DVD Review: Ghosts: Season One (US)

Ghosts: Season One
(hopefully on order soon!)

Ghosts is a half-hour comedy airing on the CBS network, which premiered in 2021 and is currently in its second season (with a 3rd already ordered). It is an Americanized version of a British show with the same name, which premiered in 2019 and is currently in its fifth season in the UK.

 

I encountered the US version first, though I’ve since watched the first season of the UK version on DVD, in the libraries’ collection. They both have their own strong points, but I’ll have to admit, I like the American version better.

 

A young couple, Samantha (“Sam”) and Jay discover that she has inherited a run-down country estate, after a distant relative of Sam’s recently passed. They take possession of the property and decide to invest their life savings into renovating the crumbling building and turning it into a Bed & Breakfast. This doesn’t sit well with the building’s current occupants — a group of ghosts of people who’ve died on the property during many different eras in history, from a Norse Viking, to a sensitive but sarcastic Native American, to the wife of a robber baron, an American revolutionary soldier, a Prohibition-era singer, a drugged out 70’s hippie chick, a boy scout trooper leader from the 80s, and a 90s Wall Street prodigy. (There’s also a headless biker, but he shows up only occasionally). Each of these ghosts appears as they did at the time of their death — the troop leader has an arrow through his neck, and the 90s yuppie is pants-less.

 

In the premiere episode, Samantha has an accident on the stairs, suffers a near-death experience, and subsequently can see and hear (and talk with) all of the ghosts, much to the consternation of her husband but to the relief of all the ghosts — who can finally communicate with the world of the “Living”. The humor of the series then stems from the experiences of Sam and Jay as they try to ready Woodstone Mansion as a B&B, versus the ghosts, who grudgingly acknowledge that their “lives” must change if the mansion is to remain a home to them. There’s a terrific cast of supporting characters, both ghosts and living people, that all of these regulars interact with, including Mark Linn-Baker (“Perfect Strangers”) and Kathy Greenwood (“Whose Line is it Anyway?”) as Sam and Jay’s stuffy next-door neighbors.

 

All of the ghost characters are fabulous, and during the course of the first season, each of them is given an episode that tells their background story, very much “humanizing” them. Sam’s ability to see ghosts is not limited to just the mansion, as she now sees ghosts wherever she goes, including the ghost of her late mother, in a special first-season episode. Performances are excellent across the board, but especially from Rose McIver as Sam and Utkarsh Ambudkar as Jay. I have a personal fondness for Richie Moriarty as perpetually cheerful punctured troop leader Pete Martino, and Brandon Scott Jones as Captain Isaac Higgintoot, who can’t believe his former rival, Alexander Hamilton achieved such fame in life! The writing features snappy dialog, and can verge between extremely comical, to emotional and poignant.

 

I really can’t recommend Ghosts highly enough, and if you haven’t tried it already, this first season DVD set (18 episodes) is a great place to start. Then, watch the first season (only 6 episodes) of the UK version to compare and contrast. Many of the same comic writers who produced the UK version are also involved in the production of the US version.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Ghosts: Series One, or the old classic, Topper.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this series ) | ( official Ghosts page on the CBS web site )

 

See Scott C.’s review of the first season of the UK version of Ghosts, in the May 2022 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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