Ghosts: Australia

I am a big fan of the UK and US versions, so I was excitedly looking forward to this one!

Alas, the story arcs are weak and pretty much all the characters lack any emotional depth. It's certainly entertaining but it simply lacks the depth and nuance of the other versions I've enjoyed watching.

Take the doctor scene par example... The previous version did it well and it hit home, but this version simply didn't have the timing, the impact nor the attention to detail it deserved. And that seems like it set the stage for the rest of the production.

Both the story and characters seem underdeveloped and quite honestly, this feels more like a tick in the box being required to make Australian-based content, than a genuine attempt to match the previous versions' depth and quality.

It is watchable but I'd be surprised if it were to match the previous versions' success and popularity. This version is crude and rushed whereas the others had subtlety, cleverness and that quintessential spark that made them meaningful.

I got really excited when I saw that there was now an Australian Ghosts. I loved the OG British version from the very first episode. It took me a few episodes to adjust to the USA version. They had to make the characters better looking, and they watered down the humor a bit. But it was (and is) too cute to be dislikable. But this one; why so over the top? It seems to me like they're trying too hard. Like the show is yelling, "Look at me! Look at me! I'm hilarious too!" Only, for the most part, it isn't. It has some good new ideas that add their own flare to the franchise. Now they just need to calm down and let us take it in. There's no need to practically throw the humor in our faces.

I didn't give myself high expectations when it was announced, 15+ years of watching Australian made productions has taught me not to expect much. So when I did watch the show I actually enjoyed some of it, though it is absolutely in need of reworking and deeper development if they want to keep it going.

Lets get the obvious issue out of the way: it is almost comical how they managed to fumble the First Nations issue so badly. Realistically there were two ways they could have approached this: either don't address it and focus the show entirely on comedy, or address it in-depth and do some actual bloody historical inclusion.

Yet they managed to somehow thread the needle right through a gap in the middle. Kate is First Nations, cool. Does anything really come out of that? No. A couple half-baked mentions is all that really comes of this, other than it making all of the white characters act really awkwardly.

There is an Indigenous ghost, who remains out of sight in the basement for almost the entire season. As for the Colonial ghost, they decided that despite him being a member of the British Army and a full blown settler, he was actually OnE Of thE gOoD oNeS that tried to be friendly and nice to the Indigenous people that were forced off of their land. Are we actually serious?

The show itself is okay, there is a couple decent jokes and the characters are tolerable. However it is absolutely the weakest version of the IP that we have seen to date. I will say though, that Kate might be the best version of the one who can see ghosts. Like the German version, she refuses to take most of the crap that the ghosts do and goes even further than her German counterpart in actually putting the ghosts in their place.

If the writers decide to use their backbones in future and write stories with some actual stakes to them, the show could turn out to be quite the gem.

Kind of crazy that every version so far has been great. I loved the british version, then the american version was great! Then this version popped up and it was great too! The best part is that they all put their own spin on the same concept, but they all have knocked it out of the park. I really hope this one gets a second season!

So, what if the US version, but unfunny?

If you see the scenes adapted from the UK/US version and put them side by side with this one, you can see how lackluster they are, and sometimes even mean spirited without being funny (which makes the first 2 episode really hard to power through).

Unispired.