Paramount Plus purged itself of four pretty high profile shows last week
and I think that might actually be good news for a second season of Wolf Pack.
The victims of The Purge included the first Star Trek series that
was designed to make the universe accessible to really young audiences.
And a new wokish nostalgia effort aimed squarely at late Boomers, Generation X,
and Millennials who all grew up watching Grease and Grease 2 on cable or dvd.
Those were just part of The Purge. They also removed about a dozen series from the streaming
platform earlier this year - including their much hyped reboot of The Twilight Zone from
a few years ago and that Real World reboot they did at the launch of Paramount Plus.
Just prior to purge night we saw them renew the only show on the platform that
I would say is even close to Wolf Pack in tone, potential audience and demographics.
I reviewed the first episodes of School Spirits on this channel and I found it
kind of dull and a little all over the place as far as what the series is trying to be.
Previously recorded: But at the time of this recording,
with the season finale of Wolf Pack coming on Thursday, Paramount isn't something I
can see keeping unless I find a show I really like and can review every week.
Unfortunately, School Spirits isn't that show.
Maddie: I need to know what happened.
Martin: Would you like to tell us a little about yourself?
Rhonda: How'd you die?
It's fine.
It's not terrible.
But it’s also not great.
School Spirits is the kind of thing you throw on in the background while playing games on
the phone – only having to look up if they advance the mystery plot or
something ghostly happens.
The basic premise is this – Maddie died at school.
She then woke up and found out that her alma mater is populated by a lot of kids and at
least one teacher who died at school over the several decades the building has existed.
I will resist the urge to compare it to another of my favorite Paramount shows "Ghosts" – but
it’s obvious.
I love this premise.
You could mine this all day for the absurdity of it.
You could do the culture clash thing of teens who died as kids in the 80s dealing with current
teens and juxtapose it with teens in the 50s and show that while the technology and pace
of life might change – the problems are still the problems and the solutions still work
Or, you could do what they actually did and make it into a maudlin mope fest – with
Maddie obsessed with finding her killer and the only person who can see her is this incredibly
miserable guy who has complicated feelings about Maddy.
And while I didn't enjoy it or hear much on my socials other platforms or in the media about it,
Paramount claims School Spirits was a big driver of audience interaction.
Paramount Quote: School Spirits has captivated audiences with its gripping
storyline engaging characters and the enigmatic world of high school life and
we are thrilled to bring a second season to this loyal fan base across Paramount plus.
Paramount Quote: School Spirits developed such a passionate and engaged fan base over the
course of its first season marking one of our most popular new young adult series to date.
MEME: You sure about that? You sure about that? You sure about that's not why?
If any of that's true, I completely missed it. If you're in that hidden School Spirits fandom,
please share some links for me in the comments because I hate
being out of the loop on such an apparent pop culture phenomenon.
Yes, I am skeptical about the stated reasons for the renewal of School Spirits.
I believe we got the go ahead for more because it's just a cheap show to produce.
It mostly all takes place inside at one location. There are limited special effects.
Did anybody else just feel that?
Don't move Janet! No!
They literally just do some lighting and split screen effects.
It's very physically contained with limited
special effects meaning School Spirits is a relatively cheap show to produce.
It also doesn't come with any really big names attached.
I'm not dragging Peyton. She is talented and well-liked in
the business but she is not a huge name when it comes to the budget.
Of course, when I say that School Spirits is cheaper,
I mean it's cheaper in comparison to Wolf Pack.
Wolf Pack does multiple locations in every episode.
The CGI and special effects budget is ridiculous for a streaming show.
And they have Sarah Michelle Geller who does not come cheap,
even though they bumped up her salary by making her work as a producer too.
I think school Spirits got the early renewal nod because it was easy to do.
It's a cheap show and they can delay production indefinitely
until all the current labor disputes are done.
Wolf Pack comes with a lot of moving parts, a ton of locations, heavy FX in every episode, a limited
writer's room, which just happens to be one of the major complaints of the Writers' Guild of America.
But that small writer's room is also one of the only reasons they can afford to do the show.
Wolf Pack is a tough budget to balance and the outcome of the strike and what
those other labor contracts will do to address streaming residuals for
actors and others have a direct and heavy impact on the bottom line for Wolf Pack.
We could see a scenario where the different unions
get their demands and it prices Wolf Pack right out of the marketplace.
But I am still optimistic for a Wolf Pack renewal mainly because the show survived the purge week.
Wolf Pack is the only unknown left on the Paramount Global slate at this point
and that says to me that it could still go either way.
But it also tells me that "the powers that be" don't
really want to cancel Wolf Pack if they can afford to keep it.