"Ghosts" on HBO Max

[nuxvomica]

This is the BBC version of the new CBS series. I watched the latter after my sister told me about it and found the BBC version on HBO Max. During a time of grieving for my cat Huckleberry, I found it very comforting, not only because it's a comedy about the afterlife but because living in a house with a bunch of ghosts, creatures who really have no demands on their time and provide little more than companionship and the occasional trouble, is not much different than living with cats.

In the series, a young woman name Alison discovers she has inherited an estate from a distant, heretofore unknown relative. The mansion is filled with the ghosts of people who died on the grounds, going back to prehistoric times. There's a neanderthal who actually gives pretty good advice, an Elizabethan whose head is permanently separated from his ghost body, a woman burned at the stake for witchcraft, a giggly and naive 18th-century noblewoman, a lovesick Romantic poet, the uptight Edwardian former mistress of the house, an officious World War II officer, a scoutmaster with an arrow through his neck, and a randy Tory MP who is eternally pants-less. Oh, and the cellar is full of plague victims. Each has their own eccentricities and subtle powers. After a fall from a window and three minutes with no pulse, Alison has the ability to see and interact with the ghosts, a continuing annoyance for her husband.

The series and its ghosts are engaging, the plotting swift and clever, the dialogue witty, and the special effects are convincing and not overdone. This is one of the better high-concept comedies I've ever seen.