One part The Office, one part Dracula, and several parts the 2014 What We Do In The Shadows movie from Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, this charming FX sitcom has been chugging along for the past six years, reliably producing season after season of quality comedy with a horror twist. What We Do In The Shadows occasionally earned a viral moment or a spike in popularity, but mostly it sank or swam by doing what sitcoms always did: introducing a great cast of memorable characters, finding hilarious people to play them, and then making merciless fun of them episode after episode, year after year.
The only minor difference is that most of the characters here happen to be vampires: ancient lunkhead Nandor (Kayvan Novak), quick-to-anger Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), smooth-talking Lazslo (Matt Berry), the boring-on-purpose energy vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), and Nandor's long-suffering familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), who is more competent than any of his immortal masters. Every sitcom needs a straight man.
This ensemble carried the show through six strong seasons of TV. What We Do In The Shadows also stood out thanks to its visual style, which is much richer and denser than your average sitcom; if you just walk past the TV while an episode was playing, you might you were watching an Anne Rice adaptation, complete with opulent period costumes and gothic decor. And then Laszlo starts fawning over a singing Big Mouth Billy Bass and you realize your mistake. Every sitcom needs contrast.
The series finale of What We Do In The Shadows airs this week, and I wanted to take a moment to eulogize the show by walking through all six of its seasons, ranked worst to best. I'm going to miss this show when it's gone, and it deserves a last hurrah!
6. What We Do In the Shadows season 6
The final and most recent season of What We Do In The Shadows has had its share of entertaining episodes, including the farcical "Sleep Hypnosis" and the recent "Come Out and Play," an action-heavy ode to the 1979 movie The Warriors for no other reason than because it's fun. But the overall narrative of the season has been a bit of a letdown.
As with most sitcoms, episodes of What We Do In The Shadows are mostly designed so they stand on their own, but there's a fair bit of serialization too. This last season has followed Guillermo as he's left the vampire family to strike out on his own, which means he's not as involved with the group anymore, which is kind of unsatisfying, especially for the final season. This wouldn't matter as much if the individual episodes were inspired and hilarious across the board, but they haven't quite made up for it.
This is still a strong season of TV, and I'm hoping the final episode sends the show off with honors, but it's probably still the weakest of the six seasons.
5. What We Do In the Shadows season 4
Season 4 was probably What We Do In The Shadows at its most serialized. We have three plotlines running pretty much independently of each other: Nandor ratchets up his search to find a wife with the help of a djinn, Nadja opens a vampire nightclub, and in the weirdest storyline the show ever did, Laszlo raises the small Colin Robinson-like creature that crawled out of the body of the adult Colin Robinson. He likes showtunes.
All of these plotlines have their moments, with special mention going to Nandor's chaotic nuptials in "The Wedding" and the vampires' off-the-wall attempts to get Little Colin Robinson an education in "Private School." Everything lands, but everything lands better in other seasons.
Also, Guillermo gets a little lost in the sauce in this season, continuing a problem that started the season prior. Speaking of...
4. What We Do In the Shadows season 3
What We Do In The Shadows is a wacky, off-the-wall show, but it was always grounded by Guillermo's quest to one day become a vampire, despite Nandor's seemingly complete disinterest in helping him reach that goal. If the show has a heart, this was it. Part of the reason season 6 isn't as satisfying is because by that point Guillermo had given up on that dream, but it's in season 3 that we start to realize the show is going to string us along for as long as possible.
Here, Guillermo is given the role of the vampires' bodyguard while Nandor and Nadja run the New York City chapter of the Vampiric Council together, which makes for some fun storylines. "The Casino," where the vampires spend a weekend in Atlantic City with their human friend Sean, is a highlight, as is "The Cloak of Duplication," where Kayvan Novak gets to show off his mimicry skills.
Season 3 also gives us a deeper look at the lore of the series in "The Escape," where the vampires have to hunt down the Sire, the original vampire from which all other vampires descend. That What We Do In The Shadows has lore at all is kind of a joke, and of course the series doesn't take it too seriously, but it's another extra layer that helps this sitcom stand out.
3. What We Do In the Shadows season 5
At the end of season 4, Guillermo finally takes matters into his own hands and gets his friend Derek to turn him into a vampire...kind of. His vampiric powers fail to fully manifest, and he spends much of season 5 trying to figure out why, all while hiding his transformation from his master Nandor, who would be outraged to learn that his familiar had been turned by someone else.
This is the most successful long-form plotline the show ever had; there's real tension as Guillermo tries to figure out what to do about his situation, and great comedy as every other member of the house slowly figures out what's happening save Nandor, who remains hilariously oblivious.
And I have to shout out the episode "Local News," when the vampires become convinced that their dark secret has gotten out and that an angry mob of Staten Island villagers is coming to kill them, even though no one knows anything and the vampires are just making matters worse by overreacting. There's some stiff competition, but "Local News" is in the running for funniest episode of the series.
2. What We Do In the Shadows season 1
With the style and concept already established by the 2014 movie, What We Do In The Shadows was able to hit the ground running in its first season. Some sitcoms take a while to get going as performers figure out how to approach their characters and producers discover what kinds of jokes and situations work best. But in What We Do In The Shadows, the lead actors are already in tune with their characters and the mockumentary-meets-gothic horror conceit is fully developed.
Episodes like "Baron's Night Out," where the vampires take out an old world bloodsucker for a night on the town, highlight how well the show mixes the insane with the mundane. And the series got its biggest viral moment in "The Trial," which featured cameos from lots of famous actors known for playing vampires, including Tilda Swinton, Paul Reubens, and Wesley Snipes.
What We Do In The Shadows never really had growing pains. It's good from the start and keeps it up. But it did manage to top this first season at least once:
1. What We Do In the Shadows season 2
The second season of What We Do In The Shadows still had the novelty factor of the first, but with some experience under their belt, the cast and crew were able to pack in a higher number of hysterical, high-concept episodes. The best one-two punch of the series comes in the form of "Colin's Promotion," where Colin Robinson becomes drunk with power and finally starts to feel like part of the core group; and "On The Run," where Laszlo runs away from a fight and starts a whole new life in Pennsylvania, "because it sounds like 'Transylvania,' and we all know that sounds cool." The show never put Matt Berry's unique elocution to better use.
This was also before we realized the show was never really going to give us vampire Guillermo, and it mined drama and comedy out of his journey in episodes like "The Return" and "Nouveau Théâtre des Vampires," which is the closest the show ever came to doing a direct Anne Rice parody. I still laugh when I think of the scene where the vampires realize they don't know Guillermo's last name. "It is Guillermo...Buillermo...?" Nadja suggests.
Goodbye Nandor, Nadja, Laszlo, Colin and Guillermo. And I guess the Guide, too. Long may you stream!
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