×
Cookies help us deliver our Services. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Why Flower From Ghosts Looks So Familiar

Sometimes, a new twist on an already successful idea can lead to surprisingly entertaining results. You can see that playing out right now on one of CBS's newest shows about a young married couple who has to share their first house with some unusual roommates. "Ghosts" is both an Americanized remake of an already successful British show as well as what you might expect if a network executive asked, "how about we take 'American Horror Story' and turn it into a sitcom?" The resulting success is a 7.7/10 on IMDb and a second season debuting later this year (via Deadline).

"Ghosts" features a large ensemble cast of ephemeral residents who each seem to have their own unique talents. Flower is one of them; she's a scatterbrained hippie who can use her ghostly essence to make people high without actually sparking up any wacky tobacky. She's played by none other than Sheila Carrasco, whom you may remember from small but meaningful roles on many other popular shows.

Life in Pieces

"Ghosts" isn't Carrasco's first rodeo on CBS. One of her first appearances on the network was on "Life in Pieces," which aired from 2015 to 2019. It starred some pretty big names, like Colin Hanks, Thomas Sadoski, Mark Ruffalo, and Betsy Brandt, among others. Additionally, it featured some big-name guest appearances from the likes of Jordan Peele, Josh Groban, and even Cary Elwes. Carrasco also made a noteworthy — although unfortunately non-recurring — appearance.

She played a young woman named Beth in Season 2, Episode 5, "Dinner Professor Steps Lesbian." Toward the end of the episode, the ladies visit a lesbian bar in support of their friend Dougie (Fortune Feimster) coming out as gay. At the bar, Dougie strikes up a conversation with Beth, trying to solicit a kiss out of her. And it ends as awkwardly as you would expect it since it's not every day that a complete stranger agrees to kiss another person just because they asked nicely. It's a short but teachable moment about consent and proper social etiquette.

Fox News Sexual Harassment Training Video

The "Funny or Die" YouTube Channel may have neve landed itself on a major broadcasting network, but it's enough of a cultural phenomenon to deserve its own honorable mention. This is especially true given that Carrasco once co-starred in a particularly funny — and viral — video that closely parodied a series of real-life sexual harassment scandals that rocked Fox News back in April of 2017. It is (aptly named) "Fox News Sexual Harassment Training Video" and also stars the likes of Lauren Adams and Dave Theune.

In the short, Carrasco plays Becky, a young woman who just can't catch a break when it comes to receiving multiple inappropriate offers from her male superiors in the workplace. Adams is the exasperated, pearl-clutching narrator/instructor who takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to navigating several tumultuous hypothetical scenarios involving inappropriate office conduct. In reality, though, all of the scenarios described in the video were taken right out of the headlines (via The Daily Beast). And everyone, Carrasco included, does a fantastic job finding the laughter in a series of uncomfortable situations while at the same time exposing how egregious it is that such incidents are so unfortunately commonplace. 

It's also worth noting that the video was prophetic at the time. Although the phrase #MeToo was first coined back in 2006 to help unite and support victims of sexual assault and misconduct, it didn't gain momentum until The New York Times published the first of a long series of allegations against Hollywood director Harvey Weinstein in October of 2017 — six months after Carrasco's skit was published on the Funny or Die YouTube page. 

Jane the Virgin

"Jane the Virgin" was one of the biggest shows to ever grace the CW back in the day. It enjoyed five successful seasons from 2015 to 2019. What American viewers may not know is that the show was a reboot of a popular Venezuelan telenovela named "Juana la Virgen," basically following the same premise with English-speaking actors (via Bustle). The series revolves around a young teenage girl who gets artificially inseminated by accident during a routine women's health physical. She then (comically!) struggles with pregnancy and motherhood despite the fact that she has never broken her Catholic commandment of abstaining from sex before marriage.

During Season 3, Petra finds herself in some legal trouble which forces her to have several uncomfortable interactions after Detectives Dennis Chambers (Christopher Allen) and Dana Peruzzi (Carrasco) basically accuse her of murder. But in a surprise twist at the end, The Narrator surprises everyone and shows the audience that Petra is no longer their main suspect — it was Louisa, her husband's sister! Petra, her husband, and the cops eventually team up together, and Petra is cleared of blame for the murder that she didn't commit.

The Good Place

"The Good Place" was a very popular NBC comedy that ran from 2016 to 2020. It was set in a fictitious afterlife referred to as The Good Place and starred major talents like Kristen Bell, Jameela Jamil, Ted Danson, and William Jackson Harper. The show accomplished in its first season a feat which is rare in the entertainment industry today: it managed to hide the big plot-twist reveal that (spoiler alert) they were actually all in The Bad Place the whole time. This sent the rest of the series on a trajectory that few saw coming, with even more delightful surprises and revelations as the characters proceeded on their four-season journey.

During the show's final season, that trajectory intersected with Carrasco's acting career. Episode 3, "Chillaxing," has all of the major characters on edge and in dire need of some levity. About halfway through the episode, this relief came about in the form of a Hawaiian-themed luau. At one point, Good Place residents were given the chance to chuck a magical lava stone into a special pit of sand in order to be given their heart's deepest desire. When Matilda (Carrasco) steps up first, instead of getting a gift, she is reunited with her long-lost childhood pet, a boxed turtle named Shell Turtlestein. It may be a small cameo with very few lines, but the palpable joy on her face as she waves the turtle around for all to see is highly relatable for anyone who experienced the joys of animal companionship at an early age.