Ghosts Season 5 Episode 15 Review: Michael Jackson Goes to HR

You won’t hear us making a formal complaint against Trevor for this episode.

Inappropriate and brazen as Ghosts Season 5 Episode 15, “Michael Jackson Goes to HR,” may be, it revels in the problematic lives of ghosts with no HR department to answer to for their actions.

Utkarsh Ambudkar’s delightful directorial debut is a banterous feast of fun quips and disappointed tsk-tsk in Trevor’s direction.

Highlights of this HR visit include group discussions surrounding stripper-grams and jaguar skull cocaine bowls.

From horny storyteller Sas asking for HVAC strip tease details to Hetty and Trevor excitedly chatting about blatantly different jaquars, the ensemble scenes are all too fun to watch.

It’s especially lovely to see these group moments acknowledging Jay’s increasing familiarity with certain ghosts.

Thanks to his time spent with Hetty, he can now recognize what wild ghost ideas are hers and gleefully points them out. He’s developed an unspoken, if not hilarious, language with the invisible group.

Also, having Thorfinn add to the HR discussion by describing his time pilaging with common workplace phrases is so fun. At this point, the ghosts have come to acknowledge his talk of murder in such a mundane way; it’s a great evolution of the joke.

The ensemble is gloriously on full display with this outing, despite a focus on Alberta and Trevor driving those interactions.

It’s the rapid-fire banter this show has made its own that pushes through any uncomfortable lingering that the more inappropriate subject matter creates.

The reveal that Trevor is bankrolling the B&B is played for laughs in between those serious beats by likening Trevor keeping things “afloat” to that time his skull was fished out of the lake.

Even better, Ghosts enlists Isaac for a perfect moment of relief when Jay learns Trevor didn’t pay his taxes for several years. Of course, Isaac, the anti-British founding father, would give bad tax advice.

Every corner of this episode is equipped with a quippy comeback and a niche little joke for our enjoyment.

As mentioned, the HR outing also deals with heavy material that sets the show up for a strong finale run.

It’s always a good choice for Ghosts to address Sam and Jay’s financial struggles because it anchors this story in the realist and scariest of consequences. No amount of supernatural foresight can help anyone in this economy.

Watching Sam beat herself up so vigorously over the failure is a devastating, yet necessary, turn. To learn the ghosts are repaying the couple for their hospitality is lovely, but it’s seeing the group come to Sam’s defense so quickly in her moment of weakness that speaks volumes.

By acknowledging the severity of the B&B’s financial situation and the consequences of Jay and Sam’s ghost lies as public figures, Ghosts is touching on some of its most weighted conflict yet.

Interestingly enough, the exceptional ensemble work exposes a skeleton the sitcom often keeps hidden deeper in the closet.

There are moments throughout this episode where the plot relies heavily on dialogue to jog our memory on what happened in previous episodes/seasons.

It is not an uncommon occurrence in network comedies, nor is it even an uncommon occurrence in Ghosts.

However, there’s a knack to slipping in backstory without making it feel like a tedious summary. The series has always had a way of delivering past events in such a dry, mocking manner that the absurdity speaks for itself.

This installment, however, relies on information dumping so frequently that it’s difficult to hide. We are often reminded of past events regarding Trevor’s job, Sam’s failures with the business, and Pete’s ghost power to the point it becomes unwanted exposition.

To openly cater to multi-tasking viewers who need actions spoken out loud or new viewers jumping into this series mid-fifth season is to risk overshadowing the clever writing this show offers.

Maybe we didn’t see as much of the Alberta and Pete revenge plot as we would like to, but she makes her point swiftly and efficiently. That’s more Alberta-coded than any other storyline could be.

It’s also surprising how little the actual HR visit plays in this episode’s conflict.

We barely have time to declare “Here comes the general!” before Christopher Jackson (aka Hamilton’s George Washington) is shutting the book on this strange — not to mention super illegal — chapter of Trevor’s afterlife.

Here’s hoping we see more of the HR representative in future episodes. After all, Woodstone’s spirits are in desperate need of sensitivity training.

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Ghosts airs on Thursdays at 8:30c/7:30c on CBS.

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