The reteaming of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost for a horror/sci-fi comedy sounds initially like a project that might recapture the acclaim and success of their Cornetto trilogy of films with Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End), but anyone hoping for that level of brilliance from the new eight-episode Amazon series Truth Seekers should lower their expectations. That’s not to say that Truth Seekers isn’t entertaining, but it falls closer to the 2011 Pegg/Frost stoner sci-fi comedy Paul than it does to their work with Wright.
Although Pegg and Frost co-created the series with James Serafinowicz and Nat Saunders (the quartet wrote all eight episodes), Pegg’s onscreen presence is minimal, with Frost as the clear lead. He plays Gus Roberts, the number one “broadband installation engineer” at internet service provider Smyle, which means that he’s really good at helping people when their wi-fi isn’t working. In his spare time, Gus runs the YouTube channel Truth Seeker, where he investigates paranormal phenomena around the small city of Coventry and nearby, although he hasn’t found much. That all changes when he’s assigned a new trainee at work, Elton (Samson Kayo), whom he ropes into his investigations.
Soon the pair are coming across ghosts and other strange manifestations seemingly everywhere they go, and are being contacted by strangers to help with hauntings and strange presences, including by the traumatized Astrid (Emma D’Arcy), who becomes the de facto third member of their team after they help her shake the ghosts that are following her. The half-hour episodes balance individual cases (often starting with an X-Files-style cold open set sometime in the past) with ongoing storylines, including the mysterious supernatural pasts of both Gus and Elton. Gus’ wife, an academic who researched paranormal phenomena, died suddenly 10 years earlier, and Elton makes frequent vague allusions to some personal trauma that may relate to his current connection to the supernatural.
There’s also a villain of sorts in renowned paranormal researcher and conspiracy theorist Dr. Peter Toynbee (Julian Barratt), whom Gus idolizes but is clearly pursuing some kind of sinister agenda related to the occult. The supporting cast includes Malcolm McDowell as Gus’ cranky, lonely dad Richard, Susan Wokoma as Elton's neurotic and agoraphobic sister Helen, and Pegg as chipper, awkward Smyle supervisor Dave, who generally shows up in one or two scenes per episode (although he may have a greater connection to the paranormal than it first appears).
It’s really the chemistry between Frost and Kayo that drives the series, with Gus as the eager enthusiast and Elton as his reluctant but affable partner, who seems to always find the secret passageway or hidden message that leads the duo to their latest discovery. The show becomes more entertaining as the various central characters come together, building the team over the course of the first half of the season. Astrid, Helen and Richard all play off each other and the main pair in amusing ways, each bringing their own likable energy to the investigations.
Truth Seekers is full of humor, but it isn’t a parody, and the creators (including director Jim Field Smith, who helmed every episode) take the horror elements seriously when they arise. There are plenty of genuinely creepy moments, especially featuring the ghosts that plague Astrid and the increasingly sadistic actions of Dr. Peter Toynbee (who is always referred to by his full name and title). But Truth Seekers would be almost as good if it were just a sitcom about a pair of broadband installers and their quirky family and friends, encountering odd locals as they work their repair routes.
That’s both a positive and a negative, since it makes the episodes breezy and fun to watch, but it also means that the supernatural storylines don’t carry as much weight, especially in the more serialized later episodes. It’s funny to see Gus and Elton encounter some odd paranormal presence when they’re just trying to fix an old lady’s cable reception, but it’s less amusing when they’re up against dangerous forces that might destroy the world. Of course, that kind of escalation was a staple of the Pegg/Frost/Wright movies, but Wright is more of a confident, distinctive filmmaker than Smith, a TV veteran without much of a signature style.
The jokes are more verbal than visual, although there is a very funny moment introducing Richard in the background of a shot accompanied by ominous music, as he appears to be levitating behind Gus but is shown actually to just be riding his motorized chair up the stairs. Bits like that are sparse, though, and Truth Seekers doesn’t have the same deep referential well as Wright’s movies do. Still, Pegg and Frost are funny guys who’ve worked well together for decades, and they can riff on this kind of genre material in their sleep. If Truth Seekers finds them coasting a bit, they’ve earned the right to just play out their familiar beats.
Starring Nick Frost, Samson Kayo, Emma D’Arcy, Susan Wokoma, Malcolm McDowell and Simon Pegg, the eight-episode first season of Truth Seekers premieres Friday, Oct. 30 on Amazon Prime.