"Surreal Estate," Episode 1.1: Realtor and his friends investigate paranormal events, with gay characters and a lot of Matt Whi tes

 

This review keeps yelled at by the Blogger censors, and I can't figure out why.  Is it because I mention a book on human ana tomy, do they think the word scoo bies is inappropriate, or do they think it's rac ist because I mention Matt Whi te?  It's a guy's name.

 So let's try one more time.

Link to the men named Matt Whi te

Surreal Estate (2021-23), on Hulu, appeared on Reddit about shows with "normalized" LGBT characters, not struggling to come out or fighting homophobia.  None of the episode synopses suggest gay characters, and the icon shows a man and a woman, but here goes, Episode 1.1

Scene 1: Night. A man in a 1940s detective costume walks through a thunderstorm to a creepy house. The sign says "For Sale by Owner." 

Inside, it's too dark to see much, but a woman in a bathrobe seems to be reading an antique book on human anat omy.   She gets scared when the surgeon in a photograph seems to be grinning evilly at her.  Suddenly the room catches on fire (at least we can see something now).  She runs outside, but runs into the Old Fashioned Man.  

Psych!  He's not the ghost of a 1940s detective, he just dresses like one: Luke Roman (Tim Rozon of Schitt's Creek), interested in the house.  So call in advance?  

She hugs him: "The house wants to kill me!"  That's every home owner's complaint, girl.

He can help with that.  They gaze into each other's eyes.  I'll be they start dating, and she joins the paranormal real estate team.

Scene 2: At Shirley's Diner, still too dark to see much, Homeowner Megan, says that her fiancé is coming to pick her up.  Don't you hate it when they mention a boyfriend halfway through the date?

Luke shows her a video about his company, SMEP, Specialists in Metaphysically-Engaged Properties, those with a market value depreciation due a tragedy occuring there.  Sometimes they are haunted, sometimes not, but the rumor makes it lose 37% of its market value and takes 317% longer to sell. 

Megan's swishy boyfriend Brock (Matt Whi te) flounces in with a teeth-click, a flamboyant wave of his umbrella, and a "What up, Girlfriend?"  Shouldn't be too hard to convince him to be true to himself, so you can have Megan for yourself.  

Matt Whi te has nine acting credits on IMDB, including six shorts,and three walk-ons.  This may not be the right one, but there are lots of other Matt Whites to choose from: a baseball player, a football player, an artist,  a musician, a comedian, a model, a billionaire, and an internet influencer (top photo).

Scene 3: At the agency, Luke tells his scoo bies, two men and a woman, about the case.  Homeowner Megan is a medical student who inherited the haunted house from her grandfather.  Swishy boyfriend lives with her (in his own room, I assume).  

On to their other case, a house with a poltergeist. It came out clean: no entities.  But Rita, the Evil Realtor who hired them, insists that things were flying around.  Nobody wants to confront her because she's so evil, so they get the New Girl to do it: a ringer who got $10 million in sales at her last agency.  

Introductions:

Father Phil (Adam Korson, right), a defro cked priest with nice biceps, does the background checks and due diligence.

More after the break

August Ripley (Maurice Dean Wint), who speaks in quotations, builds their ghost-busting technology.

The emo Zoey is the office manager.

New Girl hasn't been informed of their paranormal niche, so they make awkward small talk while Roman gets a call from Homeowner Megan: Fergit it.  Boyfriend doesn't believe in ghosts (and is afraid of the competititon).

But clients usually fire and then rehire them, so they'll proceed as if they've been hired.  

I'll cover the two cases and the Luke-New Girl Romance separately: 

The Luke-New Girl Romance: On the way to the house with an undetectable poltergeist, Luke comes clean to New Girl about their niche.  She isn't happy, but she can't go back to her old agency, since she was fired. She was dating the boss, he said he would leave his wife, yada yada yada. 

Later, she tracks down Luke in the batting cage at Funland to ask about his life.

"Are you married?  In a relationship?  I'm asking for all single thirty-something women"  Automatically assuming that he's straight?  I thought this show had LGBTQ representation.  He doesn't have anyone special.

Next question: "Parents?" His Mom left when he was young, so he was raised by his Dad. who died a few years ago, but they stay in touch. 

Left: Another Matt Whi te.

The Undetectable Poltergeist: When Luke and New Girl arrive, the Nasty Realty Rita is there.  She asks about "Pope Pen is the Twelfth and Frankenstein's Backside Double."  I'd like to know the source of these nicknames.   They interview the family, which describes classic poltergeist actions.  But the house came up clean, and there are no Indian burial grounds or Civil War battle sites nearby.  

Uh-oh, they have a surly teenage daughter.  Girls that age usually create poltergeist if they have been abused by their dad. 

Sure enough, the moment she leaves the room, books and objects start flying off the shelves and aiming at people.  Luke digs at the evil realtor Rita by telling his colleagues that she has everything under control, and leaving.

The next day, New Girl is called to the hospital: the poltergeist threw a heavy clock at Dad, giving him a concussion.  Mom and Dad explain that dinner was late that night due to their daughter's "tardiness and lack of respect" They were yelling at her about her constant lateness when the clock hit.  Kind of obvious, ain't it?. 

Cut to the waiting room, where Daughter is trying to talk to her boyfriend, but can't hear him over a crying child. Suddenly a doll levitates into the child's arms. 

New Girl has a heart-to-heart with Daughter.  Not a poltergeist, telekinetic powers that she hasn't learned to control yet.  

Megan's Haunted House:

Conducting preliminary research, Father Phil can't find any original documents from the Megan house.  It's like it sprang up overnight in 1987. 

  Quote-Spewing August Ripley checks out the exterior with his special filter and finds nine ghosts on the balcony, on the front porch, and in the yard. 

After Luke petitions Homeowner Megan to allow some "free tests," they interview her.  "Did anyone die horribly in this house?"  She doesn't think so, as August sees the ghost of a woman covered in blood, holding a knife.

 They tour the house, including the basement, with a growling sound, and a "locked door."  Except it's not locked; a ghost dog emerges. They run away.

That night, Homeowner Megan is eating dinner by herself, because Swishy Boyfriend is late.  She keeps calling and getting voice mail.  She's scared and alone and pissed-off as the ghost of an old man in an old fashioned nightcap walks by with a candle. 

She goes to bed to watch a tv show about animal predators, but it changes to a surgery scene, and the evil surgeon, who looks like The Joker, grins at her!  Suddenly she is on the operating table, and the Evil Surgeon puts an anaesthetic mask over her.

She awakens and calls Luke, who rushes right over.  He offers to get her a hotel room, but she's sticking around in case her boyfriend comes home, so he sleeps on the couch while she stays awake.

In the morning Luke reveals his connection to the house: as a boy he lived next door.  It had been vacant for many years, but his mom didn't know that.  She went over to complain about the weeds, and someone answered the door.  She never came home.

Returning to the house, Luke and Homeowner Megan use a pork chop to distract the demon dog and investigate the "locked room."  It has a portal to the underworld!  They close the portal, which should stop the ghosts from crossing over.

But later Luke sees his mother waving from an upstairs window.  The end.

Beefcake: 11 of the 17 cast members in the episode are women.  Not much to work with. I've gone through most of the cast list, with no success, so here's another Matt Whi te. 

Heterosexism:  No romantic interactions at this point, but Luke gets flirtation from both Homeowner Megan, who appears in 11 episodes, and the New Girl, who appears in 19, so there will no doubt be a triangle filling up secondary plotlines.  

Canada: This is a Canadian series, but you'd never know. 

Gay Characters:  In Episode 2, we discover that Father Phill is married to the Mikado-singing carpenter Paul Ewan Wilson, who appears in five episodes. 

My Grade: B. It kept my interest, but I found the "just slam the portal shut" a let down.  I wanted to know how it got there, and something about the various ghosts.  Maybe its story will be revealed in more detail in future episodes.

See also:

Dead Boy Detectives: Ghost buddies, one gay, one bi, solve paranormal mysteries

School Spirits: Ghost girl and her gay bff solve the mystery of her murder.

Is There Sex after Death? A Scotty and Gideon Story