Since I included it in the list of the best that 2021 has been giving us so far in terms of television series, I have not had time to organize ideas and start talking about one of the productions that are called to be comedy of the year: ‘Ghosts’ (‘Ghosts’), whose two seasons Movistar + has premiered in recent weeks.
The idea around the series could not be simpler: a comedy that revolves around a peculiar group of ghosts, from different periods and personalities, in which they find the unexpected presence of the new tenants who, without the means to maintain the mansion they have inherited, decide to turn their inherited land into a hotel.
Co-created and co-starred by the legion responsible for ‘Yonderland’ and ‘Horrible Histories’, consisting of Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard y Ben Willbond (in ghost roles) and with Charlotte Ritchie y Kiell Smith-Boe Like Alison and Mike, the “lucky” couple, in each episode we see another entanglement between the ghosts and the new owner of the house, who by accident is the only one able to see them.
Supernatural roommates subgenre
It is not the first time that we come across a comic production of supernatural protagonists living in the real / current world without having much idea of how things work. We have the excellent ‘What we do in the shadows’ creating school. However, ‘Ghosts’ does not resort so much to certain satire of the genre and exaggeration of the ignorance of its characters, but advocates more for entanglement in the purest British style.
Perhaps one of his great successes is that of spend time differentiating each character in an incredibly simple way: by making each ghost from a different era and different backgrounds (from cavemen to nineteenth-century ladies to politicians), it already, in itself, gives a lot of play when it comes to representing the dynamics of the group and its interests.
The scriptwriters are also right with another of their decisions: there is no difference between this group of ghosts and any group of cohabitants. I’m not saying that this is ‘The Next One’, but the script is concerned that we see these specters as an affable conclave of neighbors who resist that their quiet mansion is suddenly not so quiet.
Community
In fact, comedy comes at a time when it is debated (and tried to regulate) the impact of tourist accommodation in the community. And this is not about good and bad. Despite the plans of the new inhabitants of the house, ‘Ghosts’ is about understanding in the face of an (economic) need.
Y lor does hugging a mixed style book which works as a kind of reverse of what Sudeikis does in ‘Ted Lasso’. Without being a hybrid, ‘Ghosts’ is purely British in soul and intent, but its rhythm of gags makes it more reminiscent of an American sitcom than a BBC one.
In short, ‘Ghosts’ is a hilarious comedy that, incredibly, manages to get in well from the first chapter. Something short of special effects (somewhere the British had to be noted) but that makes up with ingenuity and ingenious characters other shortcomings that we can detect in the execution. One of those comedies that you watch without waiting long but that gives you great moments of fun.