
Started October 5, 2017 · Canceled · Based on 1 season, 13 episodes through January 4, 2018 · TV-14 · 42 min
Ghost Wars follows Roman Mercer, a young man who can see and speak with the dead. Roman has been pushed aside by people in Port Moore because of his mother’s work with spirits and his own strange powers. After an earthquake cuts off the remote Alaskan town, angry ghosts attack the living and block every path out. Roman must learn to use the power he fears while he, a priest, a scientist, a mayor, and other survivors try to keep the town alive. The tone mixes bloody horror, strange science, family drama, and dark jokes.
The show gives major roles to a non-white psychic hero and a black female lead scientist, while a woman mayor and a married lesbian couple help lead the town’s response. The marriage is shown as normal, and the family stays important because one daughter becomes tied to the ghost threat. The season also presents Lambda, a private science company, as reckless and willing to study living bodies for profit. These ideas are visible but sit beside the main ghost mystery, so the show feels more like paranormal horror with some representation and anti-corporate themes than an activist drama.
Community feedback
Was our 32% Woke rating accurate?
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Ghost Wars.
Woke representation / casting
The show places Avan Jogia in the central hero role and Kandyse McClure in the prominent role of lead scientist Landis Barker. The cast also includes a woman mayor, a woman doctor, and a married lesbian couple in the town’s main family. Interviews around the show openly stressed a black female lead, diversity, and people of color in skilled jobs.
35%
Woke political dialogue
Roman’s group changes the phrase “no man left behind” to “no woman, person” during the final rescue. The joke uses gender-neutral wording in a tense scene. The season has no repeated speeches about current parties, race politics, or activist causes.
8%
Identity-driven story themes
Val and Marilyn are a married couple who raise twin daughters. Their family stays in the main story when Abigail is taken over by another consciousness and the mothers fight to save her. The show treats the marriage as normal and never makes it a coming-out or rights story. Roman’s outcast problem comes from psychic powers and his mother’s reputation, not from a modern identity group.
26%
Western institutional / cultural critique
Lambda causes the first disaster by forcing an accelerator test before it is safe. The company later studies ghost pods and considers selling regenerated organs. The season presents corporate science as dangerous when profit comes before human life. The story does not build a wider attack on Western culture, religion, or family life.
18%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. Ghost Wars is an original story about Port Moore and Roman Mercer. It does not adapt an established franchise or real historical event.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Not present. No major anti-woke backlash found. Public discussion centers on the ghost plot, gore, uneven writing, and cancellation rather than DEI or identity politics.
0%
Creator track record context
Cached context rates Simon Barry at 25 and Mathias Herndl at 19. The stored summaries report no strong identity-politics or activist pattern for either creator. Barry’s title interview focused on horror and supernatural ideas.
22%
Production