Steven Prusakowski
School Spirits has never played by your standard YA series rules – it combines coming-of-age stories with a supernatural mystery set in a high-school purgatory that’s equal parts heaven and hell. But what keeps fans coming back is that, even while telling a “ghost” story, the series stays deeply rooted in the humanity of its characters. They navigate the raw emotional terrain of friendships, budding relationships, and lingering grief, while their personal growth continues – even after death. Each season adds new layers of depth and complexity to this heartfelt core.
Season one revolved around Maddie Nears (Peyton List), a high schooler who wakes up as a ghost at Split River High with no memory of her death, teaming up with other trapped spirits to solve the mystery of her supposed murder while her living friends investigate her disappearance. When it concluded, the shocking final moments of the season promised a bigger world. Season 2 had Maddie discovering that while her spirit was trapped in the school her body was possessed by another ghost, forcing the gang including both her afterlife friends and living allies to collaborate across realms to reclaim it, expanding the afterlife and leaving fans on edge as it closed with several cliffhangers.
Now with season 3, the series picks up right where we left off, wrapping up those loose ends quickly, taking a darker trajectory with a horror-based turn than seen before, adding character involvement across the board, and increased romantic connections. The lore and mystery escalate dramatically when secrets from the school’s eerie past resurface exposed by Simon (Kristian Ventura), who after the closing moments of season two is trapped in the afterlife, but is still alive – that he wants to make clear. It is one of the multiple rule changes or expansions that makes the season a little more challenging to follow.
Simon finds a nightmarish church basement scar beneath Split River High, where he encounters a creepy tall guy with milky white eyes, visions of the spirits of children who died there (“The Forgotten), exposing there’s much more to the many deaths in the school than once thought, a mystery that carries across the full season and delivers a cross season nemesis.
Unlike previous seasons, roles are reversed, while Simon is in the afterlife, Maddie is back in the land of the living. Now instead of Simon saving Maddie, it is the other way around, she must help free him before he is stuck in the afterlife forever. She is still able to see her spirit friends including Wally (Milo Manheim) whom she carries on a living/spirit romance, but is having troubles readjusting with a series of visions that blur the line between reality and the other realm.
One thing that stands out pretty quickly is season three’s ambitious direction, with a deeper/darker spirit world full of elements of horror mixed with personal challenges to overcome. The additional character depth is always welcome, but it also requires more screen time for the large (and growing) cast and balancing them all out across the eight episode season proves not to be an easy task, creating uneven results as some storylines are left sidelined for lengths of time.
Peyton List still anchors the series as Maddie, whose post-afterlife readjustment is filled with ominous visions, continued family drama, and introspection especially in her bond with Wally (Milo Manheim). During my interview with the cast List shared, “I think it’s such a unique situation between the two of them with, you know, not only how they feel about each other, but also just like the rules of this afterlife and real life and those blurry lines. So it was really interesting to be able to explore that, but it’s also a matter of like, what is possible? What do they each want?… If I could give Wally any advice about this whole situation, it would be to just zoom out a little bit. You know, he’s such a deep feeler, but he also cares so deeply about how she feels.”
Manheim adds, “I love that it’s two people who might not have really interacted if they were around at the same time, but because of the situation and where they are, they connect. And I feel like that’s the most fun dynamic to get to play. It’s just like Wally and Maddie could not be more different, but it works somehow… they share things with each other that, I think they’re like weird safe spaces for each other.”
Wally and Maddie’s challenging relationship (aka Mally) is easily one of the season’s highlights. From their bittersweet reunion early in the season, where they discover they can no longer touch despite being able to see and speak to each other, the duo shares moments that explore the challenges of a living person being romantically involved with a spirit. It feels like a Zoom-based romance even though the other person is right in the room, they’re unable to touch, while longing to hold each other or be physically intimate.
It’s essentially a long-distance relationship even if they share the same space. As the season progresses, Maddie and Wally find creative, boundary-pushing ways to navigate the divide, turning their connection into something far more meaningful than just a tease for viewers who desperately want them together. Will these unlikely loves from different times and realms ever find a way. I’m pulling for them.
The expanded characters add to the emotional depth of the series and provide the chance to explore subject matters that were not on the radar in previous seasons. The biggest recipients of the added focus is Ci Hang Ma‘s Quinn confronts unresolved identity issues, “I think for Quinn this season, Quinn comes into themselves a lot more. Quinn, when they died in 2004 at a time when in high school, diverse expression and gender and sexuality wasn’t accepted. And so there was unresolved identity and emotional processing that they did that they didn’t get to do. And now in their death, now this season, they get to do more of that.”
Episode 4 “The Bereavement Club” is the seasons’ most inventive and light-hearted episode of the season, some trippy calm before the horror storm hits. A riff on the John Hughes classics, a detention session plus some mushroom consumption leads to a hallucinatory marching band number that entertains in an awkward did-that-just-happen fashion. The episode also taps into Quinn’s story in a heartfelt way that ties them into the wider mystery and plants the seeds for an unexpected romance.
This season also has Sarah Yarkin‘s Rhonda begins to pull back armor she wear to protect herself from the pain of the past, letting a more caring side peek through her usual snarkier side. “I think Rhonda has just had this amazing trajectory over the three seasons… she really starts to open up to the ghosts and these people that she’s maybe been stuck with for so long,” shared Yarkin. “Maybe she lets them really see who she is and what she’s dealing with and struggling with.”
Nick Pugliese‘s Charley wrestles self-worth in love: “Yeah, I think for Charlie, it was an interesting experience for him to have the idea that he wants love, and then in this season, we sort of see he has it, but it’s not so easy sometimes to accept love if you don’t believe it or, like, you don’t love yourself, I guess…”
Meanwhile, Claire (Wedell) and Nicole (Kiara Pichardo) who cannot see the spirts and Xavier (Spencer MacPherson) who can, search desperately for answers to getting Simon back. They work to infiltrate mean-girl circles (led by the superintendent’s daughter Livia, Erika Swayze) and uncover school-related schemes tied to the demolition threat connected to the new superintendent.
The biggest new addition to the cast is Jennifer Tilly‘s Dr. Hunter Price who may be more of a menace than a trusted adult. “She’s sort of a slightly sinister school superintendent and not a very good mom either, but I think that she’s actually worse than what you see and it just gets worse and worse. Her behavior, it’s totally unacceptable.” While Tilly brings her signature flair and a touch madness, The Chucky actress doesn’t get much to do until mid-season, a victim of the season’s ensemble overload.
That overload muddles the storytelling especially around midseason, something which oddly may work as a double-edged sword in the series’ favor as it helps to cover some of the smaller flaws. The mix of tones and storylines do not always have a natural fit and there is some whiplash as we switch from character to character to character in this ever-expanding cast. Whether it is the hellish realm under the school, some typical mean-girl antics, an underdeveloped redemption arc, a strained healing family, or new mythology, there’s not enough time to question it though because it is on to the next scene.
One character that feels truly lost in the shuffle is Mr. Martin (Josh Zuckerman) who starts the season as a villain but along the way goes through a vague redemption arc through forced backstory and moments of bravery. He has the potential to be the series’ Ben Linus (Michael Emerson’s brilliant LOST character), if the writers take him there. As of right now he feels muted, especially compared to season two.
There’s an added complexity this season which comes with the new layers of lore that had me working harder than I’d wanted to connect all the dots. Where season one and most of two seemed to flow, three keeps putting its foot on the gas then the break, rinse and repeat. Individually the characters and scenes were interesting but as a whole it lacked the momentum to hit the peaks it seemed to promise.
It raised concerns that maybe the writers are quickly adding mythology in order to stretch what is naturally left in the story of Maddie, Simon and our beloved spirits. Ultimately making the season feel like connective tissue getting us to where the series will go next season rather than a full, standalone chapter, as the previous seasons did. Answer provided, questions followed.
This season went bigger and darker, which often works well for escalating the horror and stakes, but it might have been just as effective, or even stronger, by staying smaller and lighter in places. The deep dives into ghost backstories are among the season’s most insightful and moving elements, providing emotional payoff that resolves long-standing mysteries and lets viewers see the guarded spirits in new, vulnerable lights.
Maddie’s return to the living world is something we waited two seasons for, but it never hits that high note it could have and ends up feeling less engaging than her earlier ghostly interactions, often diluted by surrounding distractions, visions, misdirects, and an overcrowded ensemble that pulls focus away from her core journey.
Adding mythology where it did not exist before is a difficult thing to do. I always support the telling the story you are meant to tell and ending it when finished. If this season is going to launch the final chapters of School Spirits with a tight narrative (similar to what ‘The Shield’ did years ago) one that will leave fans satisfied, great. The series is at a point where it can take things to a new level or get caught in a loop of trying to shock viewers with new twists while not actually progressing the character arcs.
Sadly, the horror elements have diminishing returns: terrifying at first, but a few episodes in they lose much of fright factor, leaving me wanting them to ramp it up to the next level. After early scenes promise a much scarier season, it ultimately feels a bit hollow and scattered, undermined by playing it safe. If you are going big, go big. If you are going to go horror, go horror.
It is a fun ride all the way through, even if it does not reach the horror levels I had anticipated. Perhaps two or three more episodes would have given the season more time to breathe or to better connect the dots that feel left hanging. Overall, even after watching all the episodes, it feels incomplete, leaving us hanging again. Many of the series’ best moments, some bizarre, some funny, some sweet, some scary, kept me wanting more. That’s a bittersweet feeling to be left with.
It is always a treat to watch School Spirits with my daughters, listening to their theories of what is going on, their shock by the twists and turns. It reminds me who the show is geared toward. Those fans will find a lot to enjoy in season 3, it remains bingeable, is filled with strong performances and carries its heavier, more haunting vibe. Sure, the multitude plot threads cause some fraying and it to sometime feeling like a rat’s nest instead of the tight braid they once were. But what it loses on cohesion it gains in heart through multiple character connections.
Episodes 7 and 8 close out the season well, ramping up the emotional levels in big ways and finding ways to tighten much of the core narrative, some in a better fashion than others, while Yuri (Miles Elliot) teasing what’s to come with a game changer of a reveal in the final minutes. Overall, this season is a small step below the previous two. Did it fall victim of its own ambition, a slight miscalculation in the shift in central focus, playing it too tame with the horror, playing it too loosely with the lore, an uncertainty about where it wants to go, or simply in need of more episodes to flesh everything out? We will find out next season.
Despite my criticisms, I am genuinely excited to see where things go next. That is always a good sign. Die-hard fans were probably too caught up in the thrilling, weird, scary, and sweet moments to care much about my nitpicks. The new and advancing romantic relationships, the exciting lore twist that will take our friendly ghosts beyond the school boundary, a friend who is now secretly a foe possessed by a powerful new antagonist who will likely linger for seasons to come all promise to open plenty of fresh doors. I have faith that even better things are yet to come, and that we will not be left in eternal limbo.
SCORE: ★★★1/2 out of 5 stars
You can stream School Spirits Season 3 on Paramount+.
Comments
Loading…