#xavior

Father's day with Xanthos and his children Ribbon, Castello, Hart, and Xavior. Posted to Viv's tumblr June 17, 2013.

I finished School Spirits (including the season finale) AND that is how you do a teen drama!

This show is taking the murder mystery elements of Riverdale and Pretty Little Liars to heights the teen genre deserves. I don't think there is one character I dislike, despite the darker angsty premise being designed to grate on you. Every single character gives a compelling performance, even Xavier — who I lowkey want to fight — and leans into the unlikeable teen angst angle.

The weekly release format was a good call, it suits the show’s pacing and episodic cliffhangers so well. Even better, the writers establish a mystery in the pilot and stick to it. So many shows wait to pick a killer halfway through the season, basically establishing any of the clues thrown out in the first episodes lead nowhere. But School Spirits hints at the culprit from the beginning. There are no gimmicks to make it unsolvable for fans and no assumptions that guessing the outcome will somehow cheapen the story.

The final reveal of what happened to Maddie perfectly aligns with all the clues we've gathered along the way. The finale wraps things up spectacularly and proves beyond a doubt this mystery can go the distance with more seasons.