'Ghosts (US)' Season Four Review: This fills the gap of What We Do in The Shadows

It has been a while since I last caught up with the US version of Ghosts. This is a show that I think fell a bit too under the radar given how good it is, a comedy show with a wide range of characters that originally came from a British creation, adapted in the US. I haven't seen the UK version and perhaps that's a bit of a sin as someone from the UK. It's surprising that we're still creating some shows that while still airing end up gaining traction in international markets and getting their own release. Of course, one of the biggest examples of this is The Office. Sometimes these US adaptations don't always translate so well, but Ghosts is a great example that it can still be done. I caught up so quickly with the previous seasons that I ended up forgetting about the show for a while, only to see it advertised on a Russian streaming service known as Kinopoisk. Season four picks up where the previous season left off, of course, but the quality is still very much present.

Jumping straight into the laughs by introducing more characters into the show, one-offs that don't really stick around for too long. I think this is something that the show really needed, especially now that the show had finally managed to find its footing and moved on from the establishing of its main cast. Some of those previous episodes in the other seasons did feel a bit lacking with structure, as if there was something missing to them. So this recent addition of new characters gave the show that fresh feeling again, even if they aren't to stick around all that much. Another major change in the show is one that we probably wouldn't notice: one of the main characters is actually pregnant in real life. It's something the show tries to hide for the most part, but you can tell. I think they could've found a way to incorporate this into the story somehow, but maybe they didn't want to move too far from the UK version of the main story, or all of this just happened unexpectedly with the show already in production. This isn't a problem, just an observation.

Given that the main cast of casts is sticking around, there's still little problems that appear that must be addressed, utilising the ghosts in certain ways to push some character development forward. We saw this in how Samantha wanted to rekindle the relationship she had with her father, not really knowing the full story surrounding her upbringing. The ghosts of course being able to get the full story by peeking into rooms and overhearing things. These little episodes are nice to see in the show, given not everything is about the problems of the dead. And in another episode, it's more how one of the ghosts becomes a problem for both the living and the dead; a puritan that insists on her way being established, incapable of accepting the changes of the modern times. Fighting temptation in how she must avoid the evils of television, the fears of Halloween, and the general societal changes that come with time. And this is met with the hinting that there are others beyond her. Up until this point, all the ghosts we know of tend to be the ones on the grounds of the house. Aside from the boy scout Pete which discovers (and often brags) that he can move beyond the grounds.

There aren't many shows quite like this sticking around at the moment, comedy seems to be a bit of a dry genre on streaming services, with some companies insisting that streaming is pretty much dead at this point. As budgets deflate and review scores hold less weight with audiences. Subscription costs being a struggle to hold. Ghosts is a rarity in this era, with plenty of laughs and short bite-sized episodes that can be great for binging or just watching the odd episode.

I'm surprised that the humour remained solid throughout, I really liked the one episode about how the ghosts discover a ghost snail on the grounds, and the group take it upon themselves to keep it as a pet. Thor, being the tough one, ending up being the one that wants to look after it the most, especially as the rest of the group displayed that they weren't all that responsible in the end. Especially with Thor also making numerous strange remarks about how tasty it looked. I read that the studio has the intentions of creating two more season of the show, and I think that makes sense given two is about right for slowly starting to wrap things up a bit, perhaps giving some of the ghosts a final goodbye as they get "sucked off".