Back in 2021 (2022? I’m not entirely clear on just how in advance the episodes were written before filming and then subsequent release) the writers of BBC Ghosts had a problem. You see Katy Winx ( actress of Mary, victim of witch trials) wanted to leave the show – I’m not too clear on the reason why, but for the sake of this post I guess it really doesn’t matter). Whatever the reason this presented a problem, because Mary wasn’t just some random background ghost, some one episode spectacular – she was a member of the main cast, a featured character since right from the first episode. So the question remained, how to write her out of the show without insulting both fans, Katy Winx and the character that she played.

The answer they arrived on was a soft, very mellow three episode arch wherein Mary would finally speak about her witch trial, stand up for herself and refuse to take the blame for what others have done anymore, and then finally move on from Button House and into whatever ever comes next. And they did this, first in the episode ‘Speak as ye choose’, in which Mary tells the others ghosts about her witch trial but the viewer doesn’t get to hear it because such things are so terrible that you shouldn’t make a joke of them. But that doesn’t matter because it’s not the point of the episode anyway, no the point of the episode was that after she finally speaks about this terrible thing that happened to her, that she’s been keeping inside all this time, she suddenly can’t stop telling her truth. And the rest of the episode, or at least her storyline in the episode , is devoted to her talking about Annie – a former ghost of Button House who was a great friend of Mary’s before she got ‘sucked off’ herself. She talks about how deeply the relationship affected her, and how Annie helped her find her voice before she moved on.

Then we have ‘The Hardest Word’ which while mostly about the other ghosts apologising to Alison for being their usual shitty shelves, has a nice little subplot where Mary – who didn’t do anything wrong – refuses to fall on her sword to help the others out of their predicament. Refuses to be the ‘sacrificial lamb’ for the crimes of others anymore.

And finally we have ‘Gone, Gone’ in which at the beginning of the episode Mary finally after years of waiting gets ‘sucked off’ up into a glowing light. And the rest of the episode is devoted to showing the other characters reaction to that.

And there we go, a short but sweet three story arch that explored – but never out right paused the story to explain it to the viewer – Mary finally overcoming her hang ups that had kept her stuck on earth, and moving on to whatever comes next.

Meanwhile across the Atlantic, it’s stated in many episodes, with many different storylines that this is explicitly how being “sucked off” works. With one highly egregious example involving one ghost reminding another of their ‘friend’ who got sucked off after he’d forgiven his brother. Look there’s nothing necessary wrong with this being a more explicit factor in the working of CBS Ghosts’ world, but I do think that it is a symptom of the lack of respect for the audience that I discussed in the last segment. And when taken to its logical extreme, that lack of respect, that desperate need to make everything one hundred percent clear to the view can become translated into a lack of respect for the characters.

For instance, let’s take a look at the friendship between Mary and Annie – the latter of which helped the former come out of her shell after the traumatic events of her death had left her quiet and overly docile. In one scene, in attempt to get Mary to join her in insulting the living states outright that in life they were both silenced, but death has freed them. They no longer have to be quiet or obedient, basically saying there’s no repercussions for being just as loud as they want now that they are dead already. You might, if you’re only half paying attention to anything I say here, be confused that I seem to have enjoyed this explicit statement of the situation both women found themselves in during life. However, I would make the argument that this explicit statement, unlike many of the CBS explicit statements, is not a sign of disrespect for the audience or the character. It is one character losing patience with an other, and finally expressing in words the hardships they both had to endure in life. You know what it’s not, a modern living person lecturing both ghosts about the hardships they had to endure and telling them it wasn’t right.

Which was exactly what happened in the CBS show when Hetty (Wife of a philandering Robber Baron) and her Irish Maid (his unwilling mistress) got locked in the ghost proof vault with Sam (Alison’s American counterpart). They came to a realisation that neither of them had wanted to start, or be in, a relationship with Elias (the robber baron in question). But instead of naturally coming to an understanding over this as two women who had been treated cruelly by their society, we are then forced to listen as Sam explains to them, and presumably the audience, how terribly this was. Worded in such a way that it feels like she actually thinks they’re both quite stupid and didn’t realise this for themselves.

Given this, I’m very, very glad – down right relived that the CBS version didn’t have a witch trial victim as one of their roster of ghosts. I shudder to think of the patronising, galling, bungle they would have made of a subject like that.

Wow, thank goodness I’ve got that off my chest I feel so much lighter now. And thank heavens I didn’t release this thing as a whole thing – it would take forever for someone to read this.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, and would like to see others like it as soon as they come out, remember to follow the Wee Blog if you haven’t already. And hop on over to X, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok, Youtube, Goodreads, Kofi , Spotify, and Facebook where I am also active. Also sign up to the Wee Mailing List by the First of April so you don’t miss the final conclusion to this ghoulish blog series. Until next time Wee Readers, stay safe and happy, and have a very bonnie day.

Look, CBS Ghosts is not a badly written show, not by any stretch of the word – I would certainly not have written something so long and detailed about a bad show. But every show, even the best written ones, have blind spots, weak spots – and the hard fact is, when that show is an adaptation it is easier to see when one version slips up, especially when that flaw was not present in the original.

So what we have to ask ourselves is the main difference between the British and American versions of Ghosts?

If you put aside the natural cultural differences which are bound to arise in any cross cultural adaptation, put aside that America is a larger country, a far more multicultural country, put aside the history and everything else – the greatest difference between the BBC and CBS Ghosts, is respect.

That is, though I’m sure it’s not deliberate on behalf of the writers, CBS Ghosts has a tendency to over explain itself. Take for instance the pilots of each respective series – they both have the same plot so the differences in stiles stand out starkly. In both, the living couple move in and establish to the audience that they want to make the old house into a hotel. From there both shows must then established why this is an issue for the ghosts, after all they’re non corporal why should anything the living do affect them at all?

The British show accomplishes this, with a quick rapid fire sequences where while the Ghosts are listening to the young couple talk about their plan’s for the property, one of the livings’ hands goes through one of the ghost’s face causing them to shudder in pain. This establishes with no need of a spoken explanation why the ghosts would worry about the increase of living people within their home. Then very quickly after the living couple reveals they want to start a hotel in the house, Robin – the ancient caveman ghost – asks what a hotel is. Then a we cut to later that night with the caveman proposing that they kill them, it cuts the scene off before the audience can hear the explanation – because it’s not needed. The writers trust that you the viewer not only already know what an hotel is but can gather why ghost might not want their home to be turned into one, just from that short scene of the hand going through the face. They trust you to get it, and can therefore focus more of their energy on being funny and telling a good story.

The CBs show has a very similar set up – young living couple come in, are followed round their new house by a gaggle of ghosts and then establish that they want to make the place into a hotel – well, B &B in this version but it has the same reaction from the ghosts so it hardly makes a difference – and then the eldest of the ghosts has to have it explained to him what a hotel even is. Really the only difference here is that we don’t skip the explanation. We follow through a deeply involved filmed scenario of not only what a hotel is, but why exactly the ghosts would find it so horrifying. This not only includes the pain they feel when a living walks through them, but a lot of extra stuff, like the clutter the guests would leave and the debauchery they might get up to in the ghosts bedrooms.

And it’s odd, because the reaction of the oldest ghost – Thorfinn in this instance – is exactly the same, preposing that they kill the living, thus we can only assume that it was also the same intended joke. Instant escalation to murder. And yet without that jump cut, with skipping the explanation, because the audience has had it laid out and explained to them exactly why a hotel would bother the ghosts, the joke just isn’t as funny.

I am of course not saying that Ghosts CBs is not a funny show, that it doesn’t have many good gags, even in that first episode – but it’s interesting to note this one failed gag. Because it’s failure is a direct result of the same factor that I’ve basically been complaining about throughout this whole blog series, over explaining , handholding of the audience. Basically a lack of respect for that audience, and when taken to its logical extreme what we actually get is a lack of respect for the characters themselves.

Don’t believe me?

Well, allow me to introduce someone very special to help me show you what respect for a character really looks like.

Her name was Mary, and she was burned as a witch.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, and would like to see others like it as soon as they come out, remember to follow the Wee Blog if you haven’t already. And hop on over to X, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok, Youtube, Goodreads, Kofi , Spotify, and Facebook where I am also active. Also sign up to the Wee Mailing List so you don’t miss the final conclusion to this ghoulish blog series. Until next time Wee Readers, stay safe and happy, and have a very bonnie day.

This flaw in regards to Pete, or rather refusal to acknowledge flaws in Pete while he’s being the hand puppet for the writers, is particularly annoying because as I’ve said before there is potential in Pete. He is the sort of character that could have been interesting – or more importantly for a comedy show, funny – if you took the time to peel away the lairs of chipper niceness and really examine him as a person. At least for a second. And I know this fact because I’ve seen it in his British counterpart.

Pat and Pete are unique amongst the ghosts in quite how similar they are. While many of the ghosts have counterparts from different eras and cultures – such as Thor (Viking) and Robin (Caveman) both the oldest ghosts in their respective shows with power over electricity – and sometimes noticeable different personalities – such as the quite theatrical Isaac (American Revolutionary General) and the more reserved Captain (WWII British Captain), both gay men who were forced to stay in the closet during life due the restrictions of their respective time periods; Pete is an almost direct translation of Pat to an American audience.

Both men are upbeat chipper scout masters who died in the 80s through an arrow to the neck. They both discovered their wives had had an affair with their best friend, while they had been alive. And they both have grandsons who are named for them. This only makes the one greatest difference between them all the more noticeable , and no it’s not that one is allowed to have flaws and the other isn’t, it’s that only one of them is allowed to acknowledge those flaws as flaws and actually grow from them. While the other is relentlessly coddled both by the writers and the other characters.

For instance, let’s take a look at two parallel storylines for these nearly identical men. They are confronted with a reminder of their death, and are forced to come to the realisation that they had a part to play in said death. But are comforted somewhat when a former scout of theirs clearly still remembers the lessons they taught them. With Pete this is done in the episode “Dumb Deaths” when said show wants to make an episode around his rather embarrassing death. A huge amount of effort is gone to by the other characters , to prove he didn’t have a dumb death including summoning one of the old scouts who witnessed it . This does not work, as standing in front of children who you have just armed before you gave them the safety lecture is a very dumb way to die. However when someone gets shot in the ass, the former scout is able to hop into action due to the lessons Pete taught her. And thus, Pete is comforted when the other characters explain this to him.

Pat’s story arch is somewhat different. For instance the former scout is not summoned to the house to make Pat feel better about his own stupidity , he’s there to attend a wedding and oh did I mention, he’s also the one that shot Pat through the neck. Thus this story is more about Pat overcoming his own rage at the person that’s technically his murderer than it is making him feel better about something dumb he did. After seeing how deeply affected the now full grown man is about the accident, Pat is able to finally forgive him and let go of his rage. Admitting that it probably was at least partly his own fault, he should never have handed the bows out so soon. No one is made to be the villain, it’s a very human story about very human feelings – despite being about ghosts. But you know what that story is above all else, interesting to watch.

Notice that it’s not that both characters didn’t do something dumb that got them killed, but rather where the focus of the narrative is. While Pat is allowed to acknowledge his own failings in a moment of quiet realisation after finally forgiving the scout that shot the arrow , Pete’s reaction when his own stupidity is pointed out to him is so over the top that the focus of the story must then become comforting and placating him. We must stop the show from airing, and when that fails we must again point out to Pete that the adult scout knows what to do when someone is shot with an arrow because of what Pete taught her. While we do see a similar thing in the British show, it comes off more as Pat’s pride in the adult scout, rather than just his own skills as a teacher.

Because Pete must never be truly wrong in a lasting way, he is denied that self-reflection that made Pat’s story so moving. And I can’t help but find it ironic that considering the implied purpose of the Adaptation’s plot, is to help the ghosts grow as people and eventually be ‘sucked off’ – they would kneecap one of their characters in such a way. After all, if Pete’s soul is as Elias notes in one Season 2 Episode ‘as pure as snow’ – why is he still here? And if the answer turns out to be ‘to help the others’ then I am leaving now.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, and would like to see others like it as soon as they come out, remember to follow the Wee Blog if you haven’t already. And hop on over to X, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok, Youtube, Goodreads, Kofi , Spotify, and Facebook where I am also active. Also sign up to the Wee Mailing List so you don’t miss the final conclusion to this ghoulish blog series. Until next time Wee Readers, stay safe and happy, and have a very bonnie day.

Thorfinn, most often called Thor by the show, is one my favourite characters. So just a heads up, there may be some unprofessional gushing in this segment. This is partly for himself, we’re often shown that despite being a fierce Viking warrior – who comes off quite terrifying to those who don’t know him well and even at times to those who do – when you dig past that, he’s actually very sweet. He spent a 1000 years having violent nightmares about the time he was forced to kill his best friend to survive who *spoiler* turned out to be a squirrel. His friendship with Hetty, as well as his relationship with later girlfriend Flower further show how deeply his love runs for those he cares for. Plus this giant of a man, loves to watch ants which is just adorable. Also, and this may be a controversial point for some I don’t know, but Devon Chandler Long is just so pretty.

The other reason I love Thorfinn so much is somewhat more relevant to the current post, namely my deep love and fascination with the ancient Vikings in general. I love their gods, I love their culture, I love their whole ascetic. Just love them, love them, love them. Yes, they were sea pirates and a lot of the time flat out murders but if the whole internet can go coco bananas over a show about Blackbeard – I think you can allow me this one little foible.

I was really excited when I found out the CBS adaption had a Viking character and for about the first season it was great, just everything you’d want for your Viking Ghost. And then the hell episode happened, and Thor acted nervous because he used to pillage for a living, and thus might be dragged off to hell himself if he doesn’t show some improvement. Look I get the joke, I do, and it makes sense with what he’s just seen…but it’s weird this is his first reaction as…being a Viking raider, would have been a point in your favour in the Norse Religion, as it gave you more of a chance to die in battle. Yeah, that was how you got into Valhalla – the place Thorfinn hopped he was going in the first season – dying in battle. So while Thorfinn has legitimate reasons to fear for the next stage of his after life – for he didn’t die that specific way – it’s odd, and kind of dull from a character point of view that this is how he expresses that fear. That he might not be a good enough person to avoid hell. Like it’s a given this is how the world works. And that the beliefs of Thor’s people are automatically wrong.

I think this is what the writers genuinely want us to believe because sometimes – not every episode, but sometimes – it feels like the writers don’t like Thor. Or at the very least enjoy having him in the wrong. It has to be constantly pointed out to us how violent and awful Viking culture – here referred to as an entire people rather than as a profession that some Northmen did, you went a Viking – is. I’m not denying this is so, although our accounts of Vikings are somewhat biased, but I can’t help find it faintly hypercritical of the show to constantly hammer this home when the ghosts also include within their ranks a colonial general, a wife of a robber Barron who employed child labour, a cult member who’s job it was to track down escapees from said cult, and most heinous of all…a scout master.

We even see this with interpersonal conflict, if there is a debate between two people on the show – an actual debate in which there are opposing views on an issue not just someone being mean to each other – if one of those two people is Thor, that side is automatically wrong. Even if Thor makes legitimate points. Like in the Christmas Episode, where Thor doesn’t like Christmas as it takes many of the customs and elements from his own culture and bastardises them to the point that they seem ridiculous to him. And he is wrong because…Christmas has presents and good food. And you can’t even blame that on a joke, as they tried to make it a legitimate heart felt realisation. With the writers forcing Thor to give a speech to Sam at the end on how wonderful Christmas is. Yeah that was…that was very hard to watch. I think that last example may have been based on an element from the original – namely Thor’s British Counterpart, the Caveman Robin’s initial apathy to Christmas. Except the difference there is that Robin is so old he’s literally seen thousands of winter festivals come and go and so sees Christmas as a passing fad. It’s not a joke about Cultural Appropriation.

But I can see why they did not go that way with Thor, for two reasons mainly. One, he’s not nearly as old as Robin – being only 1000 years to the Cavemen’s 10,000 years – and two, acknowledging how long Thor has been on the land watching the living, would mean acknowledging that he’s actually been a ghost far longer than anyone else. Having a full 500 years over even Sas. And might possibly know more about their existence then the other’s do, at least on an existential level. Because in the end, that’s the real difference between Robin and Thor – beyond the surface level trappings of Cavemen and Vikings – one is allowed to be wise, while the other is forced to be wrong.

And I’m not saying the writers of CBS Ghosts have some hidden anti-Viking agenda, that would be daft. But subtly is not their strongest suit, and when it comes to the messages, or themes, or even ‘morality’ they want you to take away from their story they do have a tendency to hold the viewers hand. And one of the easiest way to do that is to designated one of their characters to always be wrong, or to have to learn a lesson. And considering who they chose to be their ‘moral centre of the show’ it does kind of make sense that the Viking character would be their designated idiot.

Join me next time to meet that moral centre for yourself.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, and would like to see others like it as soon as they come out, remember to follow the Wee Blog if you haven’t already. And hop on over to X, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok, Youtube, Goodreads, Kofi , Spotify, and Facebook where I am also active. Also sign up to the Wee Mailing List so you don’t miss the final conclusion to this ghoulish blog series. Until next time Wee Readers, stay safe and happy, and have a very bonnie day.

What Ho wee readers, and welcome to another Wee Writing Blog series: Morality and the Afterlife: or the Narrative Shakiness of a fixed Moral centre in CBS’ Ghosts. Yes, this was originally going to be just one long arse post but I soon realised that due to me getting very, very sick halfway through completing it I was not going to be able to get it out in anywhere near a reasonable time , at least not in its whole form. So here we are, I shall release this in instalments which will hopefully give me enough time to recover before I have to write the last segment. Also I hope you’re all familiar with Ghosts, both it’s BBC original and it’s CBS adaption, because my fever tells me I’m not using this introduction to explain it. So, we’ll wait a second for all the confused people in the audience to give it a quick Google…..okay, you caught up? Good, then let us begin. Enjoy 😉

Lore & the Expanded Season

While adapting an originally British show for an American audience comes with many necessary changes, often the most impactful – at least in the long run – is the longer seasons. Namely while say the original might have only five or six episodes to fill each season, the American adaptation can have potentially over twenty. While I’m sure there are exceptions to this rule, Ghosts is certainly not one of them. Which for the most part I actually think works in its favour, as it forces the writers to very quickly leave behind the crutch of recycling plots from the original British show. As while I do think both shows are legitimately good television, there was just something so quick and sharp about the British show’s humour, particularly in the early seasons – and unfortunately for the American adaption, especially the pilot – that trying to replicate it would be a losing battle for anyone. Unfortunately this lead to the question of what exactly they were going to fill these extra episodes with if not American distillation of familiar plot threads from the BBC show? Sometimes the answer was Romantic plot lines – I did particularly like that unlike his British counterpart Isaac is actually allowed to come out of the closet, even if I think he could do better than that fake Brit Nigel. Other times it was Sitcom hijinks, or looks into the very unique pasts of the Ghosts – less of that than I would have liked as more emphasis has been put on the lives of the livings, which is a choice that will always baffle me. All of these decent choices to fill their seasons with… and then there’s the Ghost lore.

Look I’m a geek, so I’m not in theory opposed to expanding the lore of the world. But the original was actually quite unique in how little the ghosts actually knew about the state of their existence. They knew they were trapped where they died, that they could walk and fall through walls, but somehow sit in chairs. They knew animals could see them, and sometimes small children. They knew they could move on but not specifically what made someone do so or where they went. And that was about it, and what made that so unique was that there was no indication that either we the audience or the ghosts themselves would ever learn anything more. Ghosts existed and our main character could see them, but that was about it. The mechanics of ghost hood were less important than the personal histories and relationships of the ghosts themselves.

That being said the Lore in the CBS version doesn’t distract from that element – which is still there in this adaptation, despite the emphasis being on the livings rather than the naturally more interesting dead people – and was usually used more as way to enable personal conflicts and storylines rather than just being lore for lore’s sake. Such as Thor and Flower being trapped in the Ghost trap to force them to confront their feelings for each other.

Or it was used to introduce a new ghost, that didn’t necessarily have to become a permeant fixture of the cast. Such as the teenage ghost in the attic that sleeps most of the year, or the Car ghost. Although even I will admit we got into silly territory when we brought back Hetty’s maid through the use of her feather duster. And then there is Elias…oh dear lord…Elias. Hetty’s (the American counterpart to Lady Button in the BBC version) philandering husband. Who gets trapped in a Ghost proof vault when he dies (an interesting addition but more used as an explanation for why he hasn’t been there the whole time) and at the end of the episode (spoilers) gets sent straight to hell. So yeah, that’s a part of the lore now.

Heaven & Hell, Cemented Reality Now

It’s notable that Hell being a real tangible thing that the Ghosts have to fear is something that was introduced solely for the CBS adaption. It is not in the original, neither is heaven really. Oh ghosts get surrounded by a light and seem to float up and away somewhere when they ‘get sucked off’ but as I noted before, they don’t actually know where they go. It’s assumed it’s a good place, but I find it very interesting that none of the Ghosts ever assume it is the traditional picture of Heaven.

To be fair, though heaven is confirmed as one hundred percent as real as hell in season 2 of the CBS adaptation , details of it are kept deliberately vague. In fact so are details of hell for that matter, with Elias describing it as “mostly emails, and zooms that should have been emails,” but the fact that we even get confirmation that they are called ‘hell’ and ‘heaven’ at all and that they very much exist is interesting.

Because not only does this give metaphysical consequences for the ghosts’ character growth or lack there of – which again did not exist in the original – this is the first time we’re shown a religion not just getting something right (such as the exorcism in season one) but being bang on the money about large parts of the afterlife. And the fact that it’s this one is understandable but somewhat disappointing. Look I know that Christianity is not the only religion in the world that believes in a heaven and a hell, it’s not even the only Abrahamic one, but it is the one that’s had the most influence on America pop culture’s depiction of the afterlife, so it’s highly likely it’s that version they’re talking about.

Of course this is a Christian Afterlife through the lens of American Pop culture, so the actual details don’t matter as much the perceived requirements. Namely being what modern people consider a good person. And why do I put such emphasise on modern, I’m so glad you asked. Not only is what constitutes a good person entirely dependent- at least as far as wider values go – on the culture that is asking the question, but for some cultures that wasn’t even a requirement for getting into the ‘good version’ of the afterlife. And why, you might be asking, is this relevant? Again, an excellent question from the audience. It’s relevant dear reader, because Ghosts has a character from one of those kinds of cultures.

His name’s Thor and he’s a Viking.

Join me next time to hear his story.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, and would like to see others like it as soon as they come out, remember to follow the Wee Blog if you haven’t already. And hop on over to X, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok, Youtube, Goodreads, Kofi , Spotify, and Facebook where I am also active. Also sign up to the Wee Mailing List so you don’t miss the final conclusion to this ghoulish blog series. Until next time Wee Readers, stay safe and happy, and have a very bonnie day.