Average New York teenager Luna Johnson accidentally becomes a medium after the death of her grandmother, which means she begins seeing ghosts everywhere. After she has a total breakdown in her school cafeteria (she takes off her pants in order to prove to the ghosts around her that this is All a Dream and they're not really there, and the video of it does viral), her parents Ava and Colin, who are both therapists, decides that she needs a new start in order to forget her "hallucinations."
Hence, the entire family moves to the small town of Doodstad in order to get away from it all, where Ava can continue as a therapist, Colin can start writing that book he's been wanting to write, and Luna can be away from any triggering surroundings. Unfortunately, Doodstad is the most haunted town in the state — and the house they move into is the so-called "Clive house," the most haunted house in town.
So now Luna is sharing a house with five rather neurotic and demanding ghosts, that she can see but her parents can't:
- Cheerful Child Archie (Joel Kim Booster),
- Grumpy Old Man Walter (Rich Fulcher),
- Granola Girl Shannon Marie (Kristen Schaal),
- and constantly bickering but passionate married couple Duke (Matthew J. Mc Carthy) and Betsy (Rebekka Johnson).
Desperate to keep her medium abilities from her disbelieveing but increasingly worried parents, but also hoping she'll learn more about being a medium and what exactly that means, Luna decides to investigate the ghost scene of Doodstad, starting with intervieweing the ghosts in her house and documenting everything with her tape recorder.
But Luna's not the only medium in town, and someone or something seems determined to stop her from finding out too much...
Tropes:
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
- Duke and Betsy can't go five minutes without arguing, but they'll defend each other without even thinking about it, and can go from fighting to making out at the drop of a hat.
- To a lesser extent, all the Clive ghosts. They come across as a neurotic, dysfunctional and bickering family, but they support and back each other then times are tough.
- Bad Liar: Goldie can't tell a lie to save her life, especially not to adults and authority figures. She gets Luna into trouble a few times because of her total inability to lie. Luna is generally understanding, especially since Goldie is open about her inability to lie to adults from the start.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Luna is a downplayed version, at least early in the story. She’s grouchy, self-obsessed and haughty towards her parents. It mostly stems from her being in a bad situation, though; while she can be a bit of a Drama Queen she's far less shallow and superficial than most examples of the trope. She's not even particularly fashion-conscious.
- Bumbling Dad: Colin means well, but he just keeps Comically Missing the Point and making one bad decision after another. It's played with a little, because while Ava seems like she has things more together she's actually just as much as a screw-up as he is — just in different ways.
- Cheerful Child: Archie can sometimes come across as a Creepy Child due to being a ghost and due to his rather naive descriptions of his obviously abusive parents, but he's genuinely sweet, friendly and well-behaved.
- Ditzy Genius: Goldie can be a little out there at times, and has no clue how to stand up for herself, but turns out to be extremely smart and competent in a variety of areas. After a few false starts, she settles down in the role as Luna's Hypercompetent Sidekick.
- Extreme Doormat: Goldie, probably the single most selfless person in the story. Luna tends to thoughtlessly take advantage of her, yet Goldie never complains and never stands up for herself. Luna does come to appreciate her greatly as the story goes on, though.
- Friendly Ghost: Most of the ghosts in the series are various levels of friendly. Some are haughty and grouchy, but very few of them are outright malicious... and the ones who are outright malicious turn out to have a Freudian Excuse. Most of the ghosts are amiable and polite, if in a somewhat self-obsessed fashion... in fact, they can get a little overly friendly when they find out Luna can see them.
- Granola Girl: Shannon Marie was a self-declared "hippie."
- Grumpy Old Man: Walter is a grouch and a cynic, though his Hidden Heart of Gold becomes less and less hidden as the series progresses.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: While notably meeker, sillier and more scatterbrained than most examples Goldie becomes one in the latter half of the story. It seems like no matter the situation she's prepared for it.
- Invisible to Normals: Only mediums can see ghosts... except in the witching hour, between three and four AM, and on Halloween. On those occasions, ghosts become visible to everyone.
- I See Dead People: Mediums, including Luna and Goldie, can see and hear ghosts. One of Luna's projects is to try and find out what makes someone a medium.
- It's All About Me: Played mostly for comedy. Apart from Extreme Doormat Goldie, almost every single character in the series is rather self-obsessed, even when they think they're being selfless. In the case of the ghosts, it simply seems to be part of the ghost mindset — any ghost in the series will primarily focus on themselves and their own situation. In the case of Luna, it's because she's a teenager. For Colin and Ava... well, not everyone has a ready excuse. What they all have in common, though, is that despite their self-obsessions they're generally well-intentioned. Most of them are simply oblivious to other people's feelings rather than uncaring.
- Manchild: Colin has traces of this, which is where most of his Bumbling Dad tendencies come from. He's not always the most mature of people and can get childishly obsessed with his own thing while ignoring his responsibilities to his family.
- Parents as People: Colin and Ava aren't always the most understanding parents to Luna, and are often too wrapped up in themselves to really know what's going on with her, and Ava in particular has problems admitting when she's wrong or apologizing for her mistakes, but they both genuinely love their daughter and always try to act in her best interest.
- Theory Tunnelvision: Luna's main flaw is that when she's decided on a truth, a theory, or a course of action, she flat-out ignores any and every objection or counterpoint anyone might have; she'll simply act as if they haven't said anything and continue with what she's doing. Most prominently is her plan to help the ghosts cross over to the afterlife — she focuses particularly on Archie, even though he repeatedly tells her he doesn't want to cross over, she keeps working on "solving his problems" so that he can.
