When Mary & Emily, avid watchers of Mtv’s long-running reality TV series Catfish, learned that MTV was releasing a new show called Ghosted, all about tracking down people from your past who have totally disappeared on you without a word, they both knew they were all in. And then they found out former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay (or is it Abasolo now?) was going to be a host. That’s when they decided they had to review it for the blog. Here is that review. Some spoilers for past episodes to follow.

Emily: Hey so have you ever been ghosted?

Mary: I have actually! Not in a romantic sense, but in a friendship sense. I had a friend who, after a fallout with another friend, just stopped talking to me all together. This has actually happened to me twice--from the same friend group, which is wild. Have you ever been ghosted?

Emily: Yes, a guy ghosted me once.

Mary: Ruuuude.

Emily: Yeah, it's really rude. And this show deals with all kinds of ghosting, friendship, lovers, anywhere in between. If someone just cuts off all contact without any explanation, Rachel and whatshisface are on the case.

Mary: Whatshisface is Travis, but really, he's not super memorable.

Emily: Yeah, I legit forgot. Do you think they'll find a new host for the second season?

Mary: I think Travis works with what they're doing, and I think he was part of the original pitch (Rachel went on his podcast or vice versa and they connected?), so he'll stick around. That being said, I'm utterly baffled by his wardrobe.

Emily: What is all this NC-17 stuff? Why?

Mary: Well, I wanted to say he had his own clothing brand, but...it seems he just has bad taste! Rachel, on the other hand, delivers us with perfect outfits on each ep.

Emily: YES. We love Rachel.

Mary: A fun story: I had to watch this show to write about it and Todd ended up getting roped in. By the end, he was also a Rachel fan and can't wait to watch the next episode. It's going in our weekly lineup! I think the biggest question we might want to start off with is: how is this different from Catfish? The initial promos made me compare the two, but I think they're actually quite different.

Emily: Yes, they are pretty different. Maybe we should explain the general outline of the show. In the beginning we're introduced to a person who has been "ghosted." This person is hilariously referred to as the "haunted."

Mary: And for the rest of the episode, Travis and Rachel construct a timeline for the "haunting" and track down the "ghost" by talking to people who were close to one or both of the individuals involved.

Emily: As they learn more, they come up with various theories about why this person ghosted. And theories get added and crossed off the list. Stuff also gets added to the timeline.

Mary: Sometimes, those theories are insane. The episode ends with "the confrontation," where the ghost and the haunted sit down together, tell their sides of the story, and then decide if they want to make up or ghost.

Emily: They decide by texting each other. It’s all very dramatic. Travis and Rachel watch all of this go down at a safe distance, and they're there to counsel the ghost and the haunted before and after the confrontation.

Mary: And sometimes during! I think both Catfish and Ghosted work on a similar principle: people are scared of how social media is so ingrained in our lives. We have a lot of faith in it, but it also complicates our interpersonal relationships. Where Catfish focuses on internet romance, Ghosted is interesting for another reason: these people were actually very close before parting ways.

Emily: Yes. Social media makes it much more dramatic to cut people out from your lives. Think about how many ways you have to unfollow someone. And block them.

Mary: Yes! It's a lot of steps, but it also allows people (really crappy people who choose to ghost) to sever most contact without actually explaining what their problem is. It takes a lot of communication out of a relationship.

Emily: For sure.

Mary: Do we want to talk about some of the specific episodes?

Emily: Yeah, why don't we talk about our favorites and then our least favorites? What’s been your favorite one so far?

Mary: It's hard for me to say. I think the one with the happiest ending is Brittney and Shay. There ended up not being any real drama there--just a girl who wanted all her friends to get along. I felt happy that everyone got along at the end of the episode. Brittney and Shay were partying friends, best friends. Shay cut off contact and blocked Brittney after a dinner they all had together, and Brittney says she has no idea why. Rachel and Travis go through many different scenarios, and hypothesize that a man might have come between them, specifically that Greg (Shay's boyfriend?) might not really be the father of her child.

Mary: BUT, it turned out that Brittney was the one in the wrong. She sent a picture of herself in her bra to Greg, which upset Shay. Shay also said that Brittney disrespected her friends and she couldn't have that. Brittney seemed very controlling and obsessed with only having one friend, Shay. Ultimately, they talked about it, and seemed to work things out enough to be part of each others' lives, which was nice!

Emily: Yes! I like it when they can work things out. Those are the better episodes to me. My favorite was Resee and Brendan. I can definitely see why they picked it as the preview episode before the season came out because it's DRAMA.

Mary: There's so much there, and it does have a happy ending!

Emily: Yes, you get the drama, the intrigue, and the happy ending! So basically Resee and Brendan were best friends around the time Resee was coming to terms with his sexuality. Then suddenly Brendan ghosted him and moved to an entirely new city with his then-girlfriend. I won't say anymore because YOU SHOULD WATCH THAT ONE. But there are twists and turns. What about your least favorite? And why didn't it work for you?

Mary: Well, I think my least favorite was Kayla and Shawn because it was predictable. Although I did enjoy the episode, and Shawn isn't my most hated ghost despite his absolute douchiness.

Emily: Yes, they basically tell you everything in the preview, and it's pretty much the reason MOST dudes who ghost end up ghosting.

Mary: Kayla dated Shawn for a few months before he mysteriously disappeared from her life, standing her up for a date. It turns out that this is just how Shawn thinks you break up with women. So he ghosts people all the time.

Emily: He was just a player who had moved on to the next.

Mary: Travis and Rachel find two other women who were also ghosted by Shawn, but then they don't even take them to the confrontation, which could have made for an interesting climax to the episode!

Emily: Yeah, that would have been fun. I feel like we’ve seen that in previous Catfish episodes.

Mary: Yes, and it could've worked here, too. But Shawn just shows up, is an absolute turd, then leaves. He calls an Uber during the final text.

Emily: Yeah, which... fair. The final text thing is a little goofy.

Mary: It is. Still, even that episode has funny moments, mostly due to Rachel being wonderful. Shawn says, "Hey, aren't you from that...that dating show?" And also tries to hit on Rachel, to which she responds, "DO YOU NOT SEE THIS RING ON MY FINGER?!"

Emily: There was a whole show about it, dude. She’s not single.

Mary: Was Kayla and Shawn also your least favorite?

Emily: Yes, it was absolutely my least favorite.

Mary: Even still, the episode that made me the maddest was Ross and Jordan. It had lots of twists, but the ultimate twist was that Ross proved that comedians are often very shitty people.

Emily: OMG ROSS SUCKED.

Mary: Yes, Ross sucked because he put private, emotional information into his crappy stand up routines.

Emily: And he knew it was wrong because he didn't invite her to his shows. And then acted like a wounded nice guy when she "ghosted" him.

Mary: If your partner has a project they don’t want to show you at all, it’s suspicious.

Emily: For sure. So let’s talk about general strengths and weaknesses of the show?

Mary: Rachel is a strength. Travis is a weakness. Well, not really, but I’m not sure what he’s adding.

Emily: Yeah, he's not adding much. Also, I would add that some of the "detective work" seems a little bit extra when they know exactly who the person is and how to contact them in most situations. All of these theories and interviewing other people can lead to some nice tea, but mostly just takes up airtime.

Mary: Yes, true. It’s less detective work (like on Catfish) and more just trying to put the story together. It could easily be a 30 minute show.

Emily: And maybe that's part of the problem. It seems a little drawn out as it is now. Like they're trying to format it similarly to Catfish, but it's just not the same show, and should really try to do its own thing. Maybe it could be an hour long if it was formatted differently, but spending so much time on an investigation seems a little silly.

Mary: Yes, I agree. Still, the show manages to pace itself well, slowly filling out the story.

Emily: Yes, I have to say, usually, the story of the relationship at the center of each episode is enough to keep me interested. That mixed with a good dose of Rachel being Rachel.

Mary: Rachel really carries the show, mostly because she puts up with zero crap. I think the timeline is a strength of the show—it’s kind of cheesy but I love it.

Emily: Yes, it's kind of cool how the timeline gets added to as the story goes on.

Mary: I like that too! What else do we want to say?

Emily: I just love Rachel. I want this show to go on so I can keep watching Rachel on my TV.

Mary: Yes! I could talk about her snazzy athleisure and beautiful outfits forever. She also balances being empathetic and being a firm, guiding voice. She suffers no fools.

Emily: Yes, I feel like she would be an excellent lawyer and/or friend and I wish we were friends. Fangirling over here.

Mary: Same.

Emily: Anything else?

Mary: Travis’s clothes look like they came from a dumpster.

Emily: Yes. Travis needs a makeover. It's just. Not good.

Mary: In fact, it’s bad.

Emily: WHAT IF MAX CAME ON THIS SHOW TO REPLACE HIM that would be the dream just saying.