Spirited (Australian comedy-drama)

[BritishHobo]

This may sink, because no fucker's ever heard of it, but I've just stumbled across this series from 2010, and I'm massively enjoying it. Essentially it's about a dentist who leaves her cheating husband and moves into a hotel-turned-apartment which is haunted by the ghost of a British rockstar from the 80s, played by Matt King, who only she can see.

The pair of them (the lead, Suzy, is played by Claudia Karvan, who co-created and produced the series) have great chemistry. She's a nerdy housewife, and he's basically Super-Hans from the past, baffled and awed by technology, and the idea that you can't say 'poof' anymore.

There's a loose mystery relating to King's character, and how he died, but the fun of it is in the everyday stuff, Suzy dealing with her dickhead ex-husband, and picking up the pieces of her life, while Henry (King) stumbles through the shit of his afterlife, pissing about in the midst of her familial drama. At times it's genuinely sweet - scenes with Suzy and her kids, a lovely moment where Henry watches an interview with his mother during a documentary about his life. I'm assuming there'll have to be some sort of development, because there's two seasons in total, and having one lead character who can't leave the building and can only be seen by one other person, is a wee bit limiting.

It also features Lorna from Orange is the New Black, as a put-upon, passive-aggressive dental assistant.

Fly, my pretty thread, FLY.

[BritishHobo]

Watching it alongside Wilfred (the US version, which I'm already preferring to the tiresomely 'weird' Aussie original) is quite fun - Australia aside, they're both about shy losers going through a breakdown during a rut, and a strange character only they can see, who gets them to experience the fun of real life, by forcing them into absurd situations.

I like that kind of unintentional synchronicity.