New season of ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ is strong and silly – The Breeze

What We Do in the Shadows follows a group of idiotic vampires who have miraculously survived for centuries. Continuing from last season, theyre now being hunted by vampire assassins for the killing of a previous vampire roommate. The second season continues to be raunchy and wacky while deeply exploring the weird world of magical beings.

Magic and the supernatural is given a goofy twist as more of its introduced into the world. Between seasons, Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Laszlo (Matt Berry) lost seven familiars humans who loyally serve vampires in exchange for eventually becoming vampires themselves. On the sevenths death, Nadja decides to take the now-deceased familiar to her friend Wallace (Benedict Wong), a necromancer. Laszlo constantly comments that necromancy is a scam, becoming irritated when Wallace emphasizes that $350 is the most important ingredient for the revival to work.

Zombies are also involved in ridiculous manners. The familiar is only partially brought back to life as a zombie. Breaking the stereotype of the classic dumb, shambling zombie, this one has a limited vocabulary that shows defining traits of his life, and he occasionally crawls on the ceiling. He terrorizes Nandors (Kayvan Novak) familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guilln) by sneaking under his bed or begging for high fives.

Despite the presence of these beings, all but Nadja refuse to believe that ghosts are real. Even when possessions are piled up in the center of Laszlos room after he looks away for a few seconds, Guillermo becomes a scapegoat. Once shown the ghost, Nandor and Laszlo are thickheaded enough to believe they can stab it to get rid of their problem. This causes Nandor to get covered in ectoplasm in a humorous display of bravado when he dives headfirst through it.

Each ghost has an unfinished task that requires assistance to let them move on to the afterlife. This causes interesting encounters for Laszlo, Nadja and Nandor as they meet their human selves after having technically died to become a vampire. Some ridiculous or inappropriate tasks occur depending on the person in question, and it shows how little some characters have grown over the centuries, as the ghost of human Laszlo is also a sexual deviant. Sweet moments also take place, though, as Nandor must somehow show his ghost his long-dead horse that he still cares deeply for. Nandors journey is humorous as he complains that his ghost only speaks a long-dead language that hes forgotten, resulting in major confusion on his part.

Every scene is injected with well over the legal limit of humor. Regardless of the situation, everyone is too petty to get over minor details or take situations seriously. While resurrecting the familiar, Wallace answers a text. Before that, Colin (Mark Proksch) tries to drain everyone of their energy while giving a eulogy at the funeral of the familiar. The disposal of vampire assassins by Guillermo throughout the episode is seen as an inconvenience due to the noise he makes. Theyre constantly wrapped up in the small picture, worried about whats disrupting the oblivious vampires sleep rather than simply turning their heads to look.

As the season continues, the supernatural will hopefully be explored further, considering the odd twists given to classic monsters. Eventually, the vampire assassin plotline should begin to be acknowledged by more than Guillermo, along with his distant ancestry to Van Helsing a world-renowned vampire hunter. Other than that, the celebrity cameos are a fun bit thats always exciting to look out for considering last seasons appearance by big names like Tilda Swinton and Dave Bautista.

What We Do in the Shadows starts its new season off with the same wild energy as always. With only one full season currently, its easy to catch up on and is well worth watching. The shows off-the-wall attitude is a refreshing take on horror tropes and leaves viewers ready to cry from laughter.

Contact Caleb Barbachem at barbaccf@dukes.jmu.edu. For more on the culture, arts and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on Twitter @Breeze_Culture.

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New season of 'What We Do in the Shadows' is strong and silly - The Breeze