Feature Story this week
Bump in the night
New season of ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ lands on FX By Rachel Jones TV Media
parently, FX has a fun and specific method for choosing the show’s guests. It’s clear that series creators, writut down your wooden stakes and get ready to die laughing: ers and directors Jemaine Clement Season 2 of FX’s horror-comedy se- (who you might know from “Leries “What We Do in the Shadows” gion” and “Flight of the Conpremieres Wednesday, April 15. chords”) and Taika Waititi (who is The show follows a set of four the Oscar-winning director of last vampire roommates living their year’s “Jojo Rabbit,” as well as the best life-after-death in New York latest “Thor” movies) have done City. Hundreds of years old, these their homework on vampiric history. quirky characters are constantly But that’s no surprise, given that the trying to figure out how to survive two of them also wrote, directed and in a modern world, and they give a starred in the 2014 film of the same brand-new meaning to nightlife in name that spawned this series. The the Big Apple. movie won several nominations and This mockumentary-style series awards, including Best Screenplay at follows Nandor the Relentless (Kay- the 2016 Fangoria Chainsaw van Novak, “Four Lions,” 2010) as Awards and Best Comedy Film at the the fearless leader of the four room- Denver Film Critics Society,. mates. Once a soldier in the OttoThis amusing follow-up series man Empire, he’s now an avid baspremiered for the first time at New ketball fan. He’s assisted by his faYork Comic Con in October 2018 miliar (or supernatural subordinate), and was very well received right off Guillermo (Harvey Guillen, “The Inthe bat. The show follows the docuternship,” 2013), whom he mostly mentary style that was made famous torments. by shows such as “The Office” and Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry, “Parks and Recreation,” but with a “Toast of London”) is another head- much darker twist. The jokes are liner. He claims to have been Jack fast-paced and biting, and the show the Ripper and enjoys creating sexu- has received consistently high marks ally themed topiaries. His wife, Nad- from critics and viewers alike. ja (Natasia Demetriou, “The FestiAs far as the vampires themselves val,” 2018), believes she has found go, the series strikes a similar chord her reincarnated lover, who has a lit- to “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992) tle trouble keeping his head on — if that classic was hysterically straight. funny. Despite being a show full of Season 1 featured several guest supernatural, mythical creatures, FX stars, including Tilda Swinton, Evan uses no CGI for this one. When there Rachel Wood and Danny Trejo. It is tension or suspense, you’ll see no seems they’ve chosen well, as each goofy digital renderings to break of these stars has appeared as vam- that classical feeling. They took a pires in other films and television se- cue from Francis Ford Coppola, who ries. Swinton headlined as a roman- directed “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” tically driven vampire in the 2013 and focused on using camera angles film “Only Lovers Left Alive.” Wood and timing to create more realistic had a substantial arc as a vampire scares. queen in the extremely popular TV Along those same lines, the vamshow “True Blood.” And Trejo appires in this show must be invited peared in the cult-classic 1996 flick into any building, and they will die if “From Dusk till Dawn” as a vampiric they’re exposed to sunlight. Sorry, bartender. Team Edward, no glittery skin here! Hopefully, Season 2 will live up to Also borrowed from Coppola’s the legacy of the show’s freshman film is the idea of these inner-city run. It’s expected to include some vampires being able to transform well-known stars, too, including into animals. Lazlo transforms into a Mark Hamill. In case you’re wonder- bat (although he has to yell out ing: No, Luke Skywalker was not a “Bat!” every time), and Nandor can vampire. But Hamill did voice a char- transform into a dog. “What We Do acter in the 1998 Cartoon Network in the Shadows” also features some special “Mina and the Count: The unique, fresh takes on vampiric lore, Vampire Who Came to Dinner.” Ap- and those takes get a lot of laughs.
P
14 • April 12 - 18, 2020 • Brainerd Dispatch
Kayvan Novak stars in “What We Do in the Shadows” For example, Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch, “The Office”) is what’s known as an energy vampire. He’s so boring and frustrating that he sucks the life out of humans and vampires alike. All through the end of last season, we followed this team of su-
pernatural misfits as they set out to take over Staten Island. Yeah, it didn’t pan out. They remained under the tyrannical thumb of the Baron (Doug Jones, “Pan’s Labyrinth,” 2006) until he was accidentally killed by sunlight when Guillermo left the front door
open. It seems Guillermo is often saving the lives of his vampire overlords, which is interesting since the final episode of Season 1 revealed that he is a descendant of the great vampire hunter Van Helsing. We’re left wondering if Season 2 will find him accepting his fate and hunting
down the creatures he so dutifully serves. If you’re in the mood for a little light-hearted horror, be sure to check out the next episode of this hilarious spinoff. Season 2 of “What We Do in the Shadows” premieres Wednesday, April 15, on FX.