Haunted

Haunted was killed before it had the chance to really breathe. Now it wanders the dark hallways of cancelled TV show obscurity hell.

Most people have barely heard of it. In a way it's kind of cool because for those small few of us that do discover it will get to indulge in something so lost and forgotten it seems like you're the only one to have ever watched it. It just misses attaining the status of a "cult" TV show. Personally, I quite like that fact. It's a cult-cult kind of deal. A bit like for those people who remember Michael Mann's Robbery Homicide Division's short lived run. Shows that have great potential and a strong handful of episodes to advertise that fact but lack the buzz and word of mouth to continue their evolutions into bigger, more popular dramas.

In this day and age where detective series are still often successful with audiences, it seems a shame that no one gave Haunted its due diligence. It is evident from the existing episodes that it would have developed into an effective spook-tacular series that could have run for at least three seasons.

Atmospheric visuals and good story lines combined to create a genre based mystery of the week potboiler with a great central lead performance by Lost's Matthew Fox. His emotional investment and range as an actor keeps the whole thing together, especially in the poorer episodes.

If you are lucky enough to find this show available anywhere then there seems to be much difficulty in figuring out the real episode order that they were intended to flow in. I would suggest watching it like this -

1. Pilot (which I call "Simon Says.) 2. Fidelity 3. Grievous Angels 4. Blind Witness 5. Last Call 6. Nocturne 7. Seeking Asylum 8. Three Hour Tour 9. Simon Redux 10. Nexus

I have discounted one - the episode entitled "Abby" because it is so bad I would recommend ignoring it all together. It may put you off the rest of the episodes.

Also worth noting is that the episode that I have placed last called Nexus is really a "flashback episode" set a couple of weeks after the events of the Pilot episode. The reason for it going last is because it is the only episode out of all of them that gives any sense of closure to the story. Ironic considering the events it depicts are all set BEFORE the other episodes, but the final scene in it seems like a good place to leave the character of Frank and the over all story arc of the show. It says to us that he will control and eventually conquer his "demons," and that's about as conclusive as you're gonna get.

Haunted had potential to be as good as a similar show like Millennium and certainly would have marked an interesting journey for Fox's tortured soul Frank for us to follow.

If you can find it, watch it and wonder what could have been. If you stick to the order I suggested, it will provide the most satisfying conclusion possible for a cancelled show.

It's worth tracking down. Consider it's current status as "MISSING - PRESUMED DEAD." Let's hope it'll get a resurrection one day on DVD.

I know it's been about a year and a half, and I should probably let it go, but I really want to know if anyone has any idea what happened to this show? I was very into it and feel like I was left hanging. I want to know what happened to the characters, especially Frank and his wife. It was so well written, and the actors did such a great job of pulling you in and making you care. If anyone knows why this show was taken off the air, I'd love to know. I even emailed the station right after it was taken off and asked, but never got a response.

Oh well. Thanks!

A very disappointed fan

I only saw a couple of episodes and was VERY disappointed to see it cancelled. Man, that sucked! I hope it comes out on DVD soon; this was probably the only show I wanted to try and see if I could work on an episode, it was THAT cool!

I've seen the first two episodes of the show so far and I am majorly hooked. Whoever wrote that pilot should be commended because I am hooked. Ever since the Sixth Sense, everyone just assume that these ghosts should just "jump out and tell what's wrong." I think the way the show works it is so much better since you are dealing with spirits entering this weird dimension where they are stuck between worlds. Personally I had always thought the shaggy haired, 7 o'clock shadow Matthew Fox from Party of Five was a major toolbag until I saw this show. He's proven me wrong and stepped up to deliver a great performance in very well developed role.

Personally, I hope that people start tuning in and supporting this show (like you Buffy and X-File fans out there) and avoid another sad incident of shows killed way before their time (like Brisco County jr and Lone Gunmen).

Caught this one episode showing on tv last night and it's not bad at all. It's really creepy, dark and quite entertaining. I understand that it might not be everyone's cup of tea because of the dark story lines. It's just too bad that the US tv station cancelled the show. That would mean I could only see a few more episodes of the show here in Malaysia. *Sigh*.