Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the latest episode of Ghosts.Ghosts just concluded the first half of its fifth season with a big one-hour episode, the two-part story, “It’s a Wonderful Christmas Carol.” The episode involved yet another ghost possession story, which has served as an ongoing theme for the show’s Christmas episodes for a while. Along with some other narrative issues, another possession storyline for the Christmas special makes the show feel stagnant and complacent, rather than a clever tradition, such as The Simpsons‘“Treehouse of Horror.” It’s time to unpack how Ghosts is running on comfort-TV autopilot, as the show is spinning in its wheels and not really going anywhere.
‘Ghosts’ Did Another Christmas Possession Story
The Ghosts Season 5 winter finale featured yet another Christmas possession story where one of the ghosts residing in the Woodstone manor possesses poor Sam Arondekar (Rose McIver), and hilarious high jinks ensue. However, the instance in “It’s a Wonderful Christmas Carol” becomes especially hectic because Sam is trying to conduct an interview promoting her new novel, which has not been selling well. Unfortunately, Thorfinn (Devan Chandler Long) causes Flower (Sheila Carrasco) to possess Sam so she can enjoy some food for her Christmas present. After wrecking her interview due to Flower’s possession, Sam gets so angry with her ghost pals that she wishes she could never see them again and that she never had her curse, which triggers the second half.
Sam wakes up the next day, and she envisions a world where she never suffered her accident that caused her to see ghosts. Essentially, it’s a glimpse into a less fortunate alternate timeline, much like George Bailey’s (Jimmy Stewart) dream, provided by the angel Clarence (Henry Travers), in the classic holiday movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. However, Carol (Caroline Aaron) returns from Heaven and serves as Rose’s guardian angel. Eventually, Rose predictably realizes that her life is much better and more enriched by her ability to see and interact with the Woodstone ghosts, and the same is true for the ghosts’ afterlives. The second part of the story was a lot better, albeit tremendously cliché. Television sitcoms riffing on It’s a Wonderful Life in Christmas episodes have been an ongoing trope for decades. Even Married with Children did the parody once, but at least the Ghosts version was wholesomely entertaining.
‘Ghosts’ Rehashing Similar Stories Is Becoming Tiresome
The twist on It’s a Wonderful Life was an interesting angle to take with the winter finale, especially with all the callbacks to the first season, and seeing what would happen to the ghosts and other characters if not for Sam’s accident. However, Ghostsriffing on the classic Christmas movie by starting with a possession plot thread came off as woefully repetitive. When the trend first began, it was fine because it provided something different for viewers, but now, the technique is becoming a tired retread of previous stories. The ghosts possess Sam or someone else, and all chaos breaks loose.
Not to mention, the ghosts do not even appear to understand or be bothered by how they violated Sam’s trust by triggering the possession without her permission. Sam basically acts as their caretaker and nanny, and she surely would have cooperated to help Thorfinn and Flower with a Christmas present. Granted, that’s the contrivance of plotting the story, but Ghosts continuing to go back to the Christmas possession well and the spirits performing a thoughtless act they should know their close friend would reject is woefully disappointing. Also, Thorfinn and Flower should really know better at this point.
‘Ghosts’ Is Stuck on TV Comfort Autopilot
Performing yet another Christmas possession story presents a microcosm of a grander issue with Ghosts as a series. It’s starting to get way too comfortable rehashing older trends and plots without progressing the story and moving the characters forward. The show’s repetitive nature is exemplified by the typical scenes in which all the ghosts are in the room with Sam and her husband Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar), and Sam performs play-by-play for the ghosts so other people can understand their conversations. For instance, can Jay just see and interact with the Woodstone ghosts already?
Jay knows the ghosts are real, and he has seen and interacted with them before through other various plot shenanigans. At this point in the series, he should be able to see them, which would make things a lot more interesting and freshen up the series and cast dynamic. Other characters in Ghosts, such as Kyle Rosenblat (Ben Feldman), are able to see ghosts as well, and Kyle even made a return earlier in the season with “Planes, Shanes and Automobiles.” Sam’s ability to see ghosts is not a power unique to her as a character, so if Ghosts can easily contrive another ghostly Christmas possession story, the writers can figure out a way for Jay to permanently see the ghosts.
The Season 5 premiere, “Soul Custody,” saw Carol sacrifice herself for Pete (Richie Moriarty) and Jay to save their souls from being taken to Hell by the demonic Elias (Matt Walsh). Why aren’t more of the ghosts able to do the same? True, earlier episodes basically establish that the Woodstone ghosts are happy with their afterlives and want to stay there, but what about Nancy (Betsy Sodaro) and the other basement ghosts? If Carol can find redemption and go to heaven, then surely some of the other ghosts can too. Basically, whenever it seems like the status quo of the series is about to radically shift, Ghosts retreats to its normal routine, and no progress is truly made.
‘Ghosts’ Is in Need of a Creative Shake-Up
Right now, Ghosts appears to be content rehashing the same several stories continuously. Usually, it’s a case of spiritual possession, or the ghosts causing some huge blow-up or misunderstanding. The show has become stuck in a repetitive rut with the Woodstone spirits running their snarky commentary, Sam playing an intermediary between the ghosts and the living beings, and/or some sort of wacky possession story. The series is in dire need of a creative shakeup, and that might be coming in the near future.
The end of “It’s a Wonderful Christmas Carol” teases the introduction of new ghosts, who appear to be friends or Puritan relatives of Patience (Mary Holland), who joined the cast in Season 4, so it appears they are about to make their spiritual presence known at Woodstone. It will be interesting to see whether Patience’s friends will be new long-term fixtures for the story who could shake up the status quo, further developing Patience’s burgeoning romance with Trevor (Asher Grodman), or if they will be one-off guests. Either way, hopefully, they can liven up the series and improve the rut the show is in when Season 5 continues.
- Release Date
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October 7, 2021
- Directors
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Christine Gernon, Jaime Eliezer Karas, Katie Locke O’Brien, Nick Wong, Jude Weng, Pete Chatmon, Richie Keen, Alex Hardcastle, Kimmy Gatewood, Matthew A. Cherry, Cortney Carrillo
- Writers
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Emily Schmidt, John Timothy, Lauren Bridges, Sophia Lear, Guy Endore-Kaiser, Rishi Chitkara, Julia Harter, Skander Halim, Zora Bikangaga
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Rose McIver
Samantha Arondekar
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Utkarsh Ambudkar
Jay Arondekar
