The Spool / Reviews
School Spirits Season 2 is a series worth haunting
Paramount+’s returning tale of teens, spectral and otherwise, picks up right where it left out off.
NetworkParamount+
SimilarBad Buddy, Bodies Bridgerton, Coffee Prince, Dear Doctor, I'm Coming for Soul, Erased, iZombie, Ling Cage: Incarnation, Six Feet Under, Smallville, The Practice, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Dead City, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Torchwood WandaVision,
8.2
School Spirits Season 2 is a series worth haunting

Being a high schooler is hard. Being a ghostly high schooler is even harder. As with Season 1, that remains the central thesis of School Spirits Season 2, and its arguments are plenty convincing.

At the conclusion of season 1 (all the way back in April of 2023!), Maddie (Peyton List) finally got some answers. After eight episodes of investigation, she finally knew who was responsible for her haunting the halls of her high school. Sadly, those answers made her “death” far less cut and dry. She was no murder victim, after all, but rather the victim of a supernatural eviction. Janet (Jess Gabor), the one teen ghost who supposedly achieved the transition from earth-bound spirit to heaven? Yeah, she did no such thing. Instead, she took control of Maddie’s body, forcing our protagonist’s soul out in the process. So, while Maddie paces, trapped on her high school campus, Janet is out wandering the world over 65 years after dying.

School Spirits Season 2 picks up almost immediately after Season 1’s finale. Janet, in Peyton’s skin, is on the run after hitting Peyton’s lousy but redeemable ex, Xavier (Spencer Macpherson), with his own truck. The collision sends him to the hospital, unresponsive. Simon (Kristian Ventura), the one living person who can see Peyton, is ignoring her, afraid she might be a sign that he’s losing his mind. Peyton’s other best friends Nicole (Kiara Pichardo) and Claire (Rainbow Wedell), the popular girl Xavier cheated on Mattie with, witnessed the hit and run and are now split on whether they should turn in “Peyton.”

School Spirits Season 2 ><figcaption class=Can Josh Zuckerman smile and smile and be the villain? Methinks so. (Ed Araquel/Paramount+)

Among the ghost teens, things are similarly rocky. Rhonda (Sarah Yarkin) feels guilty about keeping secrets and lashes out in projection. Wally (Milo Manheim) desperately wants to help Peyton but can’t quite figure out how. Mr. Martin (Josh Zuckerman) is missing, and it’s unclear if he’s a victim or a big bad. Then there are the “new” ghosts like marching band member Quinn (Ci Hang Ma) and clay enthusiast/existential thought leader Yuri (Miles Elliot). (Do all high schools have this many deaths on campus?) By contrast, Charley (Nick Pugliese) “only” having to deal with the aftermath of brief imprisonment feels like a walk in the park.

It is, to understate things, a lot of plot. To the School Spirits Season 2’s credit, though, it moves nimbly despite the potential overload. Over the three episodes provided to critics, the series rapidly resolves many choices that other shows would make the status quo. This keeps certain developments from overstaying their welcome. Did anyone really want a season’s worth of Simon actively pretending not to hear Peyton after all? However, the show is deft in resolving these elements, making them feel properly addressed, not simply dismissed. The pacing is efficient but not rushed. Creator Megan and Nate Trinrud and their writers’ room aren’t simply burning through ideas. Rather they’re exercising good instincts on which subplots to keep percolating and which to set up and knock down quickly.

School Spirits Season 2 ><figcaption class=As Peyton List does here, everyone should get a chance to post by their WANTED or equivalent poster. (Ed Araquel/Paramount+)

The appeal of School Spirits predominantly lies in its characters, their interactions, and the emotions they elicit. The evolving coalition of the living, goosed by Xavier’s near-death experience, swaps “who knows, who doesn’t” tension for “who believes, who doesn’t.” The change that keeps the show from going stale without sacrificing dramatic potential. The shifts among the ghosts are slighter—it makes a certain sense the dead would be more stuck in their ways. Still, what does change yields a sense of momentum and development among and between the characters.

The soapy elements are on point but mostly unfolding among the supporting players. Manheim is great as Maddie’s ghost beau, but save for a kiss and a speech about his commitment to her, there isn’t much heat. That said, he’s doing a good job with some subtle work with his “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” position. If Maddie gets what she wants, Wally loses her. If she doesn’t, can he deal with not being a hero?

School Spirits Season 2 ><figcaption class=Jess Gabor must take joy where she can find it. Season 2 is not an easy time. (Ed Araquel/Paramount+)

List, good in the first season, benefits from her double act as spirit Maddie and living in a stolen body Janet. The latter allows her to explore a more internal performance. As Janet, she’s can rely more on body language and facial expressions than the quick-to-speak-her-mind Maddie. How she mirrors Gabor’s (still playing Janet in flashback) posture filtered through the awkwardness of piloting a new body is especially impressive. Wedell also takes a noticeable step forward in dramatic workload and how she meets those challenges. There are a few moments of briefly glimpsed heartbreak that she quickly shoves aside that are particularly well-done.

Adults, a relatively important part of the prior year, play a far more minor role in School Spirits Season 2, although episode 3 ends on a note suggesting they’re about to take a step forward in prominence. Despite diminished screen time, Maria Dizzia adds further depth to Maddie’s mom, Sandra. Still sober, she is nonetheless overly committed to pursuing an emotionally self-destructive new habit. Largely a cliché in season 1, the show gives her something a little richer to play is a nice touch.

A teen supernatural mystery with romantic elements is decidedly not for everyone, and that’s more than ok. For those drawn to the genre/subgenre, though, School Spirits Season 2 is a best-case scenario. Smart, efficiently plotted, populated by pretty and talented actors, and offering satisfying developments while keeping the twists a step or two ahead of the audience.

School Spirits Season 2 apparates on Paramount+ starting January 30.

School Spirits Season 2:

NetworkParamount+
SimilarBad Buddy, Bodies Bridgerton, Coffee Prince, Dear Doctor, I'm Coming for Soul, Erased, iZombie, Ling Cage: Incarnation, Six Feet Under, Smallville, The Practice, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Dead City, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Torchwood WandaVision,