Commentary: ‘Haunted Hotel’ Is ‘Ghosts’ Without Limits
by Frank Martin
It’s amazing how so many stories can derive from similar premises even though they are completely different. Haunted Hotel is an interesting example when compared to another TV show involving spirits in a countryside lodge: Ghosts. They are both positioned as sitcoms about families moving into a haunted building they must turn into a functional business despite the undead inhabitants within it. The obvious difference: one is live action and the other is animated. However, there is one other difference for this type of sitcom that showcases how each show is unique.
Haunted Hotel is about the Freeling family, who moves into the hotel after Katherine’s (Eliza Coupe) brother dies, leaving her the establishment in his will. Unfortunately, it is inhabited by a large assortment of ghosts. More than that, there are also demons enjoying an extended stay and are constantly causing problems. Along with her children, Esther (Natalie Palamides) and Ben (Skylar Gisondo), Katherine has to navigate the complicated dynamics of raising a family within a supernatural madhouse.
The program is over-the-top. Nonetheless, its comedy is ridiculously compared to Ghosts, which is a lot more reserved. The key difference between the two: Ghosts features a set cast of spiritual entities. They are fixtures of the ensemble, so there is a limit to the number of ghosts within the grounds. New ghosts are in introduced every so often, but it is nothing compared to how Haunted Hotel approaches this same issue. In Haunted Hotel, there appears to be a limitless number of ghosts haunting the grounds. New ghosts are constantly popping up every episode, allowing the writers to simply introduce new characters whenever they want to tell a new story. It’s a very different dynamic from Ghosts, which has to work within the relationships of the set characters they already have.
Haunted Hotel is now streaming on Netflix.
