Been enjoying the new season of CBS Ghosts. I’ve written about it before but it’s so indicative of the differences between North American and British culture. The writer of Derry girls said that if the show had been set in America everyone would be popular, pretty and successful. I get this a bit with CBS Ghosts too.
Rather than Jay and Samantha actually being incompetent like Alison and Mike, it is circumstances beyond their control that scupper them, not personal failings. They also try to be good and moral, Alison and Mike are sometimes devious and immoral. Also the dynamic of Samantha and Jay is more traditional, it is Jay who ultimately is the head of the house (having to defend her honour, being the more practical one, having the final say on the house matters, having Samantha always ask Jay almost for permission) rather than Alison wearing the trousers so to speak.
The CBS ghosts are immoral, but only accidentally through naivety. There’s a “it was a different time and they have to modernise” angle, rather than the BBC ghosts fully knowing they’re wrong but not caring. The sorry episode shows this, they know full well it’s not acceptable, but it’s about what they can get away with. Whereas, the CBS ghosts are constantly seeing the error of their ways and changing. They have definitely toned down the allusions to murder and crime this season, as if to say “they are atoning for their amoral past”.
There isn’t a real sense of disappointment or angst from the CBS ghosts, it is all working out better and better for them. A lot of the storylines centre around the theme of being dead and this being unable to achieve the success or impact they had in life with relationships and achievements. This is the classic “British comedy is about the losers, American comedy is about the winners” troupe. The BBC ghosts have the opposite problem, they were outsiders in real life so what they struggle with as ghosts is actually having to get along with others.
Also, as a note. Is it not a bit uncomfortable that Isaac’s relationship wasn’t about lovers against the world like the straight relationships in the show? It almost reduced Nigel to the level of friend, like Isaac was choosing between two friends not his love. I dunno, I just can’t imagine a straight couple in the show having to compromise in the same way.
Class! There is a weird absence of the acknowledgment of social class in CBS Ghosts. The older ghosts especially are completely devoid of the physical indicators. They all act quite modern, not just in terms of speech (the words, the volume, the cadence), but also mannerisms. They all rush about and use their hands a lot, and speak to one another sitting down. Alberta, Hetty and Isaac especially, they aren’t refined enough. Even in a movie from the 1940s/50s people just moved and spoke in a much more restrained way. I know BBC Ghosts goes for historical accuracy 110%, but it takes me out of it so much watching CBS Ghosts, they seem much more like a fancy dress party gone wrong sometimes.
EDIT: How could I forget the most perfect example, the plague ghosts! In BBC ghosts it is the gruesome disease that is scary, and the joke is it’s the same actors. Whereas in CBS Ghosts the joke is that they are ugly. That’s it, ugly people=scary and immoral. Lesser. It’s like CBS didn’t want to have their glamorous actors be “made ugly” because ugliness is associated with badness. Also, the entire joke that the CBS plague ghosts are ugly people and therefore amoral will not age well.
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