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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 383717" data-attributes="member: 23">And, in between watching the On The Buses films, I've whizzed through the final series of Ghosts, concluding last night with the Christmas special that completed the story.One thing this series has been is consistent. The episodes flow and, even coming back to the series after a significant gap, there's a sense of familiarity that makes it feel instantly right and welcoming. The stability within the cast (other than Mary being "sucked off" and disappearing) is a huge factor here, and the fact that I like them all helps greatly too.Yes, I've had my issues with the series. I've pushed down most of my irritation with anachronisms in speech patterns and language. Likewise the Captain's incessant throat clearing. A new irritant this series has been Mike at times being pushed harder as the daft sitcom husband. This peaked with the middle two episodes of this series where he first locked himself into a safe and then spent another episode attempting to converse in French with someone who had a translator. The latter was a nice idea for a short scene, but ended up being run into the ground to the point that Mike became plain annoying (as opposed to funny annoying, which I suppose was the intention). Fortunately, this was mitigated by the scene in the safe where he admitted his own ineptitude and his anxiety about becoming a father.Which leads to a different point. I'm very impressed that there's a degree of serialisation woven in, with certain events having an impact on later ones (Alison's pregnancy being key in this series) yet it still remains accessible and easy to dip in and out of.There were still some crackers of ideas as well. The final episode introduced a genuinely interesting idea with the exorcism. I've only ever watched such things in films where spirits are "othered". But here they're the protagonists so the potential success of an exorcism bore a genuine threat. I also thoroughly enjoyed the "murder mystery" episode where the ghosts attempted to piece together Kitty's death in the belief that she might have been murdered.The balance of comedy and character fired on all cylinders right to the end. I'd never have expected to find watching a line dance so heartwarming, but it was rather lovely. The final scenes brought on a degree of shmaltz (to be expected) but it wasn't overdone at all. I'm still undecided whether[ISPOILER] the flash forward to old Alison and Mike revisiting Button House many years later[/ISPOILER] was needed (I felt a little moved but simultaneously knew I was being manipulated which I slightly resented), but overall it wrapped up nicely, and I feel this series has been just long enough.It may not be for some years, but I would certainly be very happy to visit this series again (and perhaps again). Long term, I wonder if it might end up being viewed as one of the truly classic sitcoms.</blockquote>

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