Season 1: Taps Academy follows the simple "beg for a job" format pioneered by gutter television shows like The Apprentice. A group of people, usually with no obvious skills, vie for a job by backbiting and grovelling to the point where the pea-brained viewer is clapping their hands with glee when they finally get "fired" from the show. If they cry, break down or beg then the producers almost certainly high-five each other.Naturally to make this format work you have to select people who are born losers and here at least the vultures that put this show together have put some effort in. None of them are people you'd want to spend more than five minutes around. So far I've seen two very nasal monotone girls who think they have psychic powers, a pair of disgustingly sycophantic plebs and a couple of others too devoid of personality to be memorable.What I find especially distasteful about the show is the way we are treated to Steve ("I've never read a book all the way through") and Tango bollocking these kids for various petty infractions to their ghost hunting way. If the show was more about "here's how to ghost hunt" I think it would be a big hit but it's not, it's about seeing people told off for not plugging a camera in properly and that's boring to watch.Season 2: Much less spiteful but no more interesting. The could be recruiting plumbers and it would be much the same show. I can't really say much more about the second series than that because I realised it wasn't going to get any better and gave up.

If there's a spoiler here, you find it. Consider yourself warned.I've been a Ghost Hunters fan since the "Me and Grant" days. There was always something mesmerizing about the "investigations", the "findings" and the stew of personalities that kept me coming back week after week. I've worked for and with plenty of personalities that echo Jason and the crew and it was nice to see all that angst directed towards someone else besides me for a change. I still mourn the passing of the much door-matted Brian from the show; it was always worth tuning in to see the "big guys" putting him down as for all the "What was that?" stuff that was always missed by the camera.Enter the hapless "Ghost Hunters Academy" trainees to what must be for them another world. Steve Gonzalves and Dave Tango are rubbing their hands and salivating over putting some newbies through the hoops that they themselves had to jump through at the hands of Jason and Grant. Brian, Steve, and Tango all had to go through the initiation. How they handled it was kind of a plot point of each episode. Brian was eventually driven out but, with all flags flying to a spin off I think was called "Ghost Hunters Siberia". Steve not only made it to the team, but was promoted, even though (or maybe because) in one episode during a stake-out scene I heard him proudly confess to Brian that "he had never read a book all the way through". Steve Tango - well, he kept so innocuous but faithful to the philosophy that he was not only welcomed to the team, but was permitted to wear all the caps-that-make-me-look-gay that he wants. GHA is a perfect example of the saying, "the s**t rolls downhill". So far, after the third episode, the newbies are still required to set up cameras, audio equipment, and the sites you stake-out with no training on the equipment, and no apparent clue as to the "Ghost Hunters" method of "investigation". On those terms, they are to pass or fail, and endure the pent-up vitriolic put-downs of former "recruits", as ignorance is generally treated as stupidity on this show. I wonder if any of these new kids have ever watched Ghost Hunters, as they act clueless throughout. One even repeatedly boasts of his "leadership qualities" before the two "sergeants" come down and squash him. If you missed the first episode, Jason sets the tone that the two recently promoted NCO's gleefully hand down to the new sad-sacks. I myself would hate to be one of Jason's Roto-Rooter apprentices, especially with a pipe-wrench in my hand. That in itself might cause some issues further down the pike.Eventually, someone gets told, "You're going to be Fired" or, "You're Fired!", in such a staged manner that reveals the money shot of the show. The premise of all that is simple: give everybody some rope. Eventually one will demonstrate that they have the shortest piece and will hang themselves first. Then, "Move on to the next", as Grant and Jason like to butt fists over.If I occasionally miss one of these, I won't lose any sleep over it or go out of my way to watch a repeat. But shoot, I just hate to miss a train-wreck when I don't even have to leave my living room.