Can ‘Ghosts’ Break The Trend Of Terrible British Sitcom Remakes?

You could almost hear the collective groan from across the pond in 2019 when CBS announced another British sitcom favorite would be getting the remake treatment. Had they not learned anything from the adaptations of (deep breath) Peep Show, Gavin and Stacey, Spaced, Friday Night Dinner, The Inbetweeners and The IT Crowd, most of which were so hopelessly inferior they failed to make it past the pilot stage? The Office still remains very much the exception to the rule.

It remains a mystery why networks feel remakes are necessary in a streaming age which has proven U.S. audiences can handle the odd (shock! horror!) regional accent or culturally-specific reference. See the success of recent London-centric comedies Breeders, Catastrophe, This Way Up and, of course, the Emmy-winning Fleabag, while the recent confirmation that the excellent Derry Girls would be wrapping up after its third season sparked just as much disappointment on this side of the Atlantic. Even NBC’s all-conquering Ted Lasso is grounded in a British sporting world entirely alien to most homegrown viewers.

However, the modest ratings for Fox’s predictably generic Call Me Kat, adapted from Miranda Hart’s very singular eponymous vehicle, appears to have sparked a new mini-revival. This Country, a mockumentary about the trivial daily lives of two cousins in rural England, is being transported to small-town Ohio, given a Hollywood star (Seann William Scott) and renamed Welcome to Flatch. The latest to make the transition, though, is Ghosts, adapted from the BAFTA-nominated comedy (also called Ghosts).

The original has quietly become one of the jewels in the BBC crown (the third season just aired in its native UK). And judging by the first three episodes available pre-air, this new incarnation seems to have stayed relatively faithful to its simple winning premise. There’s a likable young couple who’ve inherited and moved into a grand estate. This grand estate is populated by a motley crew of spirits trapped in a purgatory-like state at the place they met their maker. And these spirits become visible to just one of their new alive housemates after a fall which puts them in a medically-induced coma.

Stepping in for Charlotte Ritchie as the all-seeing lead Samantha, iZombie‘s Rose McIver sells the outlandish premise well, flitting between reluctant believer and woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown with amusing results. Utkarsh Ambudkar (Never Have I Ever) provides adequate support, too, although with his husband character Jay written more of a straight man than Kiell Smith-Bynoe’s sweetly gormless equivalent, he isn’t given as much to do.

With the original’s gag ratio much higher than most British sitcoms, the rapid-fire rhythm here doesn’t quite jar as much as other adaptations. It does, however, wimp out of the darker moments that pushed Ghosts into the realm of comedy horror. Samantha trips over a vase rather instead of being deliberately pushed out of a window, for example, while the spooky young girl reminiscent of Samara from The Ring is so far nowhere to be found.

More surprisingly, considering the presumed disparity in budget, the production values can’t compete. You can almost feel the cobwebs in the BBC version, shot at a real Grade I-listed building in the heart of the English countryside. CBS’s trademark bright lighting and flat cinematography, on the other hand, means you’re always aware most of Jay and Samantha’s historic new abode is really a green-screened studio.

Nevertheless, it’s the eclectic, millennia-spanning bunch of spooks that truly makes the source material so special. A couple have been replicated here, including the impossibly chirpy scout leader permanently impaled by an arrow (Richie Moriarty) and the gloriously snooty 19th century socialite (Rebecca Wisocky).

Others have been tweaked to better integrate into U.S. history: Brandon Scott Jones’ Isaac has retained The Captain’s sense of self-importance and deeply closeted sexuality yet his military experience came in the American Revolutionary War not WWII. While instead of a disgraced conservative politician from the ‘80s, the man with his trousers constantly round his ankles is a Wall Street bro from the ‘90s.

That latter change may sound alarm bells for those who feared writers Joe Port and Joe Wiseman (New Girl, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist) would ignore the original’s gentle, wholesome vibe. Asher Grodman’s Trevor, who died in a drug-fueled rager, is indeed far more obnoxious than his British counterpart. Thankfully, this being CBS and all, his fratboy talk is strictly PG and kept to a minimum.

As for the entirely new additions, then Sheila Carrasco’s ‘60s hippie Flower hasn’t yet added much to the party. Likewise, Román Zaragoza’s sardonic Native American Sasappis and Hudson Thames’ Crash, a James Dean lookalike with a tendency to literally lose his head. But Danielle Pinnock’s Alberta, a brassy 1930s lounge singer convinced someone so fabulous couldn’t have died from something as mundane as a dodgy ticker, is an inspired creation. And Devan Chandler Long looks like bringing the most laughs as cod-obsessed Viking warrior Thorfinn. Yet they don’t all quite gel together as a dysfunctional family in the same way.

Still, it’s slightly unfair to compare like for like. Ghosts was conceived by its ensemble cast, a team who’d worked together for years on Horrible Histories, a brilliantly imaginative educational series made for children but enjoyed just as much by adults (what other kids show would tell Charles Dickens’ life story through a parody of The Smiths?) Essentially reversing that ethos for their step-up to prime-time, the likes of Matthew Baynton, Simon Barnaby and Martha Howe-Douglas boast a natural rapport which allows them to bounce off each other with ease.

That kind of appealing group chemistry may well develop as the series progresses, as may viewer investment if, like the original, it delves into each character’s often tragic backstory. The brief emotive pivot as Samantha’s life hangs in the balance is an encouraging sign that a similar balance of pathos and humor may lie ahead.

Of course, should you have access to the BBC’s Ghosts, one of the most effortlessly joyous shows on TV, then there’s no real reason to choose this instead. But perhaps for the first time since the days of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, a remade sitcom can hold its (sometimes disembodied) head up relatively high.

Jon O’Brien (@jonobrien81) is a freelance entertainment and sports writer from the North West of England. His work has appeared in the likes of Vulture, Esquire, Billboard, Paste, i-D and The Guardian.

Watch Ghosts on CBS