Pop Culture Pick: What We Do In The Shadows Is Bloody Good Fun
A fang club worth joining
Image Credit: FX Networks
Welcome to Pop Culture Pick, a catch-all for subjects I want to highlight outside of the usual weekly Weekend Watch columns. In this edition, What We Do In The Shadows brings biting vampiric comedy.
It’s October, and naturally, thoughts are turning towards the creepy, though perhaps not too creepy, given everything going on in the world. Which makes me think that we should perhaps serve our creepiness with a serious side order of funny. I believe, then, that What We Do In The Shadows serves as the perfect, goofy Halloween treat.
I’m a huge fan of the 2014 movie written, directed by and co-starring Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, which followed the stories of vampire roommates who had to deal with modern times, wayward werewolves and the usual squabbles between those who share flats, albeit immortal creatures of the night. It felt like no other vampire story out there and stands among Waititi’s best. Clement has taken the lead in terms of writing and directing the series (Waititi is less involved because of his busy schedule making movies and other projects), but the show feels of a piece with the original, full of good gags and winning performances.
In this case, the show focuses on Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch, whose character is usually referred to by his full name) three more traditional bloodsuckers and an energy vampire who specialises in draining the life force from those he can bore or annoy. Then there’s Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), Nandor’s human familiar, who harbours his own dreams of becoming a vamp. Like the characters from the film, they live relatively mundane lives on Staten Island, at least until they’re charged with taking over the United States in the name of the vampire species, with spectacularly unspectacular results. A particular highlight from Season One is The Trial, which sees our luckless fang club members facing judgement from… Actually, I won’t reveal that – it’s much better if you experience the scene sight unseen.
The show also attracts some great supporting players – witness Beanie Feldstein as a girl who undergoes her own transformation, Doug Jones as the ancient Baron (who has had affairs with both Laszlo and Nadja in the past) and Mark Hamill as Jim the Vampire.
Consistently entertaining, and giving its cast free reign to riff around the script, leading to some truly hilarious moments. How our heroes, assuming we can call a group of merciless murderers by that title, interact with each other and the world around them is the main source of the laughs. They’re all complete weirdos, while Laszlo and Nadja are a squabbling couple who alternately love and loathe each other, creating huge opportunities for comedy. Alternately (un)deadpan and wacky, it has a wide variety of chuckle-inducing tones.
What We Do In The Shadows hasn’t exactly (“bat!”) flown under the radar – it garnered plenty of Emmy nominations this year, and the Hollywood Critics Association (of which I am a member), handed it their Midseason Best Cable Network Series. But if you’ve never heard of the show, or considered it before, now’s as good a time as any to dive in – Season 2 is complete, and Season 3 should – pandemic permitting – flap in next year. And if you can find it, the movie is also more than worth your while to watch.
The first two seasons can be seen via FX On Hulu in the US and on BBC Two in the UK.