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queer_scribbling) wrote2024-01-08 03:30 am
queer_scribbling) wrote2024-01-08 03:30 am
Entry tags:
Ghosts (US/UK)
This is one of those shows that I point to as to why I tend to also tag "tv shows" on my fan scribbling on Pillowfort. As far as I know, each show is just called Ghosts within its original broadcast area, but I have to pick a differentiation here, so I'm going with Ghosts US and Ghosts UK.
Technically, Ghosts UK started first, but my family didn't start watching until recently. CBS brought it over, possibly to fill air time from the writer and actor strikes affecting US shows [autumn/winter 2023]. We were so caught up in enjoying the original inspiration for a show we like that we kind of forgot that British shows don't often last as long as a US season. (AKA This will cover seasons 1 and 2 because I forgot to make a post after six episodes.)
The basic premise is that a woman inherits an old house from a distant relation, has an accident involving being briefly dead, and can see and hear ghosts after being revived. Her husband doesn't have the ability to interact with any of the ghosts, but he agrees to stay in the old house and try to turn it into a bed and breakfast-slash-inn. (With some other possibilities throughout each series like a wedding venue or filming location in order to make enough money for repairs on the way to the inn stage.)
In Ghosts US, Samantha (often just called Sam) and Jay fill these roles. Sam retains freelance journalist work, and Jay is using his chef skills to handle the cooking at Woodstone Manor. In Ghosts UK, Alison and Michael (often just called Mike) fill these roles. While they both have to get new jobs in order to pay for repairs at Button House (it's possible a British audience might recognize the supermarket clerk outfit from one of them), I'm not really aware of what either did before inheriting the house. Season 2 is at a point where Button House has had enough repairs that they both seem to be focusing on the wedding venue thing.
From what we've seen so far, I can't blame my relatives for wanting Mike to have his area of expertise, like Jay does. Yes, we are aware that both of these shows are supposed to be comedies, and comedies will feature people making various mistakes or overestimating their confidence and abilities but failing. However, letting Jay be a chef and a really good cook does make him seem like he's a more fleshed out individual separate from 'funny husband, can't interact with ghosts'. We were expecting S1E5 "Moonah Ston", which features a dinner for the neighbors, to be a chance for Mike to shine at cooking, but part of the jokes around the ghosts distracting Alison involved her overcooking and then unsalvageably burning the original food. (A fan wiki lists Mike as a pastry chef before they inherited Button House, which I guess could explain him not taking over non-dessert items.) Still, we were hoping that he'd get a second chance at showing off any culinary skills with the Christmas dinner in S2E7 "The Ghost of Christmas", and the funny part of his family taking over plans meant that they brought the entire dinner anyway.
The other aspect that currently sticks out is that we're still, more or less, getting introduced to the various ghosts in Ghosts UK. I don't think there's a definite number on how many plague [literally bubonic plague] victims are in the basement (or in Ghosts US, cholera victims in the basement), but the main ghost cast feels slightly larger on Ghosts UK. Depending on how you figure the main ghosts, one factor might be that the three British soldiers from the US Revolutionary War mostly live outside in the shed and aren't seen as often, and the headless ghost in Ghosts US isn't seen very often as the body is off trying to find its head. In season 2 of Ghosts UK, the headless ghost talks more often, since it's usually the head with the body being elsewhere. (A direct comparison of numbers is complicated by Sam leaving Woodstone Manor and seeing reoccuring ghosts in other locations more often than Alison currently does.)
Another factor is the time span of the ghosts - again, this is a feeling of one cast being bigger, but not necessarily more than a feeling. Thorfinn, or Thor, is the oldest of the ghosts in Ghosts US, and he's a Norse Viking who died roughly one thousand years ago, which matches up close enough with Viking exploration in North America. While the Lenape man, Sasappis (or Sass), was part of an older culture with longer roots in the area, he's the second oldest ghost [dying about 500 years ago]. I suspect this was a way to keep a character who speaks in a simplified and stereotypically 'primitive' way at times without having a Native American character fill that role, since Thor is supposed to the US analogue to the caveman character called Robin in Ghosts UK. There isn't a witch trial ghost in Ghosts US, unlike Mary in Ghosts UK, and the next oldest ghost is from the Gilded Age [1870s to 1900] in Ghosts US. (Also, I think the most recent ghost in Ghost UK died in 1993 in his 40s, and the most recent ghost in Ghosts US is Trevor who died in 2000 in his early 20s.) It winds up feeling like more US based ghosts are closer in time.
Technically, Ghosts UK started first, but my family didn't start watching until recently. CBS brought it over, possibly to fill air time from the writer and actor strikes affecting US shows [autumn/winter 2023]. We were so caught up in enjoying the original inspiration for a show we like that we kind of forgot that British shows don't often last as long as a US season. (AKA This will cover seasons 1 and 2 because I forgot to make a post after six episodes.)
The basic premise is that a woman inherits an old house from a distant relation, has an accident involving being briefly dead, and can see and hear ghosts after being revived. Her husband doesn't have the ability to interact with any of the ghosts, but he agrees to stay in the old house and try to turn it into a bed and breakfast-slash-inn. (With some other possibilities throughout each series like a wedding venue or filming location in order to make enough money for repairs on the way to the inn stage.)
In Ghosts US, Samantha (often just called Sam) and Jay fill these roles. Sam retains freelance journalist work, and Jay is using his chef skills to handle the cooking at Woodstone Manor. In Ghosts UK, Alison and Michael (often just called Mike) fill these roles. While they both have to get new jobs in order to pay for repairs at Button House (it's possible a British audience might recognize the supermarket clerk outfit from one of them), I'm not really aware of what either did before inheriting the house. Season 2 is at a point where Button House has had enough repairs that they both seem to be focusing on the wedding venue thing.
From what we've seen so far, I can't blame my relatives for wanting Mike to have his area of expertise, like Jay does. Yes, we are aware that both of these shows are supposed to be comedies, and comedies will feature people making various mistakes or overestimating their confidence and abilities but failing. However, letting Jay be a chef and a really good cook does make him seem like he's a more fleshed out individual separate from 'funny husband, can't interact with ghosts'. We were expecting S1E5 "Moonah Ston", which features a dinner for the neighbors, to be a chance for Mike to shine at cooking, but part of the jokes around the ghosts distracting Alison involved her overcooking and then unsalvageably burning the original food. (A fan wiki lists Mike as a pastry chef before they inherited Button House, which I guess could explain him not taking over non-dessert items.) Still, we were hoping that he'd get a second chance at showing off any culinary skills with the Christmas dinner in S2E7 "The Ghost of Christmas", and the funny part of his family taking over plans meant that they brought the entire dinner anyway.
The other aspect that currently sticks out is that we're still, more or less, getting introduced to the various ghosts in Ghosts UK. I don't think there's a definite number on how many plague [literally bubonic plague] victims are in the basement (or in Ghosts US, cholera victims in the basement), but the main ghost cast feels slightly larger on Ghosts UK. Depending on how you figure the main ghosts, one factor might be that the three British soldiers from the US Revolutionary War mostly live outside in the shed and aren't seen as often, and the headless ghost in Ghosts US isn't seen very often as the body is off trying to find its head. In season 2 of Ghosts UK, the headless ghost talks more often, since it's usually the head with the body being elsewhere. (A direct comparison of numbers is complicated by Sam leaving Woodstone Manor and seeing reoccuring ghosts in other locations more often than Alison currently does.)
Another factor is the time span of the ghosts - again, this is a feeling of one cast being bigger, but not necessarily more than a feeling. Thorfinn, or Thor, is the oldest of the ghosts in Ghosts US, and he's a Norse Viking who died roughly one thousand years ago, which matches up close enough with Viking exploration in North America. While the Lenape man, Sasappis (or Sass), was part of an older culture with longer roots in the area, he's the second oldest ghost [dying about 500 years ago]. I suspect this was a way to keep a character who speaks in a simplified and stereotypically 'primitive' way at times without having a Native American character fill that role, since Thor is supposed to the US analogue to the caveman character called Robin in Ghosts UK. There isn't a witch trial ghost in Ghosts US, unlike Mary in Ghosts UK, and the next oldest ghost is from the Gilded Age [1870s to 1900] in Ghosts US. (Also, I think the most recent ghost in Ghost UK died in 1993 in his 40s, and the most recent ghost in Ghosts US is Trevor who died in 2000 in his early 20s.) It winds up feeling like more US based ghosts are closer in time.