School Spirits: Paramount+’s Answer To Wednesday Keeps Viewers Hooked

The supernatural teen drama television series, School Spirits, was created by Megan Trinrud and Nate Trinrud and premiered on Paramount+ on March 9, 2023. Starring Peyton List, Kristian Flores, Milo Manheim, and Spencer Macpherson, the series is an adaptation of an upcoming graphic novel by the Trinruds and Maria Nguyen.

School Spirits is the latest supernatural teen drama to be featured on Paramount+ with some of its other successes being Wolf Pack and Teen Wolf.

Prior to creating School Spirits, Maria Trinrud worked as a production assistant for the 2013 short film Weird Little Things. Nate Trinrud directed and worked as an editor on various short films, such as Goodbye, Charley, Pop Rox, A True Fan Finds His Home, and It's What She Would Have Wanted. Maria Nguyen is an illustrator who has bought the School Spirits graphic novel to life.

So what is School Spirits all about?

Attending Split River High can feel like an eternity for most of it’s students. But for Maddie, a 16-year-old girl who has recently passed away, it literally is. Maddie finds herself trapped in afterlife-limbo at her high school, surrounded by others who have also died in the school over the past century. The twist? Maddie is the only one who can still communicate with the living. She uses her newfound abilities to investigate her own murder and unravel the mystery surrounding her death.

Maddie is stuck in limbo investigating her own mysterious disappearance. She goes on a crime-solving journey after she realises that she can communicate with her friend Simon but only in rooms where another student has previously died. The closer the pair get to the truth of her disappearance, the more secrets and lies they discover. 

Episode 1 is called “My So Called Death” and continuing Each episode is Clever pun named after an iconic Teenage/coming-of-age films including “the fault of our scars “, “dead and confuse “, and “goal intentions “. 

Peyton Roi List leads the cast of School Spirits as the late Maddie Nears, who is trapped in a limbo state after being murdered. You may recognise Peyton List from the film 27 dresses in 2008 awful playing Holly Hills in the diary of a wimpy kid film series in 2011. She also starred as Tory in the YouTube premium action series Cobra Kai.

Reboot actor Kristian Flores co-stars as Simon Elroy, a close friend of Maddie who is still alive and equally determined to uncover the truth about her death. 

Milo Manheim, known for his role in Zombies on Disney Channel, joins the cast as Wally, a member of the "Split River High afterlife support group." 

Other members of the group include Sarah Yarkin, known for her role in Not Okay, as Rhonda, Nick Pugliese from 13 Reasons Why as Charley, and Josh Zuckerman from The Offer as Mr. Martin, who chairs the meetings. School Spirits also features Maria Dizzia from The Staircase as Maddie's mother, Sandra.

On the surface School Spirits seems to be another intriguing supernatural teen drama that will stay as a cult series watched by teenagers only, possibly in three minute chunks on TikTok. However it does have a unique premise and the whodunnit aspect of Maddie’s murder keeps viewers watching and guessing in each episode. It has an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes rating and many critics have praised Peyton List’s performance in the lead role. School Spirits is an interesting mix of high school murder mystery and traditional ghost story making it the perfect level of spooky not scary. 

Other than Maddie, Simon and the gang of ghosts inhabiting the school, the characters can feel a little flat especially Nicole, Maddie’s other the best friend. Suspect turned ally Xavier will remind you of Percy Hynes White’s Xavier in Wednesday, not just for his namesake but both actor’s performances scream of a dark-haired Draco Malfoy with audiences being unsure which side he is on.

We think that it is safe to say, after the unprecedented popularity of Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday on Netflix, that the supernatural teen drama genre is here to stay as each streaming service tries to create their own success story. School Spirits has a similar level of intrigue to Wednesday but in place of the magic, we are treated to a winding tale that will keep audiences guessing who killed Maddie all the way to the final episode.

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