"Truth Seekers": The Truth is Out There, at a Paranormal Convention in Coventry

I've never seen any of the many reality shows about paranormal investigation, so I don't know why Amazon Prime has recommended two comedic send-ups of the genre.  But I'm game.

Truth Seekers first.  It won't let me get to the first episode, so I'm watching the fourth, "The Incident at CovColCosCon." 

Scene 1: Peter Toynbee (Peter Rugman) and a crazy professor are doing an experiment to see if they can use nanobots to control a lab rat.  But they have an old-fashioned radio.  I'm already lost -- what year is this?

The nanobots are triggered by a Latin incantation.  Say what?  Which draws the rat's soul into the radio.  Say what?

Scene 2:  Oh, this was all prologue.  The much older Peter Toynbee (Julian Barratt) is a famous paranormal investigator with an audiobook, Beyond the Beyond, which much less famous paranormal invetigator Gus (Nick Frost) is listening to.

  Cantankerous Dad Richard (Malcolm McDonald, whom I always assumed was gay)  tells Gus to delete a video of him prancing around in a rabbit suit, but he refuses: it's driving a lot of viewers to their podcast.

They are off to the Coventry Collectors and Cosplay Convention to hear Toynbee.  Dad is not a fan, but is going along for the ride.

Scene 3:  Sounds of people having sex.  Fooled you! Astrid (Emma D'Arcy) and Elton John (Samson Kayo) -- his name is really Elton John?  -- are moving a chair.  Elton's sister Helen (Susan Wokoma) yells at them for damaging her cosplay costume (it's definitely a chair).. 

Scene 4:  Gus and Richard are tloading their equipment into a blue van.  They call Helen and ask when she will get there.  They all drive down the highway, discussing the social media platforms that will get them the most pageviews., and finally arrive at the convention. 

Helen won't go in.  She needs time to be alone, to process things.  

Apparently they have been coming to this convention for five years, but she always waits in the van.  She is suffering from agoraphobia.

Astrid and Elton start taking photographs for the podcast. A crazy guy rushes up and yells "They're coming!"  Astrid recognizes the scene from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  He is actually advertising an interactive paranormal experience.  If it gets too scary, just yell out "Fire!"

Scene 5:  Gus and a complaining Richard wait in line to hear Dr. Toynbee's speech.  Richard gets in, but Gus does not.  Meanwhile, Elton explains about Helen's agoraphobia: something traumatic happened to them as kids. 

Cut to Helen in the van, unwrapping the chair -- oh, it's a Dalek costume.  But she can't bring herself to put it on.  

Back at the Toynbee speech, Richard is complaining to his seatmate, Terry (Ranjit Krishnamma) about how this is all bollocks.  

Meanwhile, Gus is trying to sneak in through the back, but the security guard (Hon Ping Tang) restrains him.

Next, Security Guard takes his shirt off and...just kidding.

Scene 6:  The immersive paranormal experience sends Astrid and Elton to the basement.  Only 11 minutes left. When is something paranormal going to happen?

Meanwhile, Dr. Toynbee is pratting on about the afterlife, named Eternis, "where you can be free to live forever."  Do you have to drink magic kool-aid to get there?  Naked people in the illustrations, but from the backside.  I can't tell their gender. 

He's not a paranormal investigator -- he's a cult leader, offering to take "his loyal followers" to the next level.

Then some flashing trigger-scenes of atrocities and demons -- is one of them Hillary Clinton?  -- and a Latin incantation.  The brainwashing begins.

Scene 7: Back in the basement, Astrid and Elton hear chanting behind a door marked with a skull-and-crossbones.  "Fun, isn't it?  Totally immersive."  

You guessed it -- Astrid and Elton stumble ooto the backstage of Toynbee's brainwashing, where his minions are chortling evilly:  'The recruitment process is almost complete."

Still thinking that it's part of the immersive experience, Astrid interrupts. "We're on to you.  We know all about your evil plans. What do we win?"

But just as the cultists are about to seize them, Elton gets a text: Helen has not only made it inside, she has entered the cosplay contest!  "Sorry, gotta go."

Toynbee's goons go back to shooting the audience with what looks like a glaucoma scanner.  

Scene 8: Gus, who is the leader of the paranormal investigators but hasn't really done anything all episode, returns to the van.  Helen is still there, afraid to go in..  They have a heart to heart.

Cut to the costume contest, with Astrid and Elton in the audience and the Dalek costume on stage (Dalek wins first prize).  Crazy guy approaches and asks why they didn't go to the immersive paranormal show.  They are shocked -- then what did we observe?

Dalek rushes off.  Surprise -- it's Gus!  Helen couldn't go in, but at least everyone saw her costume.

Scene 9: Back home.  Richard complains that the lecture bored him to death. But then he takes off his sunglasses, and his eyes light up!

Gay characters: No one expresses any heterosexual interest, except maybe Samson and Astrid.

Simon Pegg provides Nick Frost with a gay subtext in many movies.  He's all over the promo, but he does not appear in the episode.

Beefcake: None.  Could I see that security guard's shoulders again?

Other Sights:  Not nearly enough of the cosplay convention.  Just people standing in line for lectures.

Story Arc:  There are flashes of backstory.  Apparently Astrid was a victim of demonic possession, Gus has some monsters, and who knows what happened to Helen and Elton?  But the story can work just as well without.

Plot Twists:  Astrid and Elton stumbling into the cult meeting was broadcast from a mile away, but Gus in the Dalek costume was a surprise.

My Grade: Likeable characterrs, funny bits, scares but no real threats (where else can you escape the bad guys by saying "Sorry, gotta go"?).  If one of the characters turns out to be gay, A-.  Otherwise B.