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Devan Chandler Long as Thorfinn, Rose McIver as Samantha, Utkarsh Ambudkar as Jay, and Richie Moriarty as Pete <\/figcaption>photo: Bertrand Calmeau\/CBS<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nHear us out: ghosts<\/em><\/span>the charming CBS sitcom about a freelance journalist and an unemployed chef who inherit a quaint country estate inhabited by dramatic denizens who died on the property, is actually a workplace comedy.<\/p>\nIt’s been five months since audiences\u2014and the rest of the spirited specters\u2014watched Sam (Rose McIver) and her doting husband, Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar), fall through the floor of their foyer after welcoming their first guests to Woodstone B&B, the quaint country estate that they hoped to turn into a family business. The cold open of Thursday’s premiere deals with the most obvious question: Can Jay, the man who believed his wife could see ghosts after suffering a life-changing head injury, now see the rest of his housemates himself? (No spoilers here, but the decision that the writers made will ultimately keep the high-concept premise running for years to come.)<\/p>\n
Fast forward a few weeks, and Sam and Jay are preparing for their second<\/em> reopening after their first guests, who witnessed the fall, canceled and left them a one-star review on Yelp. Determined to start off on the right foot this time around, a tightly wound Sam enlists some of the ghosts to spy on an overly critical, middle-aged couple that has a history of leaving scathing reviews on the same app. This does not go over well with Jay, who rightfully raises the ethical concerns of spying on guests during their stay. As onscreen husband and wife, Ambudkar and McIver shared an agreeable (albeit toothless) chemistry in the pilot, but the evolution of their witty repartee makes their characters’ relationship feel more lived in and worth rooting for.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n
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CREATORS<\/h2>\nJoe Port, Joe Wiseman, John Timothy, Rishi Chitkara, Josh Malmuth, John Blickstead, Ian Murphy, Trey Kollmer, Lauren Bridges, Talia Bernstein, Kira Kalush, Julia Harter, Emily Schmidt<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span><\/section>\n<\/aside>\n
The show’s spirits, on the other hand, really are an embarrassment of riches. Showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, who used the British version of ghosts<\/em> as a framework to develop their American adaptation, have deftly mixed and matched the colorful characters to get a plausibly different dynamic each time, due to the generational (and at times centennial) divides between them. All of the characters, who fully lean into who they are and share very little in common on paper, are forced to spend almost all of their time in a single location, resembling the environment of a successful workplace comedy (even if Sam and Jay, aka the \u201cLivings,\u201d are the ones doing all of the work to get the B&B up and running). But there are three standout ghosts in the early episodes screened for review: Hetty Woodstone (Rebecca Wisocky), Alberta Haynes (Danielle Pinnock), and Sasappis (Rom\u00e1n Zaragoza).<\/p>\n\n
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Music to your ears<\/strong>Listen to your favorite music and podcasts with active noise-cancelling headphones or earbuds so you can focus on exactly what you want to hear\u2013no distractions. Soundcore is running a promotion for 30% off on various audio products.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAs the former lady of the manor and wife of a robber baron (whom she banished to hell last season), Wisocky plays Hetty with a merciless wit and such steadfast conviction\u2014down to her distinctive gait and parlance\u2014that she steals every scene with a quippy one-liner. An early favorite from this season? \u201cAllow the resentment to fester until the hatred becomes so ever-present you must turn to the sweet, sweet milk of mother morphine to numb the pain.\u201d (She also delivers the first big laugh-out-loud moment of the season, when Hetty is forced to rethink her relationship with a broken washing machine in the second episode.)<\/p>\n
The second and third episodes also attempt to expand the world of ghosts<\/em> beyond the confines of the Woodstone Mansion, with Sam deciding to start a murder-mystery podcast about Alberta’s death and uncovering more about the jazz singer’s life in the 1920s, and Sasappis revealing a sentimental connection to an old tree on the property that the new neighbors want to cut down. Any time we are able to go back in time and see the ghosts in a different light\u2014and different costumes!\u2014feels like a delectable treat, and Pinnock and Zaragoza both walk the fine line of being earnest and not preachy when revealing the true motivations behind their characters’ actions.<\/p>\n