Power Rankings: Ghosts that Like A** and T*tties
On ‘Living for the Dead’, five queer ghost hunters team up to therapize the paranormally departed
The Yearning Overall Rating: ✰✰✰
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It’s time for more power rankings, baby! LFTD is spooky and fun, but also formulaic. You don’t need to watch all of them or watch them in order to enjoy! So here’s my take on which ones you should watch and what you can skip. (P.S. if you like these, I also ran power rankings for The Ultimatum: Queer Love)
Written by Meg Steinfeld-Heim
If Paranormal Activity and the modern Queer Eye had a baby, and Hulu was its surrogate, that fabulous little spawn would be Kristen Stewart’s Living for the Dead. LFTD is sort of like The Blair Witch Project, but with a lot more slay. Part docuseries, part lifestyle makeover show, and part lightly fictionalized ghost antics, LFTD gives you spooky queers exactly what you want: cool ghost stories, some hand holding, and a community-based approach to healing.
Five queer ghost hunters—known as the Ghost Hunties—are road tripping together, in a very cute van, across the country to investigate some of the most haunted locales in the United States. What distinguishes them from your average Scooby Doo types is that their goal is to communicate with the spirits, not provoke them. No matter how malevolent the spirits identified are, this team of ghost hunters finds a way to resolve their issues through empathy and kindness.
Let’s meet our team:
Roz Hernandez: a retired drag queen and beautiful trans Funny Person, she is their paranormal researcher
Logan Taylor: a queer, southern man that is an overall delight as well as their psychic medium
Ken Boggle: a recently divorced Tarot Card Expert with an expansive collection of duster hats
Juju Bae: their resident stunning, no nonsense Witch and spiritual healer
Alex LeMay: an alt aesthetic version of Amanda Seyfried, she is the team’s official Ghost Hunter (she has all the fancy tech that make beeps and stuff)
With creator Kristen Stewart narrating the first few moments of each episode, the ghost hunters discuss the next haunting they’re undertaking and are sure to outline the real-life people affected by these supernatural happenings: hotel owners, managers, strippers, and overworked single moms with 2.5 kids. It feels like Kristen signed the contract for the show while white-knuckling the table, agreeing to some cheesy bullshit in order to secure the green light. It is produced by the same production company as Queer Eye, after all. Aside from that, the show manages to balance some silly ghost hunting moments with an equal amount of making fun of their silly ghost hunting moments.
The rapport between the five Ghost Hunties is so fun, not artificial and the absolute best part of the show—they all take turns being incredibly vulnerable and obviously grow close to each other through this process. And Roz is so funny. It’s worth watching for Roz alone.
So are you dying to know my favorite episodes? (Sorry.)
8. “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Slay” (Episode 7)
Ehhhhh. This one had a cool set up, but I was left feeling underwhelmed. The Ghost Hunties are brought to Cleveland, Ohio to address the hauntings of what was once the state’s largest Black Funeral Home. The House of Wills’ owner dreams of transforming the now-crumbling building into a community center. The building’s architect was a 33rd-degree Mason and incorporated many elements of Masonic geometry into the building’s design. “This architecture was designed to trap souls,” one of the Hunties whispers. They bring in a man from the community who has suffered an “attachment” (a dark entity hitching a ride) after visiting the space and needs help moving past his losses. They also connect with the spirit of founder John Water Wills—who died in his apartment above the funeral home—but it doesn’t amount to much. The building is beautiful and creepy but it just didn’t captivate me and I think you can skip.
7. “A Haunted Gaycation” (Episode 3)
Instead of the team’s usual hotel or haunted theater, this episode is, for some reason, at this woman’s insanely huge Arizona mansion. Her name is Mea and I can’t tell if she’s profoundly apathetic or deeply Botoxed. But she woke up one night to find a dark figure standing over her bed and has since been haunted with the sounds of footsteps and the menacing feeling of being watched. The Hunties throw everything they’ve got at this problem—Juju hosts a very cool seance, and together through the powers of tarot and a laptop Roz and Ken uncover that Mea has been lying to them. Turns out, she’s also a woman of professional psychic experience and had already attempted to soothe her spooky spector?! Now knowing her abilities, they convince Mea to participate in a ghost channeling session, i.e. allow her own household demons to speak through her. They even wrangle in Mea’s mom, a beautiful, leathery Arizona woman named Cathy. Logan performs a psychic reading with her and she has a touching, but mysterious, response. Ultimately this one falls a little short because Mea and her mother don’t seem to want to reveal some family secrets (fair).
6. “Rainbows and Clowns” (Episode 1*)
This one is fun because it's at the Clown Motel. A motel full of clowns! Clown paintings! Clown dolls! Clown merchandise! Clowns clowns clowns! Guests are checking out in the middle of the night because their toes are being grabbed and staff are being harassed by the paintings (of clowns) on the walls. This episode is a great example of what light coaching given to the locals can look like—the Hunties have a very revealing chat with some town members at the saloon. They learn that the children of a man who died in a local mine fire built the Clown Motel in his honor—and he happens to be buried in the graveyard right next door. It turns out that clowns are just very misunderstood.
*I know I said you can go out of order, but maybe start here just to get a sense of the group dynamic.
5. “A Spookiki with the Dead” (Episode 2)
The story in this one is just so good! The Ghost Hunties head to the Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee, Arizona. This episode is kind of Alex’s special because she’s been there and seen the ghost already! A sex worker in the early 20th century who conducted her business at the Copper Queen hung herself from the third floor when her love was not reciprocated by a client. But there is other darkness abound as well—staff members are being harassed and physically injured by the malevolent spirits at play. Miss Crissy, the hotel manager, is so dramatic and so loveable. Roz emotionally eats donuts the whole time because she’s scared. Logan performs my favorite reading in this episode with Betty, the hotel bartender. It’s beautiful and moving, despite him still working in the angle of her being a single mom.
4. “Dying for Hallow-Kween” (Episode 4)
This ep features a national attraction, the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Waverly Hills is a former tuberculosis sanatorium and widely considered to be one of the most haunted places in the United States. This is America, and so naturally they capitalize on this by running a highly successful annual haunted house in the sanatorium. This episode parallels helping Josh, a guy who has been struggling with an attachment acquired during the haunted house for eight years, and the Hunties workshopping how to make the sanatorium a safer place to tour. Alex, our kooky ghost girl, climbs into one of those morgue body trays. They all get dressed up in Halloween costumes to walk through and evaluate the haunted house layout. There are a lot of words of affirmation and laying of healing hands in this episode. And the history of the sanatorium is so cool!
3. “The Werking Dead” (Episode 5)
The only thing haunting me is the spirit of the theater! The gang makes their way to the Palace Theater in Louisville, Kentucky. Multiple deaths have occurred on the premises, and lost loved ones that were once a member of this theatrical family may be hanging around as well. Unsettling ghostly encounters have caused many employees to leave. This episode is another team effort—they gather all the affected employees together to gain information and provide support. Roz does a little musical number and Logan does a group reading. Juju gets a lot of confirmation from a friendly ghost via her pendulum. This one is ranked high for a ghost drag number!
2. “Keep Your Disembodied Hands to Yourself!” (Episode 6)
This one is sooooo fun. The Hunties head to the Palomino—one of Vegas’ oldest strip clubs. “The dancers are feeling oppressed. They are having these feelings of actual fear,” Ken notes as they pull in. I can’t imagine any other reason they’d be feeling that way! They meet up with two dancers and get the scoop. These ghosts are being handsy and misogynistic! Roz is really in her element here. While some of the others head off to hot spots like the VIP Room to investigate, she is parked in the lobby with her laptop and one of the buzzy ghost detectors, just in case anyone otherworldly wants to help her with her research. She wonders aloud if the reason no spirit is talking to her is because of her hair—and her device instantly goes off. This episode also features some of my favorite chyrons such as, “creepy hallway”. Worth watching to hear a ghost come through the radio saying they like *ss and t*tties!! The Hunties wrap things up by wrapping themselves around a few poles and it is a really good time.
1. “A Lemp Slayance” (Episode 8)
This episode is a wild ride! Our queer ghost seekers arrive at the Lemp Mansion and Hotel in St. Louis, MO. The Lemp family's lager beer empire (lol) suffered greatly after a series of tragic and mysterious deaths occurred, all in the family mansion. Patty Pointer, the current owner, cites a marked uptick in paranormal activity and that guests are being haunted by mysterious figures. Logan is immediately, and understandably, impacted by the overwhelming energies swirling in the home. Through a tarot reading, Ken deduces that Patty has a queer daughter, Liza, who needs support. The Hunties get some very clear signals from a pair of dowsing rods. The theme of this episode is possession. All I will say is—there are not one but two major moments where I was ready to give these Hunties a role in an intense HBO mini-series. When an unexpected queer spirit possession takes place, Roz calls for help on the walkie, saying, “Edwin is inside of Logan. I repeat, Edwin is inside of Logan”.
I feel like this show is self-aware and fun while also being grounded in very clear values. While at times you get the sense that some of the team are taking their ghost hunting duties more seriously than others, no one is so over the top that it's annoying. As the resident Witch, Juju is most often called to offer potential solutions to the people affected by these haunted spaces. And across the board, her suggestions are incredibly accessible—they are centered in intention setting, manifestation, “prayers” and meditation, or music. All things that will support, heal, and uplift the people as well as soothe unruly ghosts. And of course, through their various ghost boxes and special radios, the Hunties have already laid the groundwork. Ghost therapy is in session!!
As queer people, the team’s life experiences are trauma-informed and it shows through their work. While corny at times, the heart of the show is pure and gentle. Watch it at your Halloweekend pregame or as you wind down for the night. And send my love to those pesky ghosts in your closet ;)
