Theres something soothing about watching a bunch of vampires be absolute morons on television every week. Theyre undead, capable of incredible feats, dark magic, and, in most cases, have been alive for hundreds of years. They should possess at least a little more finesse than Michael Scott. And yet, the bloodsucking clowns of What We Do in the Shadows are so very bad at being immortal monsters, which means they are excellent at comedy.
FXs TV series, based on the Taika Waititi film of the same name, returned for a second season just as funny as ever. Like the movie, the show follows a trio of vampires this time, they live on Staten Island as opposed to the New Zealand of the films living together in a derelict old manor. Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) are hundreds of years old and also total dorks. Theyre bad at most things they do, but as long as they dont accidentally stumble into sunlight or fall on a wooden stake, theyll get over it. (It turns out, vampirism is a very potent form of failing upward.)
While this is extremely similar to the movie its based on, the TV version of What We Do in the Shadows fleshes out its mockumentary antics with a few additions to the formula: namely, a familiar, Guillermo (Harvey Guilln) who serves them in hopes of becoming a vampire, and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), an energy vampire who looks normal but feeds off the ambient misery of everyone around him.
Colin and Guillermo are the reason What We Do in the Shadows works as a show, two regular-looking dudes juxtaposed against their goth reality show roommates that also have their own normcore sociopathic tendencies. Colin, in particular, gives the show a feeling very similar to The Office. As an energy vampire, he feeds off everyones annoyance and goes out of his way to be obnoxiously corny and irritating. (One very good Colin bit involves him incessantly saying updog as if it were a joke no one had ever heard before.)
Like the best work of show creator Jemaine Clement (who co-wrote the film with Waititi), theres a lot of fun to be had with taking the iconography of the occult and supernatural and putting them in front of the mundanity of the mockumentary. What happens when theyre haunted by a very petty ghost? Or deal with animal control when it captures one of them in bat form? Or accidentally get a pet zombie?
Watching What We Do in the Shadows is oddly cathartic while social distancing. Maybe its because the vampires of the show are also isolated in a fashion, unable to see the sunlight and absolutely kooky as a result. Maybe, What We Do in the Shadows argues, immortality wouldnt make you cool or fearsome, but instead really freaking weird. In that way, its kind of like watching a reality show about patently awful people. Maybe you have your flaws, but hey: youre not that bad!
If youve spent any of the last month on Twitter, the corniest social network, you might have noticed a meme going around where people ask each other to pick their preferred quarantine house. Simply put, the tweets list groups of people, real or fictional, and asks which set you would like to shack up with while social distancing. Like all bad memes, theres very little logic to them other than asking people to argue for the posters amusement, and this makes them consistently unfunny at least until the lists get so baffling that the meme loops around to becoming funny again.
Its a bad meme, but its one that feels appropriate for understanding why What We Do in the Shadows is so fun to watch. Like in this silly Twitter exercise, no one in their right mind would probably want to share a home with a bunch of vampires. But after watching What We Do in the Shadows, why not? It could be fun. I wouldnt recommend vampirism as a quarantine hobby, but being weirder? Sure. We could stand to be a little weirder.
More here:
What We Do in the Shadows is a vampire comedy about being stuck at home - The Verge
- Vampire Weekend to Return as Saturday Night Live Musical Guests - Pitchfork - May 9th, 2024
- 10 Ways The Vampire Diaries Season 1 Has Gotten Better With Age - CBR - May 9th, 2024
- Reginald the Vampire's Jacob Batalon Primes Us for Season 2 of Vampire Comedy: "It Gets Stressful" - Syfy - May 9th, 2024
- English Dub Review: Vampire Dormitory Love 3. The pretty boy stays over. - Bubbleblabber - May 9th, 2024
- 10 Ways The Vampire Diaries & Supernatural Copied Each Other - Screen Rant - May 9th, 2024
- Delainey Hayles joins cast of Interview with the Vampire - KGET 17 - May 9th, 2024
- Why The Vampire Diaries Fans Need to Watch This AMC TV Show - CBR - May 9th, 2024
- Five Underseen Vampire Movies You Need to Check Out - 25YearsLaterSite.com - May 9th, 2024
- Kristen Stewart Will Star in New Vampire Movie Flesh of the Gods 12 Years After Twilight - E! NEWS - May 9th, 2024
- Review: Interview With The Vampire season 2 - The Cosmic Circus - May 9th, 2024
- Kirsten Dunst felt protected by Cruise & Pitt on Interview with the Vampire - JoBlo.com - May 9th, 2024
- Kristen Stewart Returns To Vampires In New Movie With Oscar Isaac! - PerezHilton.com - May 9th, 2024
- How to watch Reginald the Vampire Season 2 in the US on CTV for free - UpNext: Reelgood's Guide to Streaming - May 9th, 2024
- New Interview With the Vampire Preview Teases Season 2 Conflicts - ComicBook.com - May 9th, 2024
- Doctor Strange #15 Preview: Is This the Twilight of Strange? - Bleeding Cool News - May 9th, 2024
- "I had to fight tooth and nail": Ian Somerhalder Threw Away Vampire Diaries' Script Thinking It Was Just Another ... - FandomWire - May 9th, 2024
- Kristen Stewart and Oscar Isaac to Star in a Vampire Movie That Will Break Your Brain - Nerdist - May 9th, 2024
- 10 Great Elements That Make Abigail A One Of A Kind Horror Film - CBR - May 9th, 2024
- Reginald Tries To Pressure Maurice In Reginald The Vampire Season 2 Premiere Clip - Screen Rant - May 9th, 2024
- "Twilight" Fave Kristen Stewart Takes On Another Vampire Movie This Time With Oscar Isaac - Brit + Co - May 9th, 2024
- Civil War is beating vampires, spies, and big gorillas in its second week at the box office - The A.V. Club - April 22nd, 2024
- Meet Alisha Weir, The 14-Year-Old Breakout Star Of Universals Vampire Flick Abigail - Deadline - April 22nd, 2024
- Transylvania Is Famous For Vampires, But Also Has Lots Of Grizzlies And Wolves - Cowboy State Daily - April 22nd, 2024
- Interview with the Vampire Cast Explains Why Your Friends Should Watch - Bleeding Cool News - April 22nd, 2024
- Marvel 'Blade' Reboot With Mahershala Ali Going Back To Basics Of "Killing Vampires - Bounding Into Comics - April 22nd, 2024
- Interview With The Vampire Got A Sequel 22 Years Ago, But Not Like You Think - Screen Rant - April 22nd, 2024
- First Trailer for Reginald the Vampire Season 2 Teases a Vampires vs. Angels Showdown - Syfy - April 22nd, 2024
- Kathryn Newton Talks Sinking Her Teeth Into Vampire Thriller 'Abigail' - Forbes - April 21st, 2024
- 'Vampire' bacteria thirst for human blood and cause deadly infections as they feed - Livescience.com - April 21st, 2024
- Some Microbes Are Tiny 'Vampires' With a Deadly Attraction to Human Blood - ScienceAlert - April 21st, 2024
- Common gut bacteria behave like vampires to target human blood - Earth.com - April 21st, 2024
- Now Playing in Memphis: Vampires, Sasquatches, and Monkey Man - Memphis Flyer - April 21st, 2024
- Dancing Vampires, Furry Families and More in Movies - Columbus Underground - April 21st, 2024
- New 'Interview with the Vampire' teaser reveals the laws of being a vampire - Mashable - April 21st, 2024
- The Vampire Rules In Abigail (And How They Change The Horror Game) Explained - SlashFilm - April 21st, 2024
- Blade's MCU Problems Ignore How Easy It Should Be To Make His Perfect Movie - Screen Rant - April 21st, 2024
- Being Human Werewolves, Vampires, and Ghosts! Four Seasons Streaming Right Now on SCREAMBOX! - Bloody Disgusting - April 21st, 2024
- Upcoming horror movies: Where and when to watch werewolves, vampires, and assorted monsters, oh my! - Popverse - April 21st, 2024
- One of the Very First Horror Westerns Started Out as a Joke - Collider - April 21st, 2024
- "Blade killing vampires..": Marvel is Giving Fans What They Exactly Want With Mahershala Ali's MCU Movie, Industry ... - FandomWire - April 21st, 2024
- Reports Reveal the Original Concept of the Blade Movie Before it was Simplified to Blade Just Killing Vampires - imdb - April 21st, 2024
- Who Lives? Who Dies? And Was That [Spoiler]? The Ending of Abigail, Explained - Syfy - April 21st, 2024
- THESE vampires drawn to human blood could be inside your body Know how they can kill you - The Financial Express - April 21st, 2024
- Concern over Vampire Bacteria and more - WGN TV Chicago - April 21st, 2024
- The Vampire Diaries' Stefan Without One Key Factor - CBR - Comic Book Resources - April 21st, 2024
- Abigail Takes a Bloody Delightful Bite Out of the Vampire Genre - Gizmodo - April 21st, 2024
- Interview with the Vampire: Reid, Anderson Walk Us Through Season 1 - Bleeding Cool News - April 21st, 2024
- Woman's blood-drained corpse is found in Italian church where she had been searching for ghosts: Victim, 22, - Daily Mail - April 12th, 2024
- My latest Game Pass obsession is a vampire-punching action game that could be Red Dead Redemption 2's wacky ... - Gamesradar - April 12th, 2024
- Lindy Ryan on Setting a Vampire Novel in a Small Texas Town - CrimeReads - April 12th, 2024
- 14 Actors Who Appeared In Both Supernatural & The Vampire Diaries - Screen Rant - April 12th, 2024
- Coachella 2024: How to Stream Every Performance on YouTube - Vulture - April 12th, 2024
- Back to the 80s: 'Lost boys' The State Hornet - StateHornet.com - April 12th, 2024
- Slay the Spire 2, Vampire Survivors meets Contra, and other Triple-i games - Ars Technica - April 12th, 2024
- How Vampire Weekend Mastered The Five-Albums Test - UPROXX - April 12th, 2024
- Abigail Directors Tease A Fresh Spin On Vampires That's "Very Much Us" - Screen Rant - April 12th, 2024
- Vampire Weekend Livestreamed Their Solar Eclipse Album Release Show: Watch - Stereogum - April 12th, 2024
- Fan favorite vampire films among those coming to a theater near you - WAPT Jackson - April 12th, 2024
- Vampire Weekend Reckon With the Divine (Again) on Only God Was Above Us - Spin - April 12th, 2024
- Review | Vampire Weekend have grown into their boat shoes - The Washington Post - April 12th, 2024
- Interview with the Vampire season 2: Release date, cast, and more - Android Authority - April 12th, 2024
- Upcoming horror movie Nosferatu debuted a trailer behind closed doors, and apparently Bill Skarsgrd's vampire is ... - Gamesradar - April 12th, 2024
- Vampire Weekend's 'Only God Was Above Us': All 10 Tracks Ranked - Billboard - April 12th, 2024
- Abigail Has Screened, And Critics Are Calling The Bloody Vampire Horror One Of The Best Movies Of 2024 - CinemaBlend - April 12th, 2024
- When Kirsten Dunst revealed the special gift Interview With a Vampire co-star Tom Cruise sends her every year - Hindustan Times - April 12th, 2024
- He is cooking with this cast: Ryan Coogler's Vampire Movie With Michael B. Jordan Casts Another Marvel Star Hailee ... - FandomWire - April 12th, 2024
- Ryan Cooglers Untitled Vampire Thriller Adds 2 More to Cast - ComingSoon.net - April 12th, 2024
- The Vampire Diaries Improved After This Character Left the Show - CBR - Comic Book Resources - April 2nd, 2024
- Paul Wesley Shares Only Way He'd Appear in Another Vampire Diaries Show - E! Online - E! NEWS - April 2nd, 2024
- Interview With the Vampire Releases New Season 2 Trailer Ahead of May Premiere Watch - Yahoo Finance UK - April 2nd, 2024
- Interview with the Vampire season 2 drops second trailer at AMC - Sportskeeda - April 2nd, 2024
- A Major 'Twilight' Star Is Down To Return For The TV Show, So Bring On The Sparkly Vampires - Yahoo! Voices - April 2nd, 2024
- 'Vampire' neutron star blasts are related to jets traveling at near-light speeds - Space.com - April 2nd, 2024
- Louis Is Haunted by the Past in New 'Interview with the Vampire' Season 2 Trailer - Collider - April 2nd, 2024
- A Vampire's Face Has Reemerged From a Centuries-Old Shroud - AOL - April 2nd, 2024
- Video: AMC Networks Releases a Second New Trailer and Key Art for Season Two of "Anne Rice's Interview with the ... - The Futon Critic - April 2nd, 2024
- Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person Presents a Rather Different Kind of Teen Angst - Reactor - April 2nd, 2024
- Shiki And 7 Other Vampire-Themed Anime Series For A Blood Curdling Binge-Watch - AugustMan Thailand - April 2nd, 2024
- Interview with the Vampire Season 2 Trailer: Memories of Claudia - Bleeding Cool News - April 2nd, 2024
- Harvey Guilln Says Goodbye to the Mansion in 'What We Do in the Shadows' Season 6 Set Image - Collider - April 2nd, 2024
Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero