What to Watch While You Wait for ‘Ghosts’ Season 3

Sometimes, waiting for your favorite show to come back can just make you want to die. Throughout its first two seasons, Ghosts has become a beloved part of CBS's lineup, no matter the time of year. It's about a haunted house, but it's just about the least scary haunted house ever, full of ghosts from different eras of American history who are thrilled to discover that the new owner of their house can see and hear them and help them with their little ghostly dramas. It's the kind of show where you know everything is going to be okay in the end, no matter who's dead. 

In May, Ghosts ended its second season with a serious ghostly cliffhanger. Sam (Rose McIver) watched from her car as a big column of light shot out of the roof of her house, indicating that one of her ghost friends had moved on to the afterlife, but we don't yet know which ghost. Season 3 of the comedy is finally on the way this February after b eing delayed due to the Hollywood strikes. In the meantime, we've got a few recommendations for other shows to keep your house full of spirits. 

If you like Ghosts, watch the other Ghosts. 

The U.S. version of Ghosts is based on the U.K. version of Ghosts, which stars Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe as a couple who inherit a mysterious relative's big old haunted house. The ghosts are mostly played by the members of a comedy collective called Them There, who also created the show. The American iteration is different enough in all the right ways to feel familiar but have its own identity. If you love one, you're bound to love the other. 

If you like Rose McIver, watch iZombie.

Rose McIver simply can't escape the dead, or her American accent. In this wacky and beloved CW dramedy, McIver plays Liv Moore, an overachieving med student who gets turned into a zombie. She finds a job as a medical examiner and discovers that when she eats the brains of murder victims, she gets visions of their lives and can help solve their murders. If you find McIver charming on Ghosts, just wait 'til you see what she can do as a zombie. 

If you like pleasant shows about lovable goofballs, watch Parks and Recreation.

The small town of Pawnee, Indiana might as well be haunted. Local politician Leslie Knope does her best to make Pawnee the best it can be, regardless of its dark history, baffling traditions and oddball residents, and what she accomplishes is a relatively perfect TV show that's funny and comforting with just a little bit of edge. 

If you like your comedy gentle, spooky and raunchy, watch What We Do in the Shadows.

The vampires of Staten Island are just living their lives, keeping themselves fed, attending Superb Owl parties and raising their twin living dolls. You know, normal vamp things. WWDITS is darker and raunchier than Ghosts, but it shares a similar wholesome spirit. Your life isn't over just because you're technically dead.

If you want to watch regular people deal with a bunch of weirdos, watch Jury Duty.

There are no actual ghosts here, but the United States justice system sure is a nightmare. Jury Duty is all about one guy, Ronald Gladden, just trying to serve on a jury for what he thinks is a documentary about jury duty while surrounded by increasingly wacky characters. What Ronald doesn't know is that every single other person is working off of a script, and he's actually the star of a Truman Show-style experiment. The whole thing is surprisingly wholesome, despite how mortifying that premise sounds. 

If you want your ghosts a little spookier, watch Ghost Whisperer.

Jennifer Love Hewitt plays Melinda Gordon, an antique store owner who can see and talk to a variety of ghosts. While also trying to live as normal a life as possible amongst the living, she listens to the ghosts' problems and helps them find peace in the afterlife — or, to use the ever-so-convenient language of Ghosts, she helps them get sucked off. It's a perfectly spooky early 2000s drama that will help keep those Halloween vibes alive.