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'Ghosts' Season 2: Most underrated, overlooked sitcom on TV starring Rose McIver, Utkarsh Ambudkar

The most underrated and overlooked sitcom on television, the CBS show Ghosts, is back for a second season (premiering Thursday, September 29 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Global in Canada), and the first three episodes are even funnier and more delightful than where we left off in Season 1.

If you’re unfamiliar with Ghosts, its main “living” characters Samantha “Sam” (Rose McIver), a freelance journalist, and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar), an unemployed chef, inherit a mansion and leave their lives in New York behind to live in their new home. When they arrive, Sam trips and falls, and she’s left with the ability to see, talk to and interact with the ghosts that reside in the mansion, who are essentially in a ghost purgatory and stuck on the estate.

(L-R): Rose McIver as Samantha and Utkarsh Ambudkar as Jay.  (Bertrand Calmeau/CBS)
(L-R): Rose McIver as Samantha and Utkarsh Ambudkar as Jay. (Bertrand Calmeau/CBS)

In Season 1, we see Sam and Jay prepare the home to become a B&B, with the season ending with the pair falling through the floor just as their very first guests arrive. Season 2 picks up right where we left off and poses an interesting question from the start, now that Jay has experienced an injury on the estate, can he see the ghosts too? We won’t spoil anything ahead of the premiere but it’s a clever way to set off the season.

The first episode of Season 2 is about redemption for Sam and Jay, with another couple coming to stay at the B&B. Concerned about getting another bad Yelp review, after the one left from the guests who saw Sam and Jay fall through the floor, Sam enlists the ghosts to spy on their new guests to try to make them as happy as possible during their stay.

(L-R): Danielle Pinnock as Alberta, Richie Moriarty as Pete, Brandon Scott Jones as Isaac, Sheila Carrasco as Flower and Asher Grodman as Trevor.  (CBS)
(L-R): Danielle Pinnock as Alberta, Richie Moriarty as Pete, Brandon Scott Jones as Isaac, Sheila Carrasco as Flower and Asher Grodman as Trevor. (CBS)

Where Ghosts continues to really succeed is in this great group that make up the ensemble cast. In addition to Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar, the team of ghosts from different decades, even centuries, makes the sitcom so endearing.

In the first three episodes of Season 2, we see Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones) managing his relationship with Nigel (John Hartman) and his friendship with Thorfinn (Devan Chandler Long). Additionally, Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky) gets a lesson from Flower (Sheila Carrasco) about women’s pleasure and we learn more about the life of Alberta (Danielle Pinnock), including the circumstances around her death.

To round off the initial Season 2 plots, there is also an episode about Jay possibly becoming linked with a cult, a classic sitcom trope but nevertheless, always an entertaining narrative.

SAN DIEGO - JULY 21: The cast of the CBS Original Series GHOSTS makes a panel appearance at Comic-Con International: San Diego on Thursday, July 21, 2022. Pictured (L-R): Sheila Carrasco as Flower, Utkarsh Ambudkar as Jay, Devan Chandler Long as Thorfinn,  Rebecca Wisocky as Hetty, Danielle Pinnock as Alberta, Richie Moriarty as Pete,  Asher Grodman as Trevor, Brandon Scott Jones as Isaac, Rose McIver as Samantha and Roman Zaragoza as Sasappis. (Photo by Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images)

Ambudkar has made us laugh in shows like Never Have I Ever, The Mindy Project and movies like Free Guy, and McIver is no stranger to the power of a great ensemble comedy with the cult-favourite show iZombie (which was very sadly recently removed from Netflix in Canada), from Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas. While their relationship-related comedy may have seemed slightly disconnected in Season 1, you really start to buy into their partnership in Season 2.

Yes, there are a lot of characters and backstories to cover, mixing the ghost world with the living world, but Season 2 establishes that co-creators Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, who used the British version as their framework, have found that balance in engaging and funny 20-minute episodes.