REVIEW: Truth Seekers Series One

 REVIEW: Truth Seekers Series One

In light of the surprising news in regards to Amazon Prime's cancellation of the hit comedy series Truth Seekers, I thought I'd take a look back at my thoughts on this popular supernatural series.

Episode One - The Haunting Of Connelly's Nook

Well I absolutely loved this. As with the other films and shows by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (although Simon Pegg is only in it at the beginning), this does a really good job at balancing the domestic humour with the more heightened elements. I particularly loved the possessed mother who says 'I think the dishwasher's on the blink', and the fake-out in Gus's house where you think a ghost is about to appear but it turns out to just be his Dad on the stairlift.

And there's a really cool Dalek sight gag too, which is an added bonus.

Judging by the first episode, this seems like it will put many of the terrestrial television comedies to shame. THIS is what BBC comedy sitcoms should be like.

Episode Two - The Watcher On The Water

This was a lot of fun. I liked how closely the broadband fixing job linked in with the main supernatural plot; it was great to see the two worlds really collide, in that in order to solve the broadband they have to de-haunt the hotel.

Episode Three - The Girl With All The Ghosts

This episode made me laugh a lot. I particularly loved the clairvoyant lady in this one, and also the gag involving Gus's Dad accidentally uploading a video of him with video filters on to the Truth Seekers YouTube channel. Lots of fun.

Episode Four - The Incident At CovColCosCon

Some really fun digs at YouTube and cancel culture in this one. I love how Gus's Dad becomes the bigger YouTube star, and his constant moaning during the lecture that Gus had got the ticket for was hilarious! I liked Helen's character arc in this one in trying to regain her confidence in order to enter the cosplay contest, although I think it would have had a better resolution if she had actually been inside the Dalek costume she made rather than Gus.

Pretty neat that this series has two prominent characters who either are or were Whovians at different points of the show's history though!

Episode Five - The Ghost Of The Beast Of Bodmin

The more episodes I watch of this, the more I love the character of Gus's Dad Richard. He's so funny and often gets the best lines; I absolutely loved the one liner about all his friends being dead, for instance.

Also: can we please have more of Simon Pegg? His scenes with Nick Frost are brilliant as usual, but are so few and far between, and I'd love to see his role expanded. I love the idea of Simon Pegg as Nick Frost's boss!

Episode Six - The Revenge Of The Chichester Widow

I’ve said before this episode how I see this show as being like a British Ghostbusters, and honestly this episode shows exactly what I mean.

The last fifteen minutes are so much like the way the paranormal is handled in Ghostbusters. The paranormal isn’t the butt of the joke and is treated very seriously, the humour instead comes from the workplace banter and how these characters interact and clash.

That’s what Truth Seekers does so brilliantly. It looks at what made Ghostbusters such a success and it applies it to its own work. The possessed doll stuff is genuinely brilliant; it works because it’s played straight, and not sent up for laughs.

Richard also still continues to make me laugh a lot. I loved his obsession with The Chase!

Episode Seven - The Hinckley Boy

More of a dramatic episode this one, but still some great comedic moments. I laughed at Elton's real name being Lionel Richie, and Helen in full alien make-up remarking her taxi driver was a 'weirdo' was very funny too. Elton/Lionel certainly has quite a sad back story, sort of akin to Princess Diana's with the way the press intruded on his life and forced himself and his entire family to try and escape.

Episode Eight - The Shadow Of The Moon

An excellent finale to the first series. It was great to see more of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost interacting together, and judging by the way this episode ended, with Simon Pegg's Dave appearing to be being set up as Series 2's big bad, it seems like we're going to get a lot more of Pegg and Frost together in the next series (N.B: This was written before Amazon Prime announced they would not be renewing the show for a second series). Doctor Toynbee's frustrations at his henchmen and boxing match with Gus was very funny, and the end tease with where Astrid has gone now left me very intrigued.

You can sign the petition for Amazon Prime to reconsider and commission a second series of Truth Seekers here: Truth Seekers Petition. Look out on my feature article on why I believe Truth Seekers deserves a second series later in the week.

Let me know your thoughts on Truth Seekers in the comments.