What We Do in the Shadows (TV) main character POLL

It's tough to pick a favorite, since this is one of those ensembles that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. Nandor would seem like the weakest link, but he's arguably the straight man to the other, weirder vampires, and the dynamic needs him (Guillermo is something else--part audience surrogate, part Charlie Brown). That having been said, I'd go with Najda or Colin Robinson.

I love Nandor! The accent, the ridiculous name, the fact that an Ottoman warlord is the cosiest and most straight-laced character.

I'm torn between him and Colin Robinson.

No option for Nadja’s ghost doll? I’d have voted for her.

I thought about it but concluded she was an extension of Nadja.

This show is a highlight of my week. It's not about singling out one of them (but it's Nadja).

No Jackie Daytona, no credibility

the finest human bartender there is

in the absence of jackie daytona, i am forced to vote for laszlo cravensworth, for his bombastic stupidity

chap, why do you think this season has been a step down? I think they’ve done a great job of expanding the world and adding some actual stakes with guillermo’s arc

I thought the first episode of s2 was weak but everything else has been good to great, esp Superb Owl

the first episode with zombie joel osment? I though that was hilarious

I love this show so much. "Bat!"

"Human form!"

I felt dumb but I didn't realize that was Mark Hamill until the end.

Huge Mark Ptroksch fan here, so it's a shoe-in for Collin.

Nandor, with Colin a close second.

voted Colin Robinson but of the three main vampires it’s gotta be Nadja

Her victim Jenna is great too

In a year in which two entire elaborately-costumed single-camera sitcoms were (partially) designed to let Matt Berry do his Matt Berry thing, the one in which he was not the lead somehow managed to showcase him better. All of them are magnificent, and the ensemble allows everyone a chance to show different sides in group and solo dynamics, but I'm voting Laszlo.

Easy vote for Nandor for me - the idea of an Ottoman warlord vampire who is shy and awkward and needy is just so funny to me, and his performance is great. Guillermo on the other hand I dont think I've ever laughed at once, show could lose him entirely imo.

The Jackie Daytona ep might be the hardest Ive laughed at anything this year, I was crying. I think 'arcs' are overrated when it comes to comedy shows, I much prefer episodes like that, surreal self-contained stories with their own internal logic.

Agreed Guillermo is the only one I definitely wouldn't vote for. I've laughed plenty at the vampires being mean to him, but never at anything he's done. I guess his vampire hunter self hatred is kind of funny.

I love how impenetrable the main 3’s accents get sometimes

I love how impenetrable the main 3’s accents get sometimes

I love how impenetrable the main 3s accents get sometimes

Wow ok

Guillermo’s hapless aptitude for vampire slaying has been a very funny upgrade to his servility this year

A vote for Nadja counts as a vote for Nadja's doll

Speaking of accents I love the relish with which Matt Berry weirdly varies his intonation of "My darling".

Guillermo I think is needed as a foil, especially for a show where one of the vampires is himself already sort of a straight man (Colin Robinson). I agree Guillermo isn't funny, but for the format he's needed to provide the rhythmic beat of someone slowly glancing at the camera and shaking their head or grimacing or whatever a la every fake reality show/doc.

Also, Lazlo calling him Gizmo is pretty funny.

mildly spicy take but Colin Robinson is basically a one-joke character. it's a really good joke, don't get me wrong, but there's not a whole lot there.

i voted Laszlo but already regretting that, should've picked Nadja.

if Colin wasn't played by Mark Proksch I would probably enjoy it much less

He is worth it as a character for those glimmers of devilish glee when you realize his behavior is intentional. Like, he'll just be droning on stupidly until someone leaves or falls asleep or dies, and then his eyes will sparkle and he'll grin.

The episode where he starts to go super saiyan when he gets a promotion is amazing

That's my favourite one of the season so far.

I'm very happy this thread has proved quite busy, nice to know others love the show as much as me.

It fits that we're also talking about Key and Peele right now, cause they're linked in my min for how they throw in great effects and production design to help sell the jokes

nice to know others love the show as much as me.

this has to be the best film-to-tv translation ever, right?

(don't @l@n@ld@ me.)

Buffy?

Fargo?

The individual character-focused eps have been really good (Colin in the office, Jackie Daytona). Was the 'ghosts' one supposed to have been Nadja's? And I don't think Nandor has had one, maybe that's still coming?

Only three more left. :( On the other hand, three more left!

Good answers, but I was thinking in terms of a TV show that successfully transfers the concepts and/or spirit of a movie into the small/serial format.

(The Buffy movie has its charms, but the TV show is a massive improvement in every way, not just in repairing/restoring Whedon's supposed original tone. The Fargo TV shows are excellent, but don't actually bring anything from the movie beyond "crime story with character actors in" - the tone is complementary to the film, but the writing doesn't approach character or humour in the same way as the Coens.)

Make that sympathetic character - Hawley's villains and heavies are charming, sketched grotesqueries in a way that fits with Fargo and other Coen movies, but he appropriately uses the longer narrative and screen time to draw his chumps and protagonists with more depth.

what about MASH?

Has any other story delved into the ingenious notion that vampires, having technically died, could be haunted by their own ghosts?

Ooh, MASH. More or less same characters and, imo, better than the movie, iirc.

Friday Night Lights?

Either M*A*S*H or Jugglos

FNL fer sure.

Girlfriend Experience too

There was a scene in last week's episode when Lazlo materialised in the cursed hat and Nadja did the most amazing look to camera, it's been my highlight of the whole show.

But it's Colin Robertson for me. I loved a couple of weeks ago when somebody just called him Colin and he corrected them to Colin Robertson, because that's what his actual name is and not a combination of Colin and Robertson.

can you believe i'd never seen an episode of this until today, despite the fact that two, maybe three of its main five cast are cast-iron imago household favourites

happily i've now seen the pilot and am very excited for the rest

it feels like waititi/clement had these exact actors in mind before they committed to making it a tv show

what about MASH?

(don't @l@n@ld@ me.)

Ooh, MASH. More or less same characters and, imo, better than the movie, iirc.

(don't @l@n@ld@ me.)

M*A*S*H

(don't @l@n@ld@ me.)

/what about MASH?/

_(don't @l@n@ld@ me.)_


/Ooh, MASH. More or less same characters and, imo, better than the movie, iirc./

_(don't @l@n@ld@ me.)_


/M*A*S*H/

_(don't @l@n@ld@ me.)_

Take it to the MASH thread

Has any other story delved into the ingenious notion that vampires, having technically died, could be haunted by their own ghosts?
― Josh in Chicago

Ooh, MASH. More or less same characters and, imo, better than the movie, iirc.
― Josh in Chicago

Friday Night Lights?
― Josh in Chicago

lol irl

Only as far as the first cursed hat episode, but its fun so far and I'm always a fan of Matt Berry even if he always plays Matt Berry.

"your hat is bleeding".

Laszlo for me, his voice & intonations crack me up so much.
Also a Matt Berry fan
and i love erotic topiary
and hats made of 100% witch skin

https://youtu.be/Ism0pGLW47M

This week's ep was the weakest in the season imo.

Aw, it was still fun though. Greta Lee, the Seafarer's Song, the very last scene.

Blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to Wannabe also being one of their songs.

I thought this episode was fine, but ... how come Nandor didn't realize (redacted) was a not a vampire?

Was she actually in the room when he was there?

Yeah, she blows the (I assume fake) blood vape in his face.

That was Guillermo?

He does work through the open-plan living room when she's there, but iirc is deliberately avoiding direct contact

also, Nandor is a big dummy

Nandor is a total dummy.

Wait, has every episode had a post-credits stinger?

only a few

Yeah Nandor is incredibly self centred, wouldn't necessarily notice/care that she wasn't a vamp.

A disdainful "Terrifying" is already a meme in our house and we only saw the episode yesterday. Helps that I'm already much more like Matt Berry than I'd previously been willing to admit

My vote is probably (as it stands) Nadja though, because the Demetrious have come along with their pushy Greek Cypriotness and taken TV comedy by the scroll of its neck

What is her brother up to? Is there a third season of Stath?

There is this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTael05l-1I

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Can't believe we haven't done this:

Nandor = Rose
Laszlo = Blanche
Nadja = Sophia
Dorothy = Guillermo (apologies to Colin Robinson)

confirmation that Nadja is the best.

3 eps in to the second season and it's just as strong as the first imo.

oops Guillermo = Dorothy

if you do Designing Women you don't have to omit Colin Robinson

never heard of it!

nadja saying "colin robinson" is one of my favourite things.

jackie daytona episode and the colin robinson/evie the emotional vampire episode are both really great

When Colin meets the Actual Troll and keeps him talking/nodding off til sunrise, is the joke that his dick unpixellates as soon as he turns to stone some reference to statues not being obscene where real "people" are?

yes imo

Excellent show btw cant wait for S3.

I stand by my opinion of S2 not being quite as funny the first, but everyone seems to disagree with me.

I loved the abrupt final gag of the last episode

Nadja's actor is a host on Netflix's "Great Flower Fight" and basically everything she says sounds like Nadja could have said it. It's delightful.

Nadja is my favorite but Guillermo might be my #2

it's all about watching Nadja's facial expressions when anyone else is talking

I just watched Snuff Box for bonus Berry. That show was pretty fucked up.

Nadja was briefly in Eurovision movie w her brother :D

Nadja's actor is a host on Netflix's "Great Flower Fight"

Her co-host is Vic Reeves!

if we're doing What/Shadows Actors In Other Things, then Kayvan Novak has a substantial role in Alice Lowe's Prevenge

^which comes strongly recommended

Great Flower Fight was superior design-contest fare but seriously if you Nadja fans haven't watched all of Stath Lets Flats yet then you are letting yourselves and me down, I will keep saying this

I watched ep 1 of stath and thought it was too cringe/laugh at the losers, didn't have the WWDitS feelgood vibe. (A feelgood show about murderous bloodsucking vampires? What a world!)

I love Stath! You develop a lot of affection for the losers as the series progresses.

it gets fairly feelgood later (there's a bit involving a sheet of printed paper that is the most feelgood thing i've ever seen) and as chap says we really do learn to love these losers but eh fine, no tom-tom cheesy for you

u guys know may know this already?

I found out last wk Jemaine Clement made another spinoff tv show in 2018

it’s about the 2 cops from the WWDITS movie & it’s called “Wellington Paranormal”

it’s on t0rrentz & it is hilar

I had heard of that... yet to see it tho!

it’s a pisser! highly recommend

Another poll I missed but would have voted for Nadja. I think Lazlo gets be best stories but Nadja get the best laughs because she has to react to every stupid thing that Lazlo does. Could listen to her exasperation about Lazlo's cursed hat for ever.

Watched the trailer for Greta Flower Fight and clearly it need some of Lazlo's topiary.

Trayce, Wellington paranormal is on SBS on demand and is great, although need to watch the rest of it. Aside from anything else, Kiwis saying 'Chilly Bin' is one of the funniest things ever, but maybe I am easily amused.

chully bun

no it is def the funniest thing ever

Two years ago today I was dancing with Officer O'Leary at the Pyramid Club in Wellington.

https://decider.com/2020/08/21/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-on-the-run-oral-history-jackie-daytona/

it’s fun to read berry’s bits in his voice

wtf, how did guillermo only get one vote

Was just thinking that this show could be the first (live action) comedy to do something funny with Covid.

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2020 season is nominated in the 2020 ILX TV poll:

ILX's Best Television of 2020 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 29, 2021

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (3 minimum, 25 maximum, ranked by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail. It'll take five minutes; get to it!

Bit of a tangent but Nadja and Vic Reeves are presenting The Big Flower Fight gardening competition show on Netflix.

this show is very funny but Jemaine Clement and Mark Proksch are the sort of actors who could crack me up just reading the phonebook. in fact part of the reason I slept on this is because I didn't think I could see Jemaine as anything other than his FoTC character but man this is just the perfect role for him

Is he even an actor in this?

He appears as his character from the film in 2 episodes

hah sorry should clarify I watched the movie now starting on the show

lol just found out that Matt Berry isn't even doing an accent, that's just how he talks

also he is a vampire.

BAT!

okay finally made it to the last ep, Nandor at the end going "Guillermo, is there something you are not telling us?" is the funniest moment of the series for me

I'm really impressed with this show in general, for me this is the sharpest sitcom writing I've seen since the first 3 seasons of Arrested Development

actually scratch that the funniest moment is Colin Robinson reading someone in his Twitter replies saying "that's incredibly racist" then he looks at the camera and goes "yeah...it is"

Seeing Nandor being a bumbling lawyer or accountant or something in the new Cruella movie was pretty WTF.

he's played shy-to-extremely-bumbling in just about everything else I've seen him in... but this is pretty much true of Nandor too tbh.

Natasha Demetriou meanwhile is catastrophically more sexy in the new Alan Partridge series than in Shadows, and you barely see more than her hands for the first three weeks.

Rubber Dinghy Rapids bro.

Season 3 premieres September 2!

Aw that's ages! Will be some consolation for the end of summer I suppose.

2 new episodes out, first one has a lot of plot but the second is hilarious

gah, looks like we'll have to wait a couple of months in the uk

NY Times posted a good interview with Harvey Guillén (Guillermo) a few days ago that is worth a read.

He insisted on doing his own stunts!

Knobnomicon

you have the high firm ass of an irish derby winner

I love how this show's supernatural elements allows it to just go all the way on certain tropes - having a bunch of characters try on the Cloak of Duplication to pick up the lady at the gym was like a perfect sitcom plot

Kayvan Novak killing it with the Colin Robinson and Guillermo imitations

SO good

the lute-y dan moment predictably had me on the floor

Kayvan Novak in character as Nandor singing to Kristin Schaal’s 3yo daughter about brushing her teeth is what I needed to see today

https://www.instagram.com/p/CT-DXUuLDPk

Theres not many people in many professions on the planet as bad -and so annoyingly so- at their job than matt berry, and none that i can see as well encouraged/rewarded for same

cant and wont watch a minute of the one-note hawing fool

appreciate you stopping by, deems

he's a little scarce in season 3 so far but I'd guess more than a minute so

tbf his actual job is writing and recording music, so you don’t have to look at him at all while you listen to his albums

(appearing on television is just something he does on the side when friends write a horny, egotistical, braying oaf specifically for him to bray as)

latest episode is about as good as this show gets: great world building, lots of bait and switch, fun b-plot. Guillermo's progression as power behind the throne (or on it, really) is satisfying, the new lead character adds a fun wrinkle and matt berry's devolution of laszlo into a moronic non-stop sexpot feels like the best use of him

I liked the younger energy vampire saying to Colin Robinson that he was having a lot of success with weed and sneakers as energy drains.

Fu-cking guide!

Enjoyed the Sire episode, the Difficult People stop-motion gargoyles cameo was maybe a little awkward but I appreciated it.

i dig that they have now effectively built a full roster of characters to work with: the doll, the guide, the next door neighbor, the hellhound, the baron, the gargoyles, the sire, the nerdy new vampire. Gives the show room to grow.

i demand an odd couple spinoff of the baron, the sire & the hellhound

also lazlo swallowing the harmonica made me laugh so hard, it’s so dumb

i demand an odd couple spinoff of the baron, the sire & the hellhound

lol, was just going to post basically this. That last scene with them in their new home was hilarious.

seeing the baron riding the hellhound cracked me up, but later seeing him in the mini-SUV had me in tears

oh we're going to get an episode with them sooner or later; you don't build a playground and then not use it

slowly catching up, just watched the atlantic city episode.

it was a kick in the head!

omg the fake ratpack had me dying

Ok Colin Robinson dropping random movie trivia about Jaws has got to be an On Cinema reference

pleased that catherine cohen chicken siren is now canon

question where does the artwork that displays over the voiceovers come from? I know some of it is made by the show but there's so much of it and it doesn't make sense to gin up something that's on screen for like not even a full second. did they give the vampires such generic looks that it was just easy to find historical artwork that somewhat resembles them? or is it all photoshopped a little? (as I suspect). idk its one of my favorite aspects of the show

y dont i like this season? whats diff?

No Tom Scharpling, for one.

they're doing much more world building than before, which works for me but i guess i could understand if it didn't for you

I think a lot of comedies written over zoom in the last year+ are suffering from writers not having been in the room together

i am liking this season but theres definitely a danger at this point a few seasons in where theyve accumulated so many characters and running plots that actual jokes grow sparser bc they have to service all the other stuff

This series feels like it’s aware of its audience and status, whereas the first two had that “fuck around and find out” vibe where everyone was having fun making this weirdo show.

I have no issue with this season. Nadya’s doll walking on her 5 cm legs with a bindle was hilarious.

Colin Robinson is great as always but if I had one complaint it's that we haven't seen enough energy vampirism this season. Those scenes always kill me.

I think this season has been pretty good but it does kinda feel a bit like Arrested Development S3 where it's full of callbacks and increasingly bizarre plotlines. also the first 2 seasons were so over-the-top that you kinda wonder how much further the show can go. that said its still super funny and this season seems to be setting up for a good finish

The artwork in the intro was all created for the show, based on a lot of actual paintings and such:

https://imgur.com/gallery/FvkuSZ3

I imagine they spent time on it because in the streaming/Internet era they know fans will pause and scrutinize everything that gets on screen so the fact that some of it only flashes up for less than a second doesn't matter so much.

seeing the baron riding the hellhound cracked me up, but later seeing him in the mini-SUV had me in tears

great find on that thread f hazel

Yeah that was great, art department on this show does a great job

Not gonna spoil it but the end of this weeks episode made me audibly gasp. Was definitely expecting some kind of fake out

Yeah, that was, uh...pretty shocking.

I really have been hoping for a call back to the local city council. Went back and watched that one again and it cracked me up even more now and considering how nuts people have been acting at those kinda of meetings these days, it seems that is some pretty low hanging comedic fruit.

I have not read the recent posts but this is on in the UK next week - Tuesday BBC2 10.05pm

Laszlo playing the piano in the finale, especially Take My Hand when Guillermo first goes in, was my highlight.

That artwork post, wow the detail. Thanks for posting! I've been avoiding this thread cause spoilers (but now I'm almost at the end so I just won't read the most recent posts).

There's also one snapshot in the opening credits with what looks like a pubescent Laszlo with his hand in his pants and a sort of guilty but confrontational demeanor. Now I wonder if that's an allusion too.

Little boy blue?

as all over the place as this season has been I thought the last couple eps were great. not gonna spoil it but the last 5 minutes of the finale were pretty crazy, almost felt like yelling at the TV

little weird they didn't really explain what was going on with fitness vampire though

I knew that they weren't gonna get rid of Proksch that easily. And 'infant-as-energy vampire' is a solid concept, as probably anyone who's had an infant would agree.

little weird they didn't really explain what was going on with fitness vampire though

sure they did, she was grifting

y dont i like this season? whats diff?

― kurt schwitterz, Saturday, October 16, 2021 4:00 AM

No Tom Scharpling, for one.

― Gimme some skin! Because I don't have any skin. (Old Lunch), Saturday, October 16, 2021 4:10 AM

season 3 was the most recent season btw!

What was it the fitness vampire said to the CCTV cam at the end? Tried a few times and can't catch it.

I thought the last episode was pretty wow.

“Back to the drawing board” essentially

thanks for reminding me there are often post credit sequences, i missed that!

thought the last couple of episodes were sort of weak? still lots of fun

one of them did contain "Hello, Guillermo...have you brought some more people to yank on my pee-pee?" which is one of the funniest lines in the show

anyway, I also figured that they weren't just gonna write Proksch out of the show like that, my guess was that one of the clones from the episode where he gets promoted to manager would show up

also Nandor quoting Half Baked was pretty awesome

i liked that this went full continuity! now we have lots of toys to play with

Just catching up with this season - I found the first two episodes a bit disappointing, somewhat hectic and overstuffed. The third episode in Atlantic City I absolutely loved. I realise I much prefer the episodes where the vampires engage with banal aspects of the modern world to the baroque vampiric council world building ones.

one real asset this show has is all four main vampires are played by people who could make you laugh just reading the phonebook

I found this whole season a real drag. It just got worse and worse as it went along. Kind of hoping it doesn't come back, tbh, and I say that as someone who absolutely adored the first two seasons.

Kind of agree - the things that were good were retreads of previous seasons, the beats that were new were not good (idg what they did with Laszlo's character at all)

i thought the ending was real dumb but i am also old enough to be triggered by anything that is even vaguely reminiscent of “the dancing baby”

it should have ended on the prev episode imo

the whole season was just so plotty

I think everyone (including tv showrunners) is just doing the best they can to navigate the pandemic and it's probably advisable not to judge any product of this accursed time too harshly. Everything is compromised as hell right now.

Like there's probably a sizable book to be written about the creative compromises people have had to make to get entertainment out into the world over the past two years.

true

I thought the show was fine this season.

I still enjoyed it but the scripts felt a lot more uh...haphazardly edited. it felt like they wrote a lot of plotlines that were later removed but still referenced here and there. the show's pacing was much less tight and the tone whipped around a lot. too much gross out humor as a whole. also their special effects budget didn't quite seem to match some of the things they were trying to do. that said it had as many laugh out loud moments as other seasons and I still looked forward to watching it every week

I would not doubt that so many episodes not having all the main characters together was working around schedules etc. tied to Covid.

I think everyone (including tv showrunners) is just doing the best they can to navigate the pandemic and it's probably advisable not to judge any product of this accursed time too harshly. Everything is compromised as hell right now.

Maybe, but it didn't seem so much like a lack of resources as a lack of ideas. Maybe Jemaine was a bigger part of the day-to-day success of the show than we all gave him credit for. Maybe Natasha Demetriou is just exhausted (it certainly did seem to me like they were shooting around a pregnancy in some of the episodes, and this season of Stath Lets Flats isn't good either), and everyone will be back with a bang next year. I hope so.

this season of Stath Lets Flats isn't good either

Disagree.

but this season did have kayvan novak doing a matt berry impression as he tried to seduce a woman by playing a lute cover of “peg”

agree that this season was good but def getting too overcrowded and plotty for my taste, making me nervous about the next season (especially if the characters are all going to be split up with separate plotlines taking place in separate locations?) like i laughed really hard at all the new baron stuff but in the end i was glad he kinda disappeared again bc i didnt want to have to deal with a whole new baron storyline on top of everything else.

would be totally fine with the show leaning more into just being a low-stakes situation comedy. i dont know why so many streaming-era sitcoms have to get so elaborate and complicated, idgaf about the character arcs of the imaginary vampires, let it just be The Munsters with swears & horror gore.

the show works best when it uses its supernatural elements to enhance sitcommy plots, like that aforementioned showcase for novak.

i still liked this season tho, especially the atlantic city episode and the one with the sire on the loose, and i'm not opposed to world-expanding.

Maybe, but it didn't seem so much like a lack of resources as a lack of ideas.

I think the issue with COVID beyond logistical problems is that people are half-crazy and depressed. It's not easy to write well when you're like that!

My favorite of these so far pic.twitter.com/m75J66QO0K

— Zack Budryk (@BudrykZack) November 20, 2021

one real asset this show has is all four main vampires are played by people who could make you laugh just reading the phonebook

yet they focus so much of the show on familiar dude, who is not a good actor and is not funny and i could give a flying fuck about the sam and diane-ing of him getting a be a vamplire or not. just show me vampires going clubbing and im happy.

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2021 season is nominated in the ILX TV poll, with voting ending this weekend:

ILX's Best Television of 2021 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 31, 2022

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (3 minimum, 25 maximum, ranked by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail. It'll take five minutes; get to it!

Ahhh just watched the first episode of season 4...does it get better? It just wasn't very funny to me. I only let out a small chuckle after the bit about Laszlo's projection TV. Each season has been a little worse than the previous, imo. (Loved the movie, loved season one...)

I haven't had access to watch it yet, but meanwhile season 3 of Wellington Paranormal is the best so far.

I laughed at the Guide/Guillermo stuff in ep 2 but not feeling the Nandor stuff at all.

Not Colin Robinson is amusing at times, like in the museum, but otherwise not so much.

Preadolescent Colin Robinson was an utter delight in this week's episode. Dodgy FX aside.

otm

Thanks all - I'll stay with it at least for a few more episodes...

Fred Armisen is pretty much leaning into the jazz as object of comedic ridicule thing a bit much now, don't you think?

Definitely noticing a lot of “lol jazz is the worst” bits in shows I’m recent years, it does seem to have replaced ska as the go-to punchline music genre for comedy writers

I blame the Boosh

maybe I'm just not feeling it but this season hasn't been as good

the actors seem to mostly be trying to work with what they've been given, but it's too little

Yeah it’s not as good as it used to be but seeing Mark Proksch’s face on a little kid’s body is hilarious/unnerving.

watching this season, everything just moves so fast, they hurry through every scene, its edited within an inch of its life and feels like theyre just constantly rushing to get to the next plot beat. even scenes that are just two people talking look like a michael bay movie sometimes with the avalanche of shots and fast cuts. a lot of the jokes seem like they're overdubbed in at the very last moment before a change to a new scene. theres very little room for performance and delivery which imho is the shows main comedic strength. the stuff with nandor negotiating his penis wish with the djinn was one of the few times i've really laughed this season, mostly bc its just a really funny idea for a scene and seeing those three actors all play it straight was really fun to watch. but there are just so many plots and little stories going on for every character in every episode simultaneously that they just have way too much narrative business to get through in 22 minutes.

they had a whole setup that had been carefully constructed last season with room for each of them to explore their own character, new connections, new storylines. then they said nope, threw all that out and had nadja open a vampire club. show has gotten bad.

I wonder if the budget got squashed or the real life set conditions made them throw the whole gang back together in the house immediately. I figure we’d get a few episodes of solo nonsense, maybe a Jackie Daytona type of thing, and instead we got flooded basement

only watched the first two and yeah it's super weird they ended on such a wild cliffhanger only to go "eh, never mind" within 5 minutes

episode #2 was really good though, Nandor resurrecting all his dead wives was hilarious and the accountant genie was great

I did laugh at the entire “yes, some of my wives are men” moment

yeah all the stuff with nandor is the only stuff that is working for me this season comedy-wise. all the business with nadja, lazlo, kristen schaal, and guillermo has fallen flat for me and seemed like busywork w/not a lot of jokes. even with baby colin robinson, the visual of mark proksch's head on a childs body is very funny but they havent really delivered on the premise very much imho

ok, the night market episode was a little rushed at the beginning but I thought it was funny. the wraith negotiation scene!

first episode was shaky but #2-4 had a lot of funny scenes. the MC for the familiar fights was really funny. the thing with this show is that you kinda have to watch it with captions - Natasia Demetriou and Kristin Schaal lay on such thick accents that I can't tell what they're saying half the time. and when the captions are on you see a bunch of lines that are pretty funny but are basically inaudible.

kristen schaal has been very funny this season, i'm glad she's getting more to do.

don't think the show is bad per se, but it's definitely not delivering the laughs as regularly. i did crack up every time i heard the name "richie suck"

it's only taken me a week to realise that the reason I don't recognise any of these plot lines is you're all talking about a brand new season.

I was looking up something about the show the other day and was reminded of the fact that someone had to re-edit Natasia Demetriou's wikipedia page to adhere to the guidelines, because she uploaded her own wiki picture

It's a very good picture
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Natasia_Demetriou,_What_We_Do_in_The_Shadows,_2019.jpg

Watching now, and Nandor’s face lift is just getting better and better!

Lmao @ Nandor “I have not slept for a week because I keep thinking of ideas for the perfect wedding”

**Cut to Nandor in his coffin writing “WEDING CAKE” in a notebook**

The episodes from the night market on have been much better. I like all the legalistic stuff with the djinn and I really enjoyed Nadja trying to be friends with Gizmo's family. Still not as good as it used to be, but at the end of the last season I was only watching out of habit, and now I'm actively enjoying it again.

hat’s still cursed

I just heard "Emotional Rescue" on the radio, and now I'm dying to hear Jagger's monologue at the end performed by Nandor.

Good little piece by Harvey Guillén who plays Guillermo:

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a40907282/harvey-guillen-what-we-do-in-the-shadows-coming-out/

Matt Berry did a What's In My Bag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HuNNPoAGvQ

ILX may be interested to know that the last record he picks is Cluster II. "It sounds like electronic nightmares. I highly recommend it."

“Go Flip Yourself” maybe my favorite episode of the series so far, I loved the final twist and how hard this show leans into its own ridiculousness

wejust watched the pine barrens ep - the new jersey devil sequence was hysterical omg

Go Flip Yourself is one of the best episodes ever of the whole series, I Ioled many times.

definitely rewound this bit several times

perhaps matt berry's greatest line delivery yet pic.twitter.com/1wxm64GQsK

— jackie daytona (@gentlydirks) August 24, 2022

nyew hyork citayyy

I gotta know if that was ad libbed

as opposed to it being in the script as

nyew hyork citayyy

just watched it again and lmao I totally missed the joke with Nandor testing out the bar in the "man cave"

Just a tiny bit in an episode packed with lots of material, but I appreciated how every attempt by Nadja to perform on stage ended with her falling into the drum set

Nandor: "Stop listing the things that I did!"

I'm only a few episodes into season 4 but I was finding the flanderization of Laszlo annoying in season 3 where literally every line he had seemed to be sex / porn / masturbation related, and so far it feels like he is finally starting to do SOME things that are not about sex.

yeesh, this show has become a totally different animal. went from being something to enjoy to standard trashwatching.
suddenly it has the same general plotting, delivery and setpieces as family guy/rick and morty/every other 2020s carbon copy animation.

agree cant hang

Damn

(still haven't seen any of the new season, will probably re-up on Hulu for the winter or whenever the next season of The Great comes out)

it's not bad, i guess? it's just purposely self-referential, self-congratulatory, high drama nerdery and full-time situational world building and rebuilding. Construct, tear down, etc.

the last episode features nadja hosting youtube panel conversations with famous dead people (don't ask, doesn't matter) and the joke is that Gandhi has to read and ad that sells steaks for Blue Apron. that's more or less where we're at now.

first half of this season was not great, but it improved a lot with the wedding etc

the mistake is the worldbuilding and getting so far outside the dynamic between the main characters that it becomes reliant on just incongruity which isn’t enough

like the pinebarrens ep was great because it hinged more on nandor & lazlo beefing
and not just “what if camping”

S4 had some high points (night market, wedding ep) but the season finale was a huge bummer with few lols, guys this is supposed to make us laugh not want to off ourselves

Spent far too long chuckling at all Lazlo's vampire band names: Gloria Estefang, Bat Stevens, Batboy Slim, Hall & Throats etc

yeah the finale was pretty underwhelming. the whole nightclub plot felt like a waste of 2 funny actresses and I don't really care what happens to Guillermo anymore. the Colin Robinson stuff was good though. I'd say like....half the episodes this season were really funny.

I'm on ep8 of the new season and it's great, pleased to report that you're all wrong.

(even if the finale is not great, I'm still in)

Finally caught up with this now, Season 4 was definitely the weakest one but still had some amazing highs.

I've taken to using Nandor's "this fuck-king guy" to ease my exasperation when I see a driver do something stupid.

New season starts next month

Glad they got another one in pre-writer's strike tbh

I haven't seen anything about it, weirdly, but I'm extremely glad to have new episodes of this again.

Ok they're dropping classics, so far this is the best the show has been in a few years.

I'm waiting for it to begin on Disney+

I thought it couldn’t get any more cringe at the end of the episode and then that mid-credits scene popped in

lmaooo oh god that mid credit scene - it took me a minute to realize what i was looking at and then i was like nooooooo

once Colin Robinson started listing movie years I was like "ok that has to be an On Cinema reference" and then look who showed up. plus wasn't that other lady the woman from Joe Pera Talks to You??

but yeah the show is definitely very good again, I was worried it was gonna turn into an Arrested Development type situation but thus far this is probably the funniest season yet

Nandor DeLaurentiis

Is there a running list of which episodes have mid credit sequences? I think I've seen the first two episodes of the current season but never thought to wait around.

"Local News" maybe the best episode of the series yet, both the opening and closing scenes were probably the funniest the show's ever been. and the stuff with Guillermo's family was legitimately tense!

I was dying when his mom was like "this is the third time he's given me this talk this month"

Nandor going to outer space was Jackie Daytona-level for me, really enjoying this season so far

xp they know something's up. seems clear they don't buy his "railroad" story and with his mom feeling his back like that, I think she knows

Man I started losing interest last season, sounds like I'm going to have to catch up now (and re-watch the Jackie Daytona episode).

I like the implication that Guillermo is becoming more narcissistic as part of his vampire transition, or maybe it's always been that way from his family's pov.

Love this season so far.

(Sally Rhubarb, lol)

apropos of nothing I just remembered one of my favorite lines in the show, Nadja talking about Colin Robinson: "he's not a wild card, he's the card at the top of the deck with all the rules on it that you just throw away"

loved last season w/ creepy child Colin and Laszlo becoming a father

The Local News episode is easily one of my favorites of the series

the way Nandor panics and runs away from the camera after the newslady jokes "guess we found out the secret to eternal life" is so funny

obviously the show's entire universe is pretty untenable - it's never really explained why the city isn't in a constant panic over the fact that people are consistently being mysteriously murdered and drained of all their blood - but I like the implication that Staten Island is so full of freaks and weirdos that nobody really notices a bunch of vampires walking around in plain sight

I so now want them to do an episode where Nandor learns how to drive and goes to the license branch and his license reads.

Nandor DeLaurentiis

every single line reading by Matt Berry seems like he's trying to get the other actors to laugh

also - pretty deep Happy Mondays cut in the credits this week :)

Oh Jesus the Guillermo plot is fucked up this week

At first I thought why hadn't they learned into Doctor Moreau more then I remembered in the Pride episode Laszlo smothered himself in thick white cream made from Guillermo's sweat and swanned around looking like Brando in the Richard Stanley version.

last two eps were pretty good though you can really feel the tension between what a drama wants to do and what a sitcom wants to do. still it's nice they at least revealed the reason why Nandor hadn't turned Guillermo

Really enjoyed all the Guillermo/Nandor/Laszlo stuff with the turning and the experiments and whatnot throughout this season, but Kristen Schaal has been a total miss for me as a character. I was not happy to see her added to the main cast, and I don't think she's done the show any favours.

yeah I genuinely don't understand what the point of her character is

Probably good that they reset to the status quo at the end of the season (rather than doing a cliffhanger and resolving everything in the first few minutes of the next season, like they did that one time).

Last two eps weren't my favorites but had their moments, otherwise it was a classic season imo.

yeah I'm glad they didn't do that again. I'm curious what exactly happened there, felt clearly like they were planning to split the characters up for a bit but maybe they didn't have the budget. or maybe they thought Season 4 would be the last one at the time. idk I really doubt they wanted it to turn out the way it did

the shows pacing is overall pretty weird I think, the stuff that happens in the final episode here I think could've been like four separate episodes. this show has this tendency to just do things and then undo them. all the sudden changes of heart and solving things via making up random rules kinda makes the show feel like Power Rangers but it still is really funny and well made so I guess I don't care much

I think it's kind of funny everything goes back to relative normal. Presumably this has just been happening the entire time they've been on Staten Island. Vampire life is very mundane, then they do something dumb and there's a mild crisis, only for them to forget it within weeks. Rinse and repeat for a hundred years.

I did like the massacre in the Italian restaurant as a reminder that they do murder lots of people on the regular, when they're not sitting in their favorite chairs reading books in the parlor. Patton Oswalt cameo was a bit unnecessary but the payoff was funny, but not as funny as "PanERa bread".

the panera bit was good

The Guillermo hybrids need their own show. Always amazed at how good this half hour FX comedy looks compared to any Netflix 9 digit budget series.

a few cameras, the house set, and the clearance sale at spirit halloween every year and you're ready to go

I hated the creepy hybrids, but most everything else I've seen of this season so far has been aces.

Haven't watched the last two eps yet, but this newest season is so good.

UK people, s5 is going to be on Disney+ next week. The film is on BBC or something next week too

I binged the last season over a few days. The last episode was a real gut punch for me. Spending years aiming for something and then realizing that it's not for you, that hit home.

I don't know how they can do that in a show where all of the main characters are mass murderers, but they did it.

I don't think I've ever laughed harder than at the moment in the S5 local news episode where Colin Robinson is trying to be the weatherman and there is blood smeared all over the weather wall from Kristen Schaal munching on the real weatherman in the corner of the shot.

The local news episode is one of the funniest eps of the entire series

it’s an incredible episode lol

The opening scene where Nandor thinks he accidentally outed the vampire house is one of the funniest things this show has ever done

he does such a great job trying to claw that back

where Colin Robinson is trying to be the weatherman and there is blood smeared all over the weather wall

IIRC it's him calling it schmutz that broke me like a twig.

Incredible episode.

How did Guillermo only get one vote

He is the most adorable character in any show

Gizmo was the slow burn character, everyone else got to be very flashy right out the gate

Guillermo has gotten tiresome to me. Nandor has become my favorite character over the series.

Last season was unrewarding wrt Guillermo imo but overall he’s my favourite. Love all the vampires equally

me after season 1: how did nandor manage to get 7 votes
me after all 5 seasons: nandor is the best character and was robbed

well, he is known as the relentless

“we drank the blood of some people but the people were on drugs and now i’m a wizard”

Yes, last season of Guillermo was a real shrug.

I can’t post about it without feeling like I’m spoiling it but the moment that x waves hello to Guillermo right before y happens will live in my head rent-free forever

starts again on BBC2 tonight at 10

I thought last season at least did a good job of explaining why Guillermo wouldn't be able to hack it as a vampire but yeah the whole storyline was weird mostly because it was paced so strangely. the finale should've been like 3-4 separate episodes, they built up way too much tension only to have to dissolve things in a flash

It is time!

yaaaaay

building myself a garden shed for reasons

surprised that Colin didn't try the fall out boy version. maybe he already had enough energy.

lol

Ha I was really hoping that would make an appearance.

Is this the final season?

I usually wait until it hits Disney on these shores but might watch by other means if it is

it is indeed the final season

Loved Nadja's business outfit, also enjoyed Tim Heidecker's straight-as-possible man/finance bro.

has Tim Heidecker really somehow not been in this yet

and we get Jeremy and Rajat on screen, too!

I love that they clearly decided it’s time to get back to the core silliness of the characters and drop the stupid major-plot contrivances

yay Doug Jones showed up again, love his character

no uk release date yet

booooooooooooooooooo

the first few season 6 episodes feel a bit off, almost like the show is too self aware now. the joke premises are good but the execution feels a bit "wink wink see what we did there"

I like this season more than the last couple (with the exception of a few specific episodes… the local news ep from last season was one of the best of the whole series). It was said upthread already but I like that the overarching plot is not sucking up too much oxygen - each episode feels more contained and just focused on the jokes.

“DO YOU LIKE TRAINS? I KNOW YOUR MOM DOES”

Totally did NOT recognize Tim Heidecker for half an episode because damn he has lost a lot of weight.

indignant "..and piss!"

incredible episode

Doors theme song parody truly a chef’s kiss

I am so mad it's not out here yet.

guest star for the win <3

This season is so gloriously silly and absurd, I'm going to miss this show. I love all the goofy movie riffs: "Ghostbusters," "Apocalypse Now," "Rear Window," "Working Girl" (!!!).

Totally did NOT recognize Tim Heidecker for half an episode because damn he has lost a lot of weight.

Speaking of which, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Natasia Demetriou has got to be totally preggers, right? They do an OK job hiding it, but it's kind of at odds with the vampire look, lol.

Yeah it’s pretty noticeable during the interview segments, i think she was pregnant during one of the other seasons as well

I did wonder. I noticed her dresses were certainly way more voluminous.

and we get Jeremy and Rajat on screen, too!

― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, October 29, 2024 7:16 PM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Funniest part for me is when they go into the train station and immediately realize it’s completely fake

sean-ayyyy

I’d appropriately had some beers after work before watching that episode and Sean made total sense so I was worried about how they’d harsh his March Madness

march madness demon was A+

Kayvan Novak has just been incredible this season

Sean is the number one all time greatest neighbor

I just learned that they have neighbors on the other side.

I saw a little bit of the boss on Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell (Adult Swim) in the demon. Great show, btw.

Nadja doing the banana joke over and over lmao

only 4 episodes left, feel like this all ends with Guillermo unwittingly saving the human race somehow

the Nadja and Colin side story felt unnecessary given the complete lack of payoff, and the film crew thing felt like a less funnier rehash of the TV news episode

at least we still have Matt Berry line deliveries

"He is an actor, Nandor. A simpleton who paints his face. He's an empty headed puppet who thinks the world loves him, when in actual fact, he is nothing more than a lapdog begging for scraps."

“woman who is horny for Colin Robinson” was just too tempting for them to not use

yeah that whole storyline was very odd, whole episode in fact was pretty weird and meta, had a lot of funny scenes though

Matt Berry seems to be all in on those line deliveries, as much as I despise when TV shows reference online viral stuff I make an exception for him

Do you mean the "succulent Chinese meal" line? It does seem like he based Laslzo's whole delivery on that guy so I appreciated the hat tip, lol.

I thought this one was hilarious. Interesting that they keep doing casual one-offs this season, I wonder if they're going to save all the plot threads for the finale.

It does seem like he based Laslzo's whole delivery on that guy

I have suspected this myself! and who else could actually pull it off?

You know I never thought of that, ha!

i never thought that c_rob69 was capable of turning it off. it's odd to have a colin plot without any draining.

i thought they would reveal that the wife is a harassment vampire (or the couple are vampires who drain people by inviting guests and making it super awkward for them)

The Sexy City Show (tm)

I see you know your judo well!

Haha, yes. Warriors ep was fun, can't believe there's only one more left though.

2 more! 11 eps this year

I like the implication that actors who have played vampires on tv shows and in movies are sometimes actual vampires. Excellent Skarsgard guest spot paid off at the end

yeah didn't they have Wesley Snipes as an actual vampire albeit a very unpopular one because he played a vampire killer in the Blade movies

2 more! 11 eps this year

hell yeah

xp yeah, they just said he was Wesley Snipes. It's a good bit

Very funny and exciting to see a whole sequence filmed in one of my favourite cafes, Propeller (the exterior shot was fake, but it’s actually called propeller, and they kept some of their IRL branding intact). I’ve probably spent hundreds of hours there over the last ten years, it’s the closest I’ll get to seeing a fav detective show filmed next to my house.

There have been a lot of movie riffs this season, but this Warriors one was pretty funny, especially with Colin Robinson lampshading at the beginning by referencing the Warriors.

Incredible episode, even if for nothing else than getting to hear Matt Berry pronounce “Patrick Swayze”

Well this might be one of the strangest series finales I’ve ever seen

there are 3 different "hypnosis" segments and they switched them around when it aired on live TV.

might've been a bit too meta but I would've loved it had the series ended like that

that was a good finale, i liked the hypnosis-es-es

that whole scene where guillermo gives his meaningful speech while the monster fucked the bear statue was hilar

rosemary’s baby one ruled

i also liked the rosemary’s baby ending, but am kinda glad i didn’t see it the first time i watched lol

Wait can someone explain the 3 segment thing? We can only see this show by sailing the seas so all we saw was a pisstake Bobby from Dallas waking up segment.

How does seeing different ones even work!?

depending on how you watched it (FX, Hulu, Hulu Live, etc) there were different hypnosis scenes shown, or you can watch them as extras on Hulu or Disney+ or what have you (and on Youtube now, I'm sure)... Newhart, Usual Suspects, or Rosemary's Baby

ohh right yes the "extra hypnosis" thing I guess we have some additional sailing to do.

it’s just like alternative emdings - there’s a Usual Suspects ending, and a Rosemary’s Baby

and it was Newhart ending if it was them waking up in bed, not Dallas

xp
On streaming there is an extras tab that shows the two not in the episode. On broadcast TV they aired the episode 3 times with a different segment each time.

and it's not Dallas which was Pamela waking up and seeing bobby in the shower. it's Newhart where he woke up with his wife from a previous show.

honestly you aren't missing much!

Colin Robinson was really good this season but overall it was kind of dud

Oh I've never heard of Newhart even though I'm a genxer, mustve been more of a US show I guess.

the 80s series finale is famous among US sitcoms for the callback to the 70s series, as parodied in WWDITS (which I found odd, as it feels like most viewers will be too young to catch the reference)

LOST did this too (at 4:55)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyKyjeRodd4

I also sailed the seas Trayce to watch weekly but all of the season is now on Disney+ in the UK and the other hypnosis endings are under the Extras tab xps

Eh we only sub to netflix and Youtube, I never bothered with disney (I think I tried to once and I couldnt sign up for some reason haha).

(which I found odd, as it feels like most viewers will be too young to catch the reference)

I definitely got the impression that a bunch of the actors and writers had pet references they wanted to use in the show and this season they just let them do 'em all

best joke in the episode was the crew member who looked like nandor

Wonder if that's his stunt double or something? I liked it, glad I heard about the alternate hypnoses, RIP WWDitS. Still hoping for We're Wolves.

I do find it impressive they were able to out-meta the Curb finale, which is an entire show built on such things

https://thequietus.com/interviews/bakers-dozen/matt-berry-favourite-music-albums/

Fav-o-rite museeeeq al bums sounds like something Laszlo would say.

GRAM O PHONẼ
CY LIN DERS

Just finished binging this season, I thought it was fantastic. All the cast on top form, loved colin robinson doing the clapping push ups, going ham on gizmo. I dug every time a character would give a side glance to the camera with an annoyed or disgusted or wtf expression - multiple times every episode.

one of our favourite moments was the monster having the look of disgust when they were watching the historic footage of laszlo's earlier unsuccessful experiments

Monster had some great moments, incl ripping his own dick off multiple times. Really happy with how the season turned out, one of the funniest imo, very little "plot" & complicated lore & side characters, just lots & lots of goofy shit

after the disappointment of the guide character fizzling out we thought the monster was a great new addition and really paid off - we're just sad we won't see the character anymore. maybe we can get a spinoff with the baron, the sire, the hellhound and the monster. and the various guillermo clones.

The mobster's best ep was Guillermo's Promotion imo.

*monster's*

The monster as the railroad CEO killed me

"shut fuck up" became a popular expression in this household

just finished and everyone otm, very much a season of leaning into strengths

I kept forgetting that I forgot to watch the series finale, but I finally did, and it was pretty good!

omg the Rosemary's Baby one, hadn't seen that until now

ignoring the thread so far...
this is on BBC 2 starting Weds 12th March. Finally!

u lucky duck

wait I'm an idiot. sorry UK people. it says series 5. series 6 is the new one? yet I think s5 hasn't been on BBC2 before?

Yeah think it's just Disney that has the final season on the UK atm

ok I demand to know if there are any other shorts I've missed like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxNPcUg7SCU

i think that's just a clip from the show? 5th season, forget which episode

Season 1 shorts
Vampires Define Things
Energy Vampire Bedtime Stories
Brief History of Snug Harbor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCxtr1CYuJQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICh8A1PdXF4

well those links didn't work. just search youtube for "a shadows short" for season 1, and the other titles for the rest.

ty!

Just getting around to the final season and Tim Heidecker's speech at the celebratory company dinner is so good.

"[Gets serious.] I don't bring up my wife and kids very often here. [Yells] But fuck 'em, you're my family!" is one of the highlights of the show.