This is why the direction that Ghosts Season 3 has taken is so frustrating. “Sucked off” has been used so often that it’s lost what made it funny the first time around, and the recent use of the phrase “jerked off” in the episode “The Polterguest” seems a desperate grab for a cheap laugh. Flower’s apparent ascent to the next life seemed to be what would drive the first set of episodes, but apart from performing a single seance to try and get her back, she has rarely been mentioned since. The spirits of Season 1 would have been either desperate to try and get her back, or at least say goodbye, but the casual disregard of her absence is a blow to the feeling of family, and with us knowing that she’s alive… dead, and well, in a well, makes it that much more disappointing.
Thorfinn sleeping with Pete’s wife Carol (Caroline Aaron), to somehow prove that she’s still unfaithful may have made sense once upon a time, but the growth he had made over the course of the series makes it out of character, an oblivious and hurtful act to do to someone so close (and one that has riled the fanbase). Again, these are people that have been together for a significant period of time, yet don’t seem to know how to treat one another anymore.
The episode “Halloween 3: The Guest Who Wouldn’t Leave” features a scene where the ghosts are giggling as Sam talks to Carol in front of her friends, unaware that Carol has died, and her friends can’t see her. They’ve shown in the past their willingness and ability to help Sam and Jay, as they did by helping them get their neighbors to support their renovation permits in Season 1’s “Dinner Party,” so to stand back and do nothing as Sam is embarrassed in front of her friends is, again, out of character for the group.
But at least they’re together as a group, something which hasn’t been a focus of late. The individual ghosts have acted far more selfishly than they have in the past, be it Isaac’s reluctance to part with money to aid Sam and Jay, money he can’t even spend, or Alberta telling Sam to leave her bedroom so that she can do the Casper nasty three times with her new boyfriend, in “The Polterguest.” That same episode brought things down to a new low with lap dances being a significant plot element. Yes, lap dances. The innocence and charm that made Season 1 unique is getting lost, replaced by plot devices that turn the show into a carbon copy of any other sitcom.
It would be naive to think that Ghosts could, or should, have remained in a single gear — it’s not Seinfeld with its “no hugging, no learning” motto — but it still shouldn’t lose sight of what it was. The good news is that, despite its departure from its beginnings on many fronts, it still has those come-together moments that remind you how special Ghosts can be. Sass forging a friendship with Jay through his dreams, the group working together to help Jay beat Trevor’s brother at a football video game, Isaac’s new-found obsession with dinosaurs — these are the reasons why we fell in love with Ghosts in the first place, and while there may be no turning back, those things are still there, and so long as they continue to be, then perhaps not all is lost.
