Ghosts is free to stream on Pluto TV
American remakes of British television favourites can struggle when their humour, rhythm or cultural references do not make the journey across the Atlantic. The CBS version of Ghosts, however, takes a more considered approach: it preserves the idea at the centre of the original while giving its characters and setting room to become something different.
Ghosts premiered on CBS in 2021. Joe Port and Joe Wiseman adapted the BBC series for an American audience, and the sitcom quickly found an audience, earning a second season the following January. Further seasons were confirmed, while season 6 is scheduled to arrive in early 2027 with no announced end in sight.
The series begins when Sam, played by Rose McIver, and Jay Arondekar, played by Utkarsh Ambudkar, inherit a large mansion from a recently deceased relative. What appears to be an extraordinary opportunity soon becomes complicated: the property is occupied by a group of ghosts that only the couple can properly see and hear.
Ghosts is built around that unusual household dynamic, with the living couple providing a grounded perspective while the dead residents bring the absurdity.
A remake that develops its own identity
The BBC original benefited from the natural chemistry of Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond. The performers, who also created the series, had worked together since 2009 and were already familiar to British audiences through Horrible Histories.
That established chemistry could have made an American remake difficult to sell. Instead, the CBS series uses the longer format to move beyond a direct recreation. The BBC began with six episodes in its first season, while the US adaptation had 18, giving the latter more space to establish its own relationships and storylines.
Sam and Jay are also different from Alison and Mike, the central couple in the original. Rather than being working-class hopefuls searching for a home, the American pair are more interested in escaping city life when the inherited mansion changes their plans.
The ghosts draw from American history
The spirits remain the centre of the comedy, but the CBS version draws on different eras of history. Its residents include figures connected to Prohibition, the American Revolutionary War and the cult communities of the 1960s.
Some early character parallels are easy to recognise. Rebecca Wisocky’s Lady Henrietta Woodstone, an uptight woman of the manor, recalls Lady Fanny Button from the British series. As the show progresses, though, the characters gain distinct backgrounds and personalities.
Henrietta, for example, comes from a poorer background than Fanny. Devan Chandler Long’s Thorfinn is a Viking from Norway, but he is not simply an American replacement for the original’s prehistoric caveman, Robin. Those differences help the adaptation move beyond its starting point.
Why the CBS series remains faithful where it counts
The US adaptation works because it retains two important ideas from the original. First, Sam and Jay make the ghosts feel like more than comic figures defined by the circumstances of their deaths. Their reactions to the living couple give the supernatural characters emotional grounding.
Second, the spirits gradually change from unwanted residents trying to drive the living away to a group that accepts the changes Sam and Jay bring to the mansion. That progression turns an ensemble of supernatural nuisances into an unconventional family.
Port and Wiseman use the BBC premise as a foundation rather than a strict template. The result is a sitcom that respects the original concept while allowing its American cast, history and longer season structure to shape a separate identity.
Ghosts is currently streaming for free on Pluto TV.
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