Ghost Patrol, You Are Under Arrest

Ghosts Australia gets a lot of things right. Well, a lot of obvious things at least. The cast is good – a few of them are playing catch-up, but the lead character Kate (Tamala) is strong from day one. The mansion is impressive, which means the whole thing looks good. And the format is strong enough that, so long as you nail the basics, you’ll create something decent. So yeah, this isn’t a The Office Australia situation. Phew.

Ghosts Australia is a kind of show we don’t usually make here. This is trying to be cosy viewing, where the stakes are low, the characters likable, and the whole point of watching is getting to hang out with some TV friends. Does it work? We don’t know, that’s not why we watch comedy.

What we do watch comedies for is the comedy, which is a problem because the comedy here ain’t good. Most of the jokes in the first two episodes – which, to cut the show some slack, were both largely racing around setting things up – were of the “character who died in the 80s makes wild speculation about current events that is hilariously incorrect” variety. Whenever a scene needed a joke (because this is a comedy, right?), that’s what we got. Smoking! People thought it was good for you in the 80s wait no they didn’t.

Again, to be fair, it was the start of the series. Pretty much all we knew about the ghosts were that they were old and dead; not a lot to work with there. And if you’ve watched any of the UK or US versions you know that after a while the characters develop beyond their cliches and the whole thing becomes, well, cosy viewing.

There was still time to plant a few seeds. Some mild flirting between ghosts here, jokes about being incredibly stupid or borderline racist there, things could go anywhere. The old Irish pub owner never stops complaining about everything now, but eventually she’ll develop a second dimension. Right?

The first two episodes were basically an hour-long pilot. Episode three was focused on finding a gold nugget that the 1850’s Chinese gold miner had lost. Fingers crossed that’d knock an otherwise potentially dragged out subplot on its head. But before that, jokes about computers! Oh geez.

Seriously, lines like “it showed up during a penetration test using the back door” were about as funny as… well, the first two episodes. That’s where we learned that male ghosts can still get stiffies and the pub owner’s “curtains are practically canvas – they repel all moisture”. We can easily think of contexts in which this actually would be funny; our review of Son of a Donkey is right there. Ghosts Australia isn’t really one of them.

Again, and we’re really being generous here, it’s early days. Hopefully as the characters become better established, the range of jokes will expand beyond nob gags. For now, it feels like a show that’s being pulled in a number of different directions, haha we said “pulled”.

Ghosts is a format that doesn’t automatically require writers with a deft touch or personal connection to the material. It doesn’t even require a cast with long-standing chemistry: the US version is proof of that. It’s a solid sitcom structure with plenty of stretch to allow those involved to make it their own while still preserving the virtues of the original.

And some parts of this do actually work. Kate is a really good lead! Sean, her stumblebum IT partner, is an okay comedy foil. Mandy McElhinney is going for it as the 80s aerobics stereotype, and everyone else has… well, room to develop. It looks like a proper series, with flashbacks expanding things beyond the present day mansion, and… look, what else do you want us to say?

Australia has next to no opportunities for sitcom writers to hone their craft. Usually nobody cares, because the only sitcoms we do make are mostly written by the cast. But that means that when something like Ghosts Australia comes along – a format that requires local writers to stretch a little – things can sometimes get a little bumpy.

Or, you know, maybe audiences really do want a sitcom where the opening gag in one episode is that we see two people’s feet sticking out of a tent BECAUSE THEY’RE SHAGGING. Haha sex is hilarious.