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Review: ‘Ghosted’ Pilot Episode Gets it Right the First Time
Recently, at the annual Canadian Fan Expo in Toronto, I had the chance to catch a special preview screening of Adam Scott and Craig Robinson’s upcoming supernatural comedy series, Ghosted.
The show follows a cynical former missing persons detective, Leroy Wright (Craig Robinson), and a genius disgraced scientist, Max Jennifer (Adam Scott), as they are enlisted by a secret underground agency – aptly titled The Bureau Underground – to investigate a series of unexplained activities in the Los Angeles area.
They each come with a certain set of skills that Capt. Ava Lafrey (Ally Walker, Sons of Anarchy) – head of The Bureau Underground – and her support team (Adeel Akhtar and Amber Stevens West) hope to enlist in the search for a missing operative. Strange things are afoot and it’s up to Leroy and Max to save the day – and, perhaps, all of mankind.
Now, we all know pilot episodes can be a challenge; you have to find a way to lay down all the groundwork for the rest of the season, but you also have to engage the audience in a way that will make them want to tune in on a weekly basis. It has to communicate the general vibe of the series in a very brief period of time. Basically, it’s really hard to do well. Have you ever looked back at the pilot episode of your favorite series? It’s like finding your grade school photos from that time you cut your own bangs.
That being said, Ghosted succeeds at the pilot formula in a really enjoyable way. Do we get a sense of what the show is about? Yes. Do they provide enough intrigue to keep us coming back? Sure thing. And for a comedic show, is it actually funny? You betcha.
It’s a pleasure to see Craig Robinson back on the small screen, and his chemistry with Adam Scott is perfect. Characteristically they’re polar opposites, and for the sake of the plot they each serve a very specific purpose. Leroy is the skeptic ex-cop with a heavy burden that makes him push people away (three guesses why), and Max is the believer with a personal connection to the supernatural. Is that a tad formulaic? Perhaps. Does it diminish the show in any way? I think not.
Scott and Robinson act as executive producers on the show, which means there’s a lot of room for them to play. Their humor shines through, but Ghosted knows when to put the jokes aside to focus on the plot. It’s a buddy comedy with a supernatural tone. There are scary moments, but like any sitcom, it has a lot of heart.
Overall, the pilot has my interest piqued. Like I said, pilot episodes are a real challenge to do effectively, but for me, this one checks off all the boxes. Sign me up, boys.
Ghosted premieres Sunday October 1st on Fox at 8:30/7:30c. Check out the trailer and the poster below!
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Movies
‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.
We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.
“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”
That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”
Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:
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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
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