CBS has a sitcom built on a premise so thin it should not work. Samantha and Jay Arondekar inherit Woodstone Manor, a country estate from Sam’s great aunt Sophie Brimble, and try to turn it into a bed and breakfast. The place is falling apart. It is also full of dead people.
Trailer, via CBS.
Rose McIver and the Manor That Talks Back
Sam has a near-death experience, caused by the ghost Trevor moving a vase into her path, and wakes up able to see and hear the spirits who died on the property. Jay cannot. That is the whole engine of Ghosts, and it runs for 98 episodes across six seasons.
The ghosts span American history, each stuck appearing as they did when they died, each with a power tied to that death. Rose McIver plays Sam. Utkarsh Ambudkar plays Jay. The cast is deep: Brandon Scott Jones as Isaac Higgintoot, Danielle Pinnock as Alberta Haynes, Richie Moriarty as Pete Martino, Asher Grodman as Trevor Lefkowitz, Rebecca Wisocky as Hetty Woodstone, Devan Chandler Long as Thorfinn, Román Zaragoza as Sasappis.
Joe Port and Joe Wiseman adapted the British series of the same name and run the show. It premiered on October 7, 2021, and CBS picked it up for a full season that month. The sixth season is slated to premiere on October 29, 2026.
Sam can now see and hear the ghosts, while Jay cannot.
What the Sitcom Gets Right
In this paper’s view, the joke is not the haunting. The joke is the marriage. Sam carries a secret her husband can never fully share, and Ghosts plays that as comedy rather than tragedy. The ghosts read as roommates with grudges, and the show treats Woodstone Manor like a workplace sitcom with a very old staff.
The casting looks like the reason it holds. McIver and Ambudkar read as a couple married for years, and the ensemble gives every era of American history a voice without, in our reading, turning any of them into a lecture. Sheila Carrasco was cast in the pilot as a main role. Devan Chandler Long joined as a series regular in May 2021, rounding out the group.
Six seasons is a long run for a network comedy in this decade. The show’s own rules stay simple and its characters stay specific, and that, to this paper, is what carried it.
Woodstone Manor, 2021 to 2026
Ghosts is the rare network sitcom that knows exactly what it is and refuses to be embarrassed by it. The premise sounds like a gimmick. To our eye the execution is a character comedy with a real marriage at the center.
Key facts
– Score: 9.7/10 (Rotten Tomatoes)
– Network: CBS
– Created by: Joe Port, Joe Wiseman
– First aired: October 7, 2021
– Last aired: May 21, 2026
– Seasons: 6
– Episodes: 98
– Genres: Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
The score is the score. What matters more is that a show about dead people talking to one woman has lasted this long without the gimmick wearing out.
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