#he's probably just uncomfortable and doesn't know what to say/do but saying nothing is shittier

[disengaged]

not to be self-centred and an attention whore but 🤡 my roommate hasn't texted me once since i told him i got locked up. lol. idk why i even bothered telling him i'm in here, all he said was "please be safe" and then radio silence for 5 days. we used to be friends but idk anymore

[quadrantadvisor]

Watched the first episode of Ghosts, American edition, and I legitimately cannot stop thinking about how bad it was.

To start with its a bad concept to try to adapt to an American setting, given that our buildings are not all that old. This leads to some choices that feel a bit out of place.

There's a viking? I don't know why they have a viking. I'm pretty sure they shouldn't have a viking.

There's the hippie, whose gimmick I find deeply unfunny. Of course, I was never fond of Kitty or Thomas's gimmicks go begin with, but their acting and chemistry with the cast make the characters charming regardless. Unfortunately, the American version is severely lacking in chemistry and charm.

There's no caveman character, instead there's a native American character who got very little to do in the episode. Also his accent sounded modern to me so I'm not actually sure if he's supposed to be the oldest ghost or not? Anyways it's the most obvious adaptational choice to make, so obvious that it honestly feels kinda uncomfortable, and I do NOT think that they care much about handling it delicately. The white protagonist of the series burns sage in the house to "ward off evil spirits", the native American character is standing right there, and the cultural appropriation just. Doesn't even come up. They don't even MENTION where that practice comes from, like you get the impression that the writers didn't even know.

Instead of the horde of plague pit ghosts in the basement, they had like, 5, which makes the show feel cheaper and less funny if you know the source material, and also I just had to look up what they were supposed to have died from because?????? We ain't got no plague. Wiki says they had cholera. Yeah, sure.

Their pantsless corrupt politician is a young guy, so maybe they were trying to avoid making him a Donald Trump type? But I don't know why because leaning into it would be funnier. Also the wiki tells me he's "of Jewish descent", which is just excellent, thanks for making your Jewish character a corrupt politician, that doesn't come off as problematic at all.

It lacks any of the restraint of the BBC show. Pat's arrow is obviously kinda a joke way to die, its visual story telling, but it's treated with a certain amount of gravitas. Importantly, he never knocks it against anything. The American version (whose arrow prop looks noticably shittier, they didn't even break off one end) has somebody flick the arrow and send it jiggling in Episode One. The politician lifts his arms so they can joke about everybody seeing his dick, which. YEAH. THAT'S THE JOKE. But if you beat us over the head with it, IN EPSIDOE ONE, then it's not funny any more!!!!!

Same thing with their gay military officer. The way the Captain works is that they use acting and cinematography to create sexual tension, and that feeling of actual desire both sells the joke and helps you sympathize with him. The American version can't afford acting or cinematography, so they have him say a couple of "men are hot, no homo" lines and call that good. It means nothing to me.

So yeah. It was real bad. I probably am gonna watch more at some point tho because as an adaptation it's a fascinating trainwreck.