Grade: B

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Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files takes a bit of a different tactic than do most other ghost-hunting/UFO-hunting docu-series. They actually try to prove things as hoaxes when they can (but be not deceived -- they still look for things on FLIR, capture EVPs, etc).

The regular crew is back in action, with a new addition. Australian Devin Marble joins up with former FBI Special Agent Ben Hansen, lead scientist Bill Murphy, journalist Jael de Pardo, photography expert Chi-Lan Lieu, and stunt expert Austin Porter, to review potential leads for this episodes investigations before settling on two: the real Battle of Los Angeles, and video evidence of a ghost on the Queen Mary.

With "Battle: LA" currently in theaters, it may be a tad late to capitalize on any movie hype (or lack thereof). That doesn't stop this particular segment from being very interesting. The investigation follows up on the events of February 25, 1942, when US armed forces were alerted to an enemy aircraft bearing down on Los Angeles. What followed that night is a mystery, as artillery fire rang through the night with nothing to show for it except a photograph of a strange object in the sky that didn't take any damage. The Fact or Faked crew head out to Los Angeles to speak to historians about the night in question, before trekking out into the desert to attempt to reproduce the effects seen in the photograph.

At the same time, a second team is dispatched to the Queen Mary, where an amateur digital video shows what looks to be a white spectral figure walking down a hallway. Was the video a hoax, and if so, how was it pulled off? That's what the team sets out to discover (and reproduce, if possible), in addition to doing a little ghost hunting with EVP recorders and FLIR cameras.

As with too many of these types of shows, the results always tend to be inconclusive -- even when they're conclusive in favor of a hoax. However, Fact or Faked has a lot of energy, without getting excessively hyped up over things the audience can barely percieve, either visually or audially, which gives them a huge leg up on their competitors in the genre.

The second season debuts Wednesday, March 23 at 10:00pm ET/PT on Syfy.