TV Reviews : ‘Sightings’ Looks at Near-Death Experience

“What happens to us after we die?” asks host Tim White.

On tonight’s premiere of Fox’s mysterious-phenomena series “Sightings,” White explains the typical near-death or after-temporary-death experience: You leave your body, see a bright light, meet others, undergo a life review, then return to your body.

Big deal. TV critics encounter this every time they review a new show.

Not that this 9 p.m. newcomer on KTTV Channel 11 and XETA Channel 6 is that hard to take, despite appearing on paper to be a page ripped from a screaming tabloid. The opener is a mostly soberly produced hour featuring testimony from credentialed experts along with people who recall the experience of being either near death or declared dead (“I actually felt more alive dead”) before returning to the living.

Particularly moving is a section devoted to children who are said to have been on this life-death-life yo-yo. One young girl claims to have spoken to Jesus. Another says about the unearthly realm she claims to have entered after briefly dying: “It’s fun to be there.” True or false, such testimony could comfort terminally ill children who are nearing death.

The program forewarns viewers that “the theories expressed are not the only possible interpretation,” a statement supported tonight by the appearance of a skeptical scholar who believes these reports of wondrous quasi-death experiences reflect “cultural aspirations” instead of reality.

It’s to “Sightings’ ” credit that it makes at least a stab at balance and mostly lays off the creepy music. And as a “Sightings” bonus, no Elvis. Yet.