Portal Para o Além

The show's premise had me extremely excited but it absolutely fell flat in execution. It went from a show I was stoked to watch to something to put on in the background while I do something else. Maybe I'm being a little harsh since there's only been 4 episodes thus far (Bobby Mackey's was most recent) and I'll give it a few more, but rough start.

First, they use little to no equipment ala Ghost Adventures like mapping cameras, spirit boxes, etc and instead use pretty much only an EMF detector and a watered-down version of Ghost Adventures spirit box. It is all based on Jack and Katrina saying "this place is eerie" or "I feel a presence". Jack is terrible as he is terrified of his own shadow and Katrina is a disappointment because she's excellent in other shows she's been on

Second, they've got like 5-10 people in every shot and wonder why they don't pick up anything. They seem too terrified to go anywhere alone and after not picking up anything they call in "a psychic medium friend" who walks around and again just says "this place is haunted." The medium on the Eastern Penitentiary episode literally came on and said "I'm picking up that this is a place people came to die." No s***? It's a jail.

The Bobby Mackey's episode was the biggest disappointment of all because they had every opportunity to really capitalize on what Ghost Adventures started and instead went the route of running 5 people around together and a "automatic writer" that did nothing to really prove anything. 50% of the episode was watching some girl doodle words and say "they want to hurt you." If they ever run into something remotely paranormal, they book it the other way or leave it alone and go somewhere else. Also, the "producer" who needs to comment and guide them every few seconds gets annoying.

I really like the show, but the only problem I have is that they involve the camera crew. Other than that Katrina is the best in my opinion, she's a fearless leader.

I love this show, Katrina is a fearless leader who knows her stuff. You can fell the fear crawl thru the screen, and that's what I like. My new best weekend show, I just cant wait for more.

I don't understand why Katrina is pretending she has never been to the Bob Mackey bar! She was locked down for 72 hrs when she was on Paranormal Lockdown. With this show she is acting like she has never stepped foot in the place, if she acts that way next week at Eastern State I will have to stop watching!

I was very reluctant to watch this show because of the name, "Portals to Hell". It kind of gives the impression that this show is about them trying to prove there is a doorway to hell in these locations which isn't actually an accurate assessment of what they're doing. They're going in with the intention of investigating these places like any other "ghost hunting" show.

What I like about this show is that they let you see and kind of get to know the behind-the-scenes crew. They actually show if one of the crew has an encounter while at a location which helps to add validation to a haunting. I also like that Jack Osbourne seems to have a skeptical nature which is nice in comparison to some other shows where every noise and every sight is a "demon".

I don't like that they had Cindy Kaza on as a "psychic medium". I've seen her in other things and I don't believe she's a psychic or a medium. When she joined them at Bobby Mackey's, the information she gave them was stuff that has been well documented in other ghost hunting shows, specifically Ghost Adventures, and the haunted tour guide that took Jack around at the beginning of the episode mentioned the one and only documented death was a man who got in a fight and basically dropped dead from a blow to his head. Cindy could have EASILY researched that. And I'm sorry but "automatic writing" sounds like a bunch of BS and it didn't escape my notice that you didn't really get to see what she was writing.

Suffice to say, that Portals to Hell isn't really a unique concept because just about every type of ghost hunting show that could be done, has been done. But if you're like me and like to watch these shows to see what kind of evidence people get, then give this a shot.