Ghosted is a supernatural procedural comedy sitcom helmed by Adam Scott, who is best known for his work on Parks and Recreation, and Craig Robinson, who is best known for his work on The Office. The first time that I remember seeing them together was Hot Tub Time Machine 2, and after a quick glance, it does not appear that they appeared in anything else together, but it feels as if they had. They seem to run in the same circles and have the same comedy sensibility.

Ghosted only aired for one sixteen-episode season, which appeared to air out of order on FOX. Scott plays a disgraced scientist who believes in the supernatural, and Robinson plays a former LAPD detective that got his partner killed and is more skeptical. The Underground Investigative Bureau recruits them to investigate cases. The series can be divided into two segments. The first nine episodes and the sixteenth episode feel more like a parody show. The creators and leads of the show intended for it to be a mash up of The X-Files and Lethal Weapon. I would have also referenced the Abbott and Costello Meets the Monsters series of movies in which they meet Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the Mummy except more effective.

The initial instinct of Ghosted was to play the premise straight with the comedy rooted in the leads’ chemistry, which I think is solid, but the actual surrounding scenarios felt wooden and uneven with some notable exceptions. I think that the main problem with the scenarios is that while monsters and aliens are similar and share genres, by mixing them up, it creates confusion for the viewer regarding the underlying logic of the supernatural within the show’s universe. I think that the series was using science as the explanation, but for example, a succubus is rooted in the idea of a supernatural world based on forces representing good and evil. These concepts can coexist, but most people prefer not to blend the two. By not choosing a single origin of evil framework, logic or Satan, it can create a dissonance for viewers or alienate some altogether, albeit subconsciously, from completely being able to surrender and just enjoy the show.

It also didn’t help that the overall narrative and goal of Ghosted was to find Scott’s wife whom he believed that aliens abducted, but the strongest episodes were the ones that stood alone such as Lock Down or Haunted Hayride, which felt lifted in its entirety from Supernatural. These episodes relied on the humorous dynamic between the team, 80s music such as Steve Winwood’s High Love or Huey Lewis and the News’ Power of Love against a serious backdrop with the rest of the cast mostly playing straight men with the exception of series’ regular, Adeel Akhtar, who gets all the work and I did not recognize him, and in Lockdown, the man who played Donnie and was the best part of Lockdown and Kate Berlant, who is best known for her memorable but brief supporting role in Sorry to Bother You. There were also occasional appearances by well-known guest stars.

Ghosted actually improved when it completely shifted the trajectory of the narrative and could have been renewed repeatedly based on episodes 10 through 15. Suddenly the audience was reoriented into shifting our perspective and seeing this agency in a national context as a laughing stock regardless of how effective we know that they were in earlier episodes. So it basically channeled the spirit of Veep meets Parks and Recreations: a government agency filled with well-intentioned misfits who never get respect. Basically Ghosted became Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. without the respect and if more ordinary people were on staff. The introduction of Kevin Dunn grounded the humor of the series into something less gimmicky and opened the door for more than just retreading old ideas. It created a tension and a problem that could have fueled stories for ages. These six episodes started to utilize the rest of the cast more, especially Ally Walker, whom I haven’t seen since The Profiler! Walker played the ultra effective boss, but with this new approach, she could also appear to be an unhinged zealot, which led to some hilarious scenarios. Walker can do comedy! Andy Blitz, Greg Romero Wilson and Yimmy Yim started to share the comedy burden with the leads by throwing everything delightfully off kilter. It also opened the door to guest stars of actors with recognizable faces in comedy whose names that you probably don’t know: Sam Richardson, Mindy Sterling, Ken Marino, Brian Huskey and Brian Howe.

I didn’t mention Amber Stevens West earlier because she is basically the Marilyn Munster of Ghosted. She is unfortunately mostly defined by her relationships to others although she occasionally gets to just be her own person, a striver, with her own dreams and desires. She is also conventionally pretty. She never succeeded at fully stealing any scene unless it was deliberately allocated to her character, and show business is not easy for women of color so I hope that she starts throwing some elbows and seizing the spotlight.

I’m not saying that I ever laughed uncontrollably or even out loud, but Ghosted was moving in the right direction. It appears that FOX decided not to renew it, which is too bad, but understandable. I would have continued to watch it. I think that it had potential to grow.