by Austen Terry, Contributing Writer
For many people, high school felt like a time they wished would never end, and for others it felt like the end would never come. Over the years, I have watched several murder mystery shows that take place in high school, from Pretty Little Liars to Riverdale. All interweave a mystery that surrounds a friend’s death that leads our main cast down a rabbit hole of a mystery. Well Paramount+’s new show, School Spirits,is no different, except for the fact the main character is a ghost and is trying to solve her own murder. I went into this show thinking it would be another melodramatic teen murder mystery, with elements of the 2007 movie The Invisible thrown into the mix. Surprisingly, though, I found myself wrapped up in this mystery, and the show even reminded me of the forgotten 2004 Stephen King miniseries Kingdom Hospital. With that, we are left to find the clues and solve the mystery that School Spirits sets out before us: Who killed Maddie Nears?
Maddie (Peyton List) is dead — or she thinks she might be — because she is missing and can’t leave the school grounds. With her are a host of other students from years past that have died on campus in one way or another, along with blood on the walls of the boiler room where she keeps waking up, which leads Maddie to believe she is dead. She is obsessed with unraveling the mystery of her seemingly unknown fate with the help of her afterlife guide Charley (Nick Pugliese) and her friend Simon (Kristian Flores), who is the only living person who can see her. Several ghosts crowd the halls of Split River High School, but only a select few realize their predicaments and share their stories with Maddie to try to help her come to grips with her new reality. Along with all her new ghost friends and her other friends and family, they all set out to figure out what happened to Maddie.
Teen dramas have really become this generation’s soap operas, with crazy plots that make no sense and almost pull you out of the show. What makes this show different is, even though it does involve some supernatural elements, it doesn’t lean too hard into that medium; it stays relatively grounded. That’s what makes this show better than the others: the mystery keeps you enthralled and invested throughout, and you quickly come to care for the characters. Like Riverdale, this show is also based on the graphic novel of the same name, written by Maria Nguyen, Megan Trinrud, and Nate Trinrud. The characters seem thought out, and the story is compelling enough to keep you engaged. The Trinruds also created the show for television, which favors it being a faithful adaptation. I have not read the graphic novels myself, but after watching the series I am intrigued enough to want to check out the series.
There are some positives and negatives with the cast, but fortunately, the positives do outweigh the negatives. I will always try to bring up chemistry, because I believe chemistry among your stars can make or break a production. If it doesn’t feel like the stars are into the project, then why should I be? Here, the stars work so well together. List must be mentioned — she brings everyone together. If you have seen her on Cobra Kai, then you know how talented she is.
Everyone just works so well together, but there is one thing that is a letdown. The ghost teens all died in different times and eras, and though they dress like they did in those days, they don’t act like they are from those times. In part, you can blame them for acting like Gen Z by saying, well they spend all day around modern-day teens, and then that’s why they will come to act like them. That just feels like a cheap copout; I just feel like if they acted more like how teens acted in the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, or ‘90s, it would have been a brilliant show. It’s jarring, to say the least, but there are emotional beats that help make up for this lack of detail.
The narrative is built around Maddie being an observer of what the people in her life are doing when they think they are alone. One clever scene is when Maddie and Simon are trying to see if their second suspect is the killer, and when that person comes into the room, they are just searching for evidence, so they go to hide. Simon asks Maddie why she is hiding since the suspect can’t see her, and she remembers, “Oh yeah, I am a ghost.” It’s little things like this that pull this show above the rest like it. The writers and actors can tell us what happened without having to have explicit scenes detailing those incidents. For example, there’s another girl who was murdered at the school, and her ghost tells Maddie what happened to her, and we can see it with our imaginations; we don’t have to be shown gruesome scenes. This is another way the show is elevated: They scrap blood and gore for character arcs and development that help you care for the characters.
Schools Spirits throws every cliché at you, and fortunately, everything sticks. You end up fighting along with Maddie to solve her murder, and being able to do that in eight episodes is no small feat. As I was watching the show, I had a mental cork board with pictures and red strings trying to solve the case. I wasn’t looking to get caught up in this show, but I did, and I hope it gets more seasons. I can see how this can go on for more ,but let’s not overstay our welcome. Of the few Paramount+ originals I have checked out, this is one of the better ones.
Score: 8/10
School Spirits is currently streaming on Paramount+
You can read more from Austen Terry, or follow them on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd