Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction Review
But let me just say: Beyond Belief was a great show. It had a sort of Twilight Zone feel to it. Think of it as The Twilight Zone meets Unsolved Mysteries (another of my favorite shows - I’ll have to put a review up on that soon). The layout was simple, but brilliant. There were five stories in each hour-long episode - some of them true (or, at least inspired by true events), while the rest were complete works of fiction.
Each episode was introduced by the host (for the first season, James Brolin, for the rest of the series, Jonathan Frakes). There was always a supernatural spin to the stories. What I never liked about Unsolved Mysteries was the number of brutal murder and missing person segments. Come on, we all watched Unsolved Mysteries for the ghost and UFO cases. Nobody enjoyed the “Lost Love” clips - those were awful.
Beyond Belief catered to the supernatural stories, while still putting in some miracle and bizarre coincidence-type tales. I like to think of Beyond Belief as a guilty-pleasure. There’s nothing substantial in it and the storytelling isn’t spectacular… but it doesn’t need to be. It’s a fun show to watch and I loved trying to separate fact from fiction.
I suggest you check it out and order the first season on DVD. Unfortunately, that’s the only season available, but I still recommend you get a copy. It only contains six episodes (on two-discs), but I bet you’ll like it and wish the show was still on television.
-MP