the whole “dimensional aliens” thing). But by not being a mega skeptic and letting people talk about what they believe and what they hope to eventually find, Breedlove gets you on the side of the believers, even if you know and feel that what they’re doing is ridiculous. You hope that they succeed and find the evidence that will let the world know, and make the world finally believe in the idea of Bigfoot.

On the Trail of… Bigfoot, while clearly not an expensive documentary mini-series, still has a slick look and no sound issues (you can always understand what the interview subjects are saying, even when they’re out in the woods). The show also has a decent soundtrack. The show opening is also quite good.

Will On the Trail of… Bigfoot change anyone’s mind about the existence of Bigfoot? Who knows? As I said, you’re likely going to buy in to the possibility of the Bigfoot legend being real while watching the show, but after the show is over and you start thinking about the issues presented? I really don’t know. I know my mind has changed, at least in terms of the people who really, truly believe in the idea of Bigfoot being out there and roaming the dense forests of the world. I’ll put it to you like this: there are lunatics who believe in Bigfoot, but not all people who believe in Bigfoot are lunatics.

Track down and check out On the Trail of… Bigfoot. It’s a documentary that will make you think.

8.5
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
On the Trail of… Bigfoot is a well-made, low budget, six-part documentary series about the Bigfoot legend from Seth Breedlove and the outfit called Small Town Monsters. The show also spends quite a bit of time looking at the people who believe in the potential reality of Bigfoot and how they go about researching the concept, which is, to me, the best part of the show. There’s one truly wacky segment throughout its three hours that is just batcrap insane, but the rest of it is fairly sober and both mildly skeptical but also hopeful that Bigfoot is real and out there somewhere. Truly fascinating, even if you don’t believe in Bigfoot at all. Highly recommended.
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