Alright so what would happen if it were instead Hopkirk & Randall (deceased) ?
Thank you!!
I’m assuming in this situation that that’s the only thing that’s changed - so Jeff comes back as a ghost so that Marty will solve his murder. After they’ve solved it, for a while Jeff often disappears for weeks or months on end and only comes back occasionally when he’s needed for a case or when he gets bored of exploring.
Eventually he gets bored of that too and doesn’t leave so often. He refuses to admit it in so many words but he’s lonely as hell.
Marty is harried and constantly on the edge of a nervous breakdown for real partly because the business is constantly in danger of plunging them all into bankruptcy but mainly because he doesn’t want to be keeping this kind of secret from Jeannie. Eventually Jeff takes matters into his own hands and forces Marty to tell Jeannie (idk how I guess he does smth that Marty has to explain).
In this situation I think telling Jeannie is much more understandable than in the original. In the show, I would argue that the main reason they never tell Jeannie about Marty is partly because she would struggle to believe it, partly because she might be frightened, but the most powerful and important reason is that Jeff is trying to protect her ability to move on with her life and doesn’t want her to become stuck the way he has. If Jeff was the ghost however I don’t think that would be such a problem. Jeff and Jeannie are good friends but they’re not married.
Jeff is naturally much less scaredy than Marty so I can see him being more cantankerous and pushy as a ghost, and he probably masters certain ghostly skills quicker than Marty does (like telekinesis and walking thru walls etc) bc Jeff doesn’t overthink them. At the same time, there’s something about Marty’s intense nervous energy that gives him great power as a ghost (think of Cecil going on abt his Powerful Vibrations lol, and that’s after Cecil’s spent the last few days actively draining Marty’s energy) and I do think Jeff lacks that because he is just more chilled as a guy. Basically I think Marty is good at being a ghost bc he’s a natural tbh, he’s not trying to be a super powerful ghost he just is, whereas Jeff puts effort into his skills and it pays off.
:D
