Review of Ancient Aliens S21E14 “Aliens in Our Midst”

​Of all the genres of Ancient Aliens episodes, those devoted to modern UFO sightings rank low down on my list of favorites, but a whole episode devoted to cellphone footage of supposed aliens and monsters must be at the bottom. Not only is it boring, but the lack of any real interest or curiosity on the part of the talking heads or the production leaves this feeling like a YouTube reaction video sapped of half the energy. I have very little to say about these videos, many of which were debunked, some of which are hoaxes, and many of which have too little context to draw any firm conclusions. In the case of the blurry camera artifact in the 2024 Miami “shadow monster” case covered in this episode, police addressed this incident by saying, “There were no aliens, UFOs or ETs. No airports were closed no power outages,” and yet here we are.

​Segment 1
We open with Nancy Mace’s 2024 House Oversight Committee Congressional UFO hearing featuring Lue Elizondo. The segment focuses on the so-called “Immaculate Constellation” program, which is of no real interest since it was created after the 2017 New York Times article “revealing” Elizondo’s UFO hobby masquerading as a program. Of course that article gets yet another review on Ancient Aliens in this segment, and we get a celebration of Congress and “mainstream media” legitimizing ufology, which the show seems to imply justifies the existence of Ancient Aliens. “Ancient astronaut theorists believe this is no accident,” the narrator says, and William Henry claims that this is not simply the result of UFO enthusiasts targeting and influencing naïve or true-believer legislators but is the result of “planned disclosure” by some shadowy group, run by aliens, that, if we follow this line literally, would therefore be responsible for Ancient Aliens. A summary of the ancient astronaut theory follows, with the millennial prophecy of the aliens’ imminent return, for which the ETs are preparing us via the media and … Congressional Republicans’ circuslike hearings.
 
The whole segment was a waste of time and said nothing. It was just hot air filling out a segment.
 
Segment 2
The second segment covers the so-called 2017 “Jellyfish UFO” video taken by the U.S. military in Iraq, which the government’s own UFO office officially debunked in an April 29, 2025 posting to X as “a cluster of partially and fully inflated balloons.” Instead of acknowledging this, the show devotes an unseemly amount of time to praising Jeremy Corbell for posting the “secret” video, which was never officially released but he somehow obtained anyway, and claiming it is so inexplicable as to only be extraterrestrial because—but of course—how could big, strong military men mistake something as simple as balloons for an ET threat? Travis Taylor asserts that the balloons are intelligently controlled and have a hidden “propulsion device.” “There really is something there!” he says. The remainder of the segment spins conspiracies about the government having secret alien evidence that they are refusing to admit is extraterrestrial.
 
Segment 3
The third segment transitions to civilian smartphone videos, and the episode grows even less interesting as various blobs and blurs are shown, beginning with lights in the sky filmed by Lily Nova, a Missouri woman and TikTok content creator who made tabloid news last year by claiming to see an alien spaceship in the sky every day. Here psychic alien contact is named Talia, and we hear Nova’s claims at length with no effort to confirm any of her stories.
 
Segment 4
The fourth segment tells the story of two men who claimed to see seven-foot-tall aliens in Cerro de la Olla, New Mexico, in 2019. Josh Brinkley and Daniel Lucero claimed the aliens had gigantic white tents. The version the men tell on Ancient Aliens gives bigger numbers for the sizes and otherwise exaggerates the original account told in 2019. The Miami mall “creature” gets covered next, and the show asserts that “scientists” believe the video deserves “serious” analysis. That leads to a field piece in which Travis Taylor, who is a scientist, though to judge by his frequently false UFO claims, not a very good one, analyzes some videos with a video “expert” named Michael Bradbury. The Miami video, they conclude, is “inconclusive.”
 
Segment 5
The fifth segment continues Taylor’s video analysis of various blobs, which serves mostly as cross-promotion for The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, where Taylor is a cast member. Many clips from Skinwalker are shown, and then Taylor humiliates himself by analyzing the “Jellyfish” balloon video. He and Bradbury argue that it depicts a Grey alien flying through the air in a jetpack, which is obviously “under intelligent control.” Again, it was a bunch of partly deflated party balloons. It’s all very embarrassing.
 
Segment 6
The final segment looks at the 2023 Las Vegas aliens, where two teens claimed to see 10-foot-tall aliens in their backyard following a fireball in the sky. Police found no evidence of any extraterrestrial presence, calling the claim “unfounded.” Skeptics say that the “creature” in the video was possibly a lens smudge or a shadow. The show makes no effort to investigate but instead suggest that the aliens are planning these weird, messy videos so lay the groundwork for “condition of the human brain” (in Tsoukalos’s words) to accept their return.
 
One small note before I sign off: This is the last Thursday I will be able to review Ancient Aliens on the night it airs. Due to unavoidable commitments on my time from here until at least the end of the year, I will likely be reviewing episodes either the following day or over the weekend, as my schedule permits.