Ghosted Review – Paranormal BFFs

Fox’s new series Ghosted which premiered Sunday, offers a modern take on the classic buddy television comedy. The situations that are the focus of the partnership’s efforts, however, are not your usual mix-up, however. Instead, they are an assortment of mysteries involving aliens, ghosts, and other paranormal beings.

The show stars The Office regular Craig Robinson, and Adam Scott from Big Little Lies, as the awkwardly partnered duo. Robinson plays ex-Los Angeles detective, and current mall security guard Leroy Wright. Scott plays former university science professor and current book store employee Max Jennifer. Both are recruited by the secretive government agency known as the Bureau Underground, to investigation the weirdest of the weird mysteries that no other organization can or wants to handle. In the pilot the two are tasked with tracking down a Bureau Underground agent who has mysteriously disappeared.

As with other buddy shows, the key to Ghosted's charm is the relationship dynamic between Robinson and Scott. The pairing, at first, seems like a mismatch and one destined to boring. To be sure, there is nothing especially ground-breaking about Robinson as the tough, skeptic with uncanny skills at solving mysteries; nor Scott as the geeky, true believer of the supernatural with extensive knowledge of the multiverse. However, at about the midpoint you can see some sparks of chemistry as we get to know a little more about the background of the characters, namely that Leroy left the police force after his partner was killed, and Max lost his job after claiming his wife was abducted by aliens.

Moreover, Robinson and Scott themselves seem to grow into their roles over the course of the hour. It’s almost as if the show’s first ten minutes were simply the actors feeling each other out but then realizing that the other guy is all right, they both decide to put their best effort forward. Whether that was a deliberate tweak in the story or an actual fact of the real-life relationship between Robinson and Scott, it works in terms of the television show. The duo also has support from the members of the Bureau Underground including Ally Walker from Sons of Anarchy, Adeel Akhtar from The Night Manager, and Amber Stevens West from The Carmichael Show, all of whom add a degree of zaniness to the show as well as potential supplementary show content.

Based on both stars’ backgrounds in television comedy, the show has the makings of an insanely funny series. Moreover, with the focus of the show being on the paranormal, there are few genre-related obstacles that cannot be humorously explored as the series goes forward. That is, from both a comedy and sci-fi perspective; the sky is the limit. We get a taste of that in the pilot’s final few minutes.

If you are a fan of the show's stars or a fan of either comedy or sci-fi, the “Ghosted” pilot offers a little bit of everything. Whether that can last for a whole season or beyond is questionable, but it will be interesting watching to see if it can. What do you think?