Forgotten Television: All Souls

Dr. Mitchell Grace (Grayson McCouch), a gifted young surgeon, obtains a fellowship program at All Souls hospital where his father was a janitor before passing away.  All Souls is a teaching hospital with state-of-the-art equipment and cutting edge procedures with plenty of funding. His first night at the hospital is eventful, as he loses a patient to a heart attack and begins to find out that All Souls is not what it appears.  Dating back to the time of the civil war, All Souls is a haunted hospital where the doctors are doing unethical experiments on patients. Dr. Grace is helped in his ordeals with the paranormal by his friend, Patrick Fortado (Adam Rodriguez), a paraplegic computer hacker and nurse Glory St. Claire, who has telepathic abilities and can see the spirits that walk the corridors of All Souls. Mitchell Grace’s connection runs deeper than just his father having worked there, his coming was foretold for decades before, and he can be seen in a picture dating back to the hospitals origin during the Civil War. Each week, Dr. Grace attempts to foil the plans of the unethical doctors and evil spirits working in the hospital.

All Souls is described as a “paranormal hospital drama”, and although there is a specific mythology and continuity within the series, each episode hosts a self-contained story. Six episodes were originally ordered into production as midseason replacements and all six had finished shooting before the series was cancelled due to low viewership.  The show garnered mostly positive reviews from critics which praised the series premise and horror elements along with the cast.  Reviews called the series “paranormal fun” and “the best show you never watched”. Grayson McCouch is a great leading man; he is very attractive and has a caring and compassionate style which endears him to the audience.  Irma P. Hall as Nurse St. Claire is wonderful bringing a type of aged wisdom as well as some levity and humor.  The show is visually interesting with some great horror elements. The hospital setting with its many corridors, eerie elevators, deep dark dungeonous basements, and mad doctor laboratories highlights the series spookiness. The editing also adds to the creepy aspects of the show and the music is well composed accentuating the emotional impact of each scene.

With mostly critical praise and good actors cast in their roles, why didn’t the show take off?  Even with the intriguing and unique plot with interesting characters and spooky atmosphere, there was something superficial about the show. We connect with the leading characters and care for them, but we don’t connect deeply to them.  Possibly if we were allowed to get past the first six episodes, the show would have been able to take the time to explore the themes and character motivations a bit more. Studios seem to cancel anything that is fresh and unique (with some exceptions), never giving it time to build and gather a fan base.  This is one show that may not have been amazing during its very short-lived run, but it was good and had the potential to become something memorable, but instead it now lands in the realm of the forgotten!