Since the ’90s, we’ve been obsessed with seeing supernatural dramas play out on television. Everybody loves watching a mortal teen fall in love with a centuries-old brooding vampire, but lately, another otherworldly presence has been dominating our favorite new shows. Ghosts are the new big thing, and they seem to be just getting started, as different series roll out their takes on these incorporeal creatures. While they were once seen as spooky specters onscreen, the trend of ghost comedy has been picking up recently. What makes this niche genre so primed for sitcoms?
Although vampires and witches have had their place in TV for decades with characters like the tall dark and handsome Angel (David Boreanez) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the Halliwell sisters from Charmed, Ghosts aren’t exactly new to the scene either. The ghost craze started to take off in the 2000s with a paranormal sub-genre of reality TV that featured people exploring hauntings in shows like Fear or Ghost Hunters. These series relied on crafting reality television while using traditional horror film storytelling.
In the last decade, ghosts began to play a role in the classic supernatural dramas that took television by storm. Series like Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, which launched with the story of a house full of murdered spirits, brought ghosts center stage. The series went on to feature ghosts heavily, unpacking the tragic circumstances that led each group of ghouls to be trapped forever under the same roof. Shows like Being Human introduced a less dark version of ghosthood with Sally (Meaghan Rath), a recently deceased woman who explores the ups and downs of being undead with her werewolf and vampire roommates. While the series still featured plenty of tragic death and was a far cry from a comedy, it had a lot of ghostly camp that future shows have begun to build on. To see how the portrayal of ghosts in television has shifted from creepy to comical, let’s take a look at some recent comedies featuring our new favorite phantasms.
Ghosts
With a similar premise to American Horror Story, Ghosts has an entirely different take on what life would be like in a haunted house. With a huge cast of characters, the story follows Samantha (Rose McIver), who moves into a derelict estate she inherited with her husband, Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar). After a near-death experience, she discovers she can see ghosts and finds her new home is packed with the souls of people who have died on the property. Unlike its predecessors, the deaths that landed the ghosts in their permanent home are more funny than scary (e.g. a camp counselor shot with an arrow and a flower-power stoner who was mauled by a bear).
Instead of selling the house and running for the hills, Sam and Jay decide to take advantage of their situation, turning the house into a bed and breakfast. While the ghosts do cause the couple trouble from time to time, they are far from a malevolent presence in the house. The way ghosts are written in this show is pretty standard, they can’t be seen or heard by living people (aside from Sam), but they do each have a special power that is linked to the traditional tropes from the horror genre (making lights flicker, moving objects, etc.) and they use this premise to get into plenty of comical situations where the ghosts use their abilities to help Sam and Jay run a successful business, and the “livings” help the ghosts get closure in return.
