Kindred spirits

Just a normal family living in a whare in the country - with ghosts.

- RUSSELL BROWN

In the past decade, the Maori ghost story – think episodes of Beyond the Veil – and Māori comedy have found fruitful ground on television. They're almost their own genres. But what if you were to stake a show in the space where they meet? That, more or less, is Dead Ahead.

Miriama Smith plays Kiri Wharekoa, a high-powered lawyer who brings her family – graphic designer husband Matiu, extremely online teenage daughter Awhira and son Nate – home after 12 years in London. They’ve kept the reo, yet they move into Nan’s old country whare as outsiders. Nate has never lived in Aotearoa and doesn't know anyone, but he soon meets Aunty Huia. Who, it becomes clear, is a ghost (“We prefer the term kēhua, Nate”). And there's evidently a reason she’s showing up.

The show is a reunion of the partnership that made the Rule of Mum episode for last year’s