I fell in love with Ghosts when it debuted on CBS last season, so I decided to give the British version a try. I’ve fallen in love with that show, too, but for different reasons.
They are definitely two different shows, to be sure. As for the ghosts, there’s some character overlap, but not much. They and we both have a Boy Scout who was killed by an arrow in the 80s (Pat/Pete); they and we have a stuffy old lady (Fanny/Heddy), but theirs is a century older and quite a bit more prickly; they have a pantsless guy, but theirs is two decades older and a sex-up MP, ours is a drugged-up finance bro (Julian/Trevor). Their closeted military guy is from WWII, ours from the Revolutionary War. Their oldest ghost is a caveman*, ours a Viking. Other than that, there’s no character overlap.
Their ghosts are, well, British. They seem to love Mike & Allison to a point, but they believe the good of the house triumphs the good of Mike & Allison. Their crotchety old lady is all about propriety and has convinced Allison to get rid of tradesman on the grounds because she doesn’t like them; Sam puts Heddy in her place. Our ghosts, once they got used to them, have loved Sam & Jay since about Episode 3.
Sam & Jay are enthusiastic, earnest and optimistic; or, you know, American. Mike & Allison are defeated, reserved, and, you know, British. Keep calm and carry on, and all that.
Two of the past five episodes of the British series that I’ve seen have left me in tears (end of S2, beginning of S3). The Christmas one, when the ghosts joined Allison in her hymn, I was verklepmt, and I’m an American agnostic. And then the episode I saw last night, when Allison and Thomas remarked about how it’s the same Sun that rises over the same patch of land every morning, just as it has always done, but that it shines over their little slice of England and it’s theirs. I know that that’s about as close as the British get to being patriotic, and it got me in The Feels.