Unidentified with Demi Lovato Quicktake: Contrived, Misleading, & Self-indulgent

Demi Lovato is the greatest UFO investigator the world has ever seen. I have no clue what Stanton Friedman, J. Allen Hynek, and John Mack were doing with their careers because they left this world with more questions than answers.

Not Lovato, though.

In just four short episodes of their new streaming series Unidentified with Demi Lovato, the pop star uncovers the biggest mysteries in the universe.

VIDEO REVIEW

After a strange paranormal encounter in 2020, Lovato believes they may have been in contact with extraterrestrials. Unidentified is Lovato’s way of making sense of the unexplained experience. The show sees Lovato, their sister Dallas, and best friend Matthew hit the road on a quest for answers.

Lovato and their crew jump into an RV and travel to UFO hotspots, attend alien abduction support groups, and receive impromptu masterclasses from renowned UFO investigators.

If you have a low tolerance for reality TV vibes, this isn’t the show for you. Unidentified shares more DNA with Keeping Up with the Kardashians than an investigative series like Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation. It’s packed with an annoying number of overly dramatic reaction shots and talking head segments explaining what you just watched 30 seconds ago.

Like most reality shows, Unidentified is over-produced to within an inch of its life. Not a single minute of footage comes across like it’s unscripted. Even though reality TV schlock has its place, Unidentified is an all-out assault on the viewers’ intelligence.

But I digress. Let’s discuss what works. The most authentic aspect of the show is Lovato’s passion. There’s no doubt that the UFO topic is near and dear to their heart. Lovato did the homework and is now willing to come out to the world as a full-on UFO believer. That’s not an easy thing to do, not even for successful pop stars.

That’s the only positive thing I have to say about the show. It’s not a legit investigation into unexplained phenomena. It’s a reality TV show bout Lovato’s existential journey, through the lens of their belief in UFOs.

This show only works if you actually give a damn about Lovato and their crew. In that case, you’re watching a bunch of fun-loving millennials stumble into paranormal hijinks week after week. If not, the cast is annoying AF.

If you have even a basic knowledge of UFO lore, then there’s not much for you to learn about here. Unidentified doesn’t even provide Ufology 101, it’s far more basic. It’s not even Ufology pre-school. It’s so rooted in fantasy and speculation masquerading as fact. The show boils down to people with big personalities sharing unsubstantiated stories.

You can make a case that this show will pique newbies’ interest and encourage them to go down the UFO rabbit hole. The problem here is that this show is so phony, it’s just as likely to insult the intelligence of anyone open-minded about the phenomenon.

When you watch pro wrestling, the wrestlers know that the audience knows they’re enjoying scripted entertainment. Unidentified with Demi Lovato doesn’t give viewers half as much credit.

Each episode sees Lovato look for answers about the phenomenon. And each episode, they find answers. And let me tell you, those answers are nothing short of reality shattering.

The first episode sees Lovato undergo hypnotic regression therapy to see if they were in fact, abducted by aliens. Spoilers: yes. Episode 2 sees Lovato explore a haunted ranch and attempt to converse with a supernatural presence. Spoilers: They do.

Do you see where I’m going here? By the time we reach episode four, Lovato’s UFO guru receives a psychic message straight from the ever-elusive grey aliens. The grey’s message, you ask? And I s#it you not… “We’re here to party.” Either the movie Paul was eerily prescient or ET has been hiding in our atmosphere watching LMFAO videos.

With all due respect to Jacques Vallee, it’s time to retire and make way for the next generation because Demi Lovato is batting a thousand on their investigations. If Unidentified gets a second season, who knows what long-buried secret they may unearth. Send Lovato and their crew out to Roswell, and I guarantee they come back with UFO wreckage.

Unidentified with Demi Lovato is all in on the most fantastic aspects of UFO mythology. It’s not an investigation into the paranormal, it’s a confirmation. Twenty minutes into the series, we see something dart across the crew’s night vision monitor and that’s all the confirmation they need they’ve spotted aliens.

Despite featuring credible UFO community personalities like Nick Pope, the show is one-sided. It doesn’t bother with counterarguments by skeptics or even alternative perspectives from other people within the community.

There are many documented cases of UFOs moving through military airspace, and accounts of people terrorized by their alleged alien abduction encounters. You’re not going to see Luis Elizondo or David Jacobs show up with their view of what UFOs represent. We do spend time with one woman who claims to have given birth to over a dozen alien babies, but she seems pretty cool with the whole thing.

The world’s most well-respected Ufologists – people who dedicated their lives to examining the phenomenon – are some of the first to admit they don’t know what’s going on. Stories of UFOs and ETs are so strange and challenging they don’t fit into any one box. The fact Unidentified mostly spotlights folks who claim to have UFOs all figured out tells you everything you need to know.

Only a charlatan or a fool would tell Lovato they have all the answers to these decades-old questions. But I get the appeal of having people tell you what you want to hear. Especially when the message is you’re so special, the universe is willing to reveal its deepest secrets.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you want to learn about UFOs and have 100 minutes to spare, you’re better off checking out James Fox’s standout documentary, The Phenomenon. Here’s my review.

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