RIP Ghosted

Ghosted, the Fox comedy that was mostly a parody of the slightly more successful Fox show The X-Files, has been cancelled.  But the network, in its wisdom, is showing the remaining episodes.  Why?  Either they want to provide closure to the, um, dozens of fans of the show, or it’s summer or there is nothing but crap on anyway.  Frankly, the episodes that have aired since the show was rebooted have increasingly demonstrated that the attempt to transform the show from an X-Files spoof to a workplace comedy were doomed from the start.

For the millions of you who have never watched Ghosted, it was about a pair of investigators who looked into paranormal activity, just like Mulder and Scully on that other show.  Unlike Mulder and Scully, one was not a porn-obsessed nerd and the other was not a hot, brilliant woman doctor; one (Craig Robinson) was a former LAPD officer with some emotional baggage, while the other (Adam Scott) was a brilliant Stanford astrophysicist whose belief in the paranormal took over his life after his wife left him (or was abducted by aliens).  The two are recruited by a clandestine government agency called Bureau Underground (I am glad they didn’t go with some awkward “Agents of SHIELD” type acronym) that investigates the paranormal because, it was later revealed, Harry Truman had a ghost cat in the White House.

The show's weakness, at first, was an over-reliance on the inestimable charms of Robinson and Scott (hey, I just realized those were the names of the Bill Cosby/ Robert Culp characters on I Spy!).  The show didn’t put a lot of effort into the plots or the supporting characters, but instead seemed content to put the two leads in weird situations and then let them riff their way out of it.  After it had been on for a month Fox announced it was ordering more episodes, but they were replacing the showrunner with Paul Lieberstein, who had been on the American version of The Office and who would presumably transform it into more of a workplace comedy.

The show went on hiatus after December and returned in June with the rebooted format.  The first three episodes took place almost entirely in the Bureau’s office, and most of the tertiary cast members were finally given character names.  The secondary cast was also given more to do, especially boss Ava Lafrey, played by Ally Walker who proved to have unexplored comic chops.  But the whole thing came across as just another version of The Office, only weirder, and the show was cancelled.

Changing the format of a show in mid-stream almost never works.  Scrubs tried to transition to Scrubs: Med School and lasted 13 episodes.  Burke’s Law, a 60’s police mystery-drama starring Gene Barry, didn’t succeed when it switched its format (and title) to Amos Burke: Secret Agent (possibly because no one took a secret agent named "Amos" seriously).  The only show I can think of that successfully changed its format after a problematic start was Cougar Town, which began as a high-concept star vehicle for Courtney Cox and successfully transitioned into a low-concept ensemble comedy.   Shows can get better; for example, Angel started off fairly mediocre but got better with each successive season.  But tossing out the initial premise and starting over rarely works.

The shift in format has raised some uncomfortable questions with character continuity.  One of the running bits in the original format was that Scott’s character, Max Jennifer, was attracted to co-worker Annie (Amber Stevens West), but was hesitant to ask her out because of some baggage regarding his ex-wife.  However, the new showrunner must have decided not to go in that direction, and in the most recent episode the whole idea of Max and Annie getting together is killed by 1) Robinson’s character telling Max that he slept with Annie after a party several weeks earlier, and 2) Annie telling Max that she didn’t want to go out with him and that she never flirted with him in the first place.

Okay, if the new showrunner wanted to put the kibosh on a Max/Annie hook-up, that’s fine.  But doing it this way raises all sort of awkward questions. First, it makes Max look like the poster boy for the #MeToo movement when we are supposed to consider him the most relatable character on the show.  Second, we (the audience) saw Annie flirt with Max, so she comes off as a woman who flirts with men then yells “#MeToo” when the guy follows up on her flirting.  Third, it turns Robinson’s character into a guy who’ll have a one-night stand with an inebriated co-worker he otherwise has no interest in, which doesn’t make him look good.  Further, the fact that he insists on telling Max about the, uh, sleepover makes it look like he is more considerate of Max’s feelings than Annie’s, who probably didn’t want the incident related to anyone in the office, particularly a man she flirted with (except she didn’t).  Also, in true sitcom fashion the information was stupidly spread to everyone in the office, making the two men look even more insensitive. 

But Rest in Peace to Ghosted, a sort-of-clever idea that no one apparently knew what to do with.  The show had two well-utilized stars, some under-utilized supporting actors, but needed better writers to make it all work.  Of course, what television show doesn’t need better writers?