Kumari Shreya
Directed by Yon Motskin, Netflix’s ‘Encounters’ is one show that you are sure to enjoy if you have ever been fascinated by aliens or otherworldly activities in general. The series delves into a new story in every episode as real-life witnesses talk about their experience with the extraterrestrial and how the world generally received their observations. Despite the almost conspiracy-like nature of the show’s central theme, it has been able to captivate the viewers with seemingly genuine stories.
Is Encounters Scripted?
No, we do not believe that ‘Encounters’ is scripted. While the validity of the stories by people who appear in the documentary show might remain a topic of debate for a very, very long time, it only lends to the credibility of the show’s legitimacy. If anything, it seems like the showrunners themselves prefer to maintain a neutral stance over the validity of UFO sightings being discussed while giving an international platform to those who believe in the extraterrestrial or claim to have witnessed something unexplainable themselves.
For the instances in which no official reasonings have been found behind the reported alien sightings, the show does claim that the case is unsolved. However, for all intents and purposes, the presentation of the show is more academic than one might believe. While there is an undoubtedly larger number of UFO witnesses that are featured in the series, it also features some skeptics, some scholars, and some outright deniers.
Take the former students of Zimbabwe’s Ariel School, who were involved in the 1994 UFO sightings near the school. Over 60 students shared a similar account of the aliens that they apparently witnessed, and some of them even appeared in the show. However, Dallyn, another former student, also gives his account where he claims that it was he who had decided to prank younger students by pointing at a rock and claiming that it was a spaceship, not realizing what it would lead to. Without mincing words, he stated that those who apparently saw the aliens were wrong and needed to stop talking about the incident as an actual alien encounter.
From former government officials to everyday citizens, the show features a variety of people with their own take on the topic of extraterrestrials. Given how widely reported the incidents covered in the series are, the stories themselves seem to be far from something created simply to entice the viewers. In fact, people like Steve Allen, Lee Roy Gaitan, and Dave Davies have been talking about their apparent experiences for quite some time. Some of the stories shared in the series have also been depicted through dramatization with contextual narration.
“UFOs, UAPs, nonhuman intelligence, whatever we might call it… I didn’t before, but now I think it exists,” Director Yon Motskin shared. “It’s out there. People are just now starting to accept it as something that’s acceptable to talk about.” Executive Producer Jordan Wynn also added his thoughts, saying, “The leak of the Pentagon videos in 2021 allowed people to let their guard down a little bit. It gave everybody license to say, ‘Here’s some verifiable empirical evidence that there’s something here — and if that’s the case, what other accounts might we have dismissed in the past?’”
In other words, ‘Encounters’ is likely not a scripted series but instead provides a platform for people who have been talking about topics that have, for the longest time, been viewed with skepticism. With recent changes in the general perception of aliens and extraterrestrials, the show delves deep into old stories about the same that were once widely covered and have been backed by multiple witnesses. In other words, it explores answers to questions that have long been left unanswered, even if the possible explanations might be something out of a science-fiction movie.
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