Some people say that high school is hell. For Maddie Nears, that prospect is a tad more literal than most.
In the new Paramount+ series ‘School Spirits’ (also streaming on Netflix), high school senior Maddie (Peyton List) wakes up one day to discover - through a series of events she can’t remember - she’s died in her high school basement, leaving her ghost trapped in the one place she couldn’t wait to escape. With her body missing and no clues, Maddie enlists the help of the ghosts of an alarmingly high number of teen fatalities her school has accumulated to solve the mystery and guide her living friends to get justice.
Created by Megan and Nate Trinrud, ‘School Spirits’ has a lot to unpack in its eight-episode first season. On one track is the mystery, as the investigation into Maddie’s disappearance plays out on both the living and spectral planes. At the same time, Maddie is experiencing a sort of coming-of-age journey or, rather, a ‘coming-of-death,’ adjusting to her new reality and all of the bizarre powers, elusive mysteries and unexpected heartbreaks that come with it.
In the lead role, List breaks out of her childhood as a Disney Channel regular to prove herself as a star in her own right. As the main link between the two plots, Maddie is the beating heart of the series, even as her own heart is cold, dead, and missing. As such, List is challenged to walk the narrow tonal tightrope between the comic and tragic beats the Trinruds are running her character through, and she maintains a perfect balance.
Beyond the mystery of her death, the audience is also along for the ride of uncovering the secrets of Maddie’s life as well - some of which even she doesn’t remember at first, thanks to her amnesia. Pulling off a character that has major pieces of them kept in shadow to be slowly unveiled episode by episode is a big task, but the choices List makes in the part are careful enough to sell that all the cards were there in the deck from the first episode. When new details are revealed, it never seems out of synch with the version of Maddie that we knew before - those parts of the performance simply weren’t recognized for what they were until the truth was out in the open.
The remainder of the cast is largely made up of newcomers, but it certainly doesn’t show on screen. The two separate ensembles - the ghosts and the living - each do an excellent job at portraying their respective worlds as believable and lived-in, balancing the need to provoke suspicion while also getting the audience to root for them. In the mortal realm, Kristian Flores and Kiara Pichardo do the heavy-lifting on the murder investigation, with Flores in particular riding a roller-coaster of a role to some of the show’s most tense emotional moments. As the cadre of friendly spirits with their own tragic baggage to unpack, Nick Pugliese breaks out in a big way while Milo Manheim (like List) secures a path towards a career beyond the Disney Channel with his layered work as an alpha himbo trying to bury the grief of his untimely passing.
As the series unfolds, we learn more about this cast of characters, as every friend Maddie left behind and every new one she meets on the other side have their own complicated traumas and regrets to work through, with each one containing a new sliver of truth to help them piece together the big picture that has bound them all together - the mystery of Maddie’s death.
Each new episode introduces a new suspect, slowly unraveling new, unexpected elements to the mystery as each potential killer is investigated, with some even joining the investigation once they’re each exonerated in turn. But while the misdirections pile up, each venture adds clues to the web, pointing to something far more shocking than any of the intrepid sleuths - living or otherwise - could have imagined.
It’s a riveting series, with almost every one of the eight episodes ending on a tense cliffhanger, urging you on to that alluring ‘Next Episode’ button. My homework took a hit as I rushed through the whole first season in just a few days. So jump on board ‘School Spirits,’ and start piecing together the clues, but be prepared to be possessed by a new show that won’t let go.
Comments