Paranormal 'Spooked' series melds humor and heart
Felicia Day is getting Spooked.
The new paranormal digital series premieres June 4 (1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT) on Day's Geek & Sundry YouTube Channel as well as Hulu and Hulu Plus with the first of four weekly 22-minute episodes.
Executive produced by Day and filmmaker Bryan Singer (X-Men: Days of Future Past), the series stars Julian Curtis (Captured), Ashley Johnson (The Killing), Neil Grayston (Eureka), Derek Mio (Greek) and Shyloh Oostwald (In Time) and follows an investigation team that looks into haunted happenings all over the country.
Spooked is the Geek & Sundry network's first full-length, half-hour comedy and follows in the tradition of Day's previous smart and character-driven digital show The Guild, says the actress and producer. "This space is a personal passion of mine, and I'm excited for the show to be on Geek & Sundry, to set a precedent for many series to come in the future."
The pilot episode, directed by Richard Martin, has the group investigating a poltergeist trying to ruin his daughter's upcoming marriage, and they'll also run into possessed sorority girls, alien abductees and other weirdness along the way.
What Martin was most drawn to, though, was the core of the show: Connor (Curtis) learns that his mute little sister Piper (Oostwald) developed an ability to communicate with spirits after the sudden loss of their parents, so he puts his life on hold and forms the Paranormal Investigation Team to support her.
"The more cases they investigate, the more opportunity she has of speaking with spirits — and humans, too — with the hopes of one day providing catharsis over their family tragedy," Martin says.
That said, he promises a lot of laughs, too.
"We always set out to make a comedy with heart," the director explains. "During the development process, we spent a lot of time making it a show that was multi-layered with a dynamic team of characters that you wanted to root for, fun moments and easter eggs for pop-culture fans, as well as building in mythology that will unfold throughout the season."