Truth Seekers Review: A Fun Binge from Nick Frost and Simon Pegg

It was thanks to Comic-Con@Home that I first learned Shaun of the Dead co-stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost had once again teamed up to collaborate on a new project, Truth Seekers. At first, we didn’t know much about the at-that-time forthcoming Amazon Original series beyond the storyline, trailer, and cast.

Other than “Fall 2020,” we didn’t have a firm release date. But it released on October 30, and this Pegg-Frost fan gobbled it up. Here are my thoughts on this fun series in a Truth Seekers review.

Storyline

First, let’s recap the storyline. I’m sharing two: one from IMDB and the other from Amazon.

IMDB’s Synopsis

A team of part-time paranormal investigators use homemade gizmos to track the supernatural, sharing their adventures online. As their haunted stake outs become more terrifying they begin to uncover an unimaginable, apocalyptic conspiracy.

Amazon’s Synopsis

Broadband installer by day, paranormal investigator by night, Gus is annoyed to be partnered with “noob” Elton, but comes to appreciate having someone along for the ride as they uncover a spike in supernatural activity. They’re soon joined by Astrid, who has ghost problems of her own, and the gang embark upon creating a ghost-hunting YouTube channel, uncovering a terrifying conspiracy as they go.

Truth Seekers Series Overview

Overall, the IMDB and Amazon descriptions of what Truth Seekers is about really sums it up well. Gus (Nick Frost) is a senior broadband installer who hunts ghosts in his spare time. Sometimes on the job too. We learn his wife died, and that she was the real paranormal investigator in the family.

Both Gus and his late wife are obsessed with the work of Dr. Peter Toynbee (Julian Barratt), who turns out to be a bad guy chasing immortality and will stop at nothing to achieve it.

Gus’s new partner, Elton John (Samson Kayo) is how the pair meet Astrid (Emma D’Arcy). Neither Astrid nor Elton are who they seem, but both will eventually help Gus foil Toynbee, along with Elton’s sister, Helen (Susan Wokoma) and Gus’s “dad” (who we find out is really his father-in-law, but Gus calls him dad), Richard (Malcolm McDowell).

I loved everything about Truth Seekers season 1 so much I’m already hoping there’ll be a season 2. But why such enthusiasm?

Where do I begin?

Even though it’s a comedy, it had some scary bits to it also. I was prepared to laugh, but the creepy parts took me by surprise. Especially the opening scenes. Talk about a great hook!

An Explosive Start

The first episode, “The Haunting of Connelly’s Nook,” begins with a girl laying in bed, who we later come to know is Astrid. Black smoke starts trailing in under her door. Since the series was about the supernatural, I was all set for it to be a black mist from a demon or something, but it looked like smoke from a fire and that’s exactly what it turns out to be.

Astrid gets out of bed and heads to the kitchen where she finds her mom standing in front of the sink surrounded by flames. The mom turns and says (in a very weird voice), “I think the tumble dryer might be on the blink.”

Then flames explode around the mom and the scene cuts to a deserted hospital where Astrid wakes up in a bed. She starts walking down a hallway and suddenly her mom’s burnt corpse appears, along with a Reaper-looking plague doctor bird-like ghoul and some others who chase her out of the hospital.

That’s the other thing I wasn’t expecting was jump scares, and I hate to admit it, but I did flinch a little when the burnt mom suddenly appeared.

Comedy, Horror, and Mystery Combined

Something I wondered when Astrid wakes up in the hospital all alone was, “Where is she? Why is no one else there? And why is her mom after her?”

All of that makes sense by the end of the last episode, and how everything tied together was really clever. (No spoilers here!)

But that’s what made this series fun.

At first, it seems like the episodes just parody different aspects of ghost hunting and the paranormal. But it becomes evident that each episode includes a sort of paranormal investigation unto itself, but ultimately fits together like jigsaw puzzle pieces to reveal clues to both bigger and smaller mysteries overall, including:

• How did Gus’s wife die?
• What’s a number’s station and why does it start broadcasting “five” after Elton suggests turning the channel to station five?
• Why is Helen agoraphobic?
• Why has Elton had so many jobs?
• What is Toynbee’s grand plan?
• And, most perplexing (but in hindsight should’ve been a dead giveaway), why doesn’t Astrid ever change her clothes?

The Episodes

Something else I really enjoyed about the series was the episode titles, which are (in episode order):

1. The Haunting Of Connelly’s Nook
2. The Watcher On The Water
3. The Girl With All The Ghosts
4. The Incident at CovColCosCon
5. The Ghost Of The Beast Of Bodmin
6. The Revenge Of The Chichester Widow
7. The Hinckley Boy
8. The Shadow Of The Moon

I loved how some (maybe even all?) are nods to some of England’s most famous supernatural folklore, like the legend of the Beast of Bodmin Moor.

But they also parodied the trials and tribulations of real-life investigators, especially ones with aspiring YouTube channels seeking para-fame. Nick Frost nailed Gus’s character perfectly! Not maliciously. It was all done in fun and good spirits.

Truth Seekers Rating

I thought this series was brilliant. It was such a perfect blend of so many components, from an entertaining storyline, quirky character, and cheeky dialogue.

Speaking of cheeky, Malcolm McDowell’s bunny filter scene had me howling with laughter.

I thought the entire cast couldn’t have been more perfect. I have loved most every Simon Pegg and Nick Frost collaboration, but I was also happy to see more of Susan Wokoma. I loved her in Crazy Head and kept waiting for a season 2, but one never came. However, you know what? Truth Seekers makes up for that disappointment. (And her small part in Netflix’s Enola Holmes does too.)

My Truth Seekers review is a resounding five skulls because this was the ghost hunting series I never knew I’ve been waiting for. And with 30 minutes episodes, it made for a super easy to digest binge!

Truth Seekers Trailer

Truth Seekers Ratings

How’s it faring with critics and other viewers?

As of this post, it’s rated 7.2 on IMDB. 88% of Google users like it. It’s got a 78% average Tomatometer score, and an 86% average Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes.

So it seems I’m not alone in liking it.

Watch It

Truth Seekers is available for Prime members.

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