Created by Jemaine Clement, who co-wrote the 2014 film version with Taika Waititi,What We Do in the Shadowsis an epic horror-comedy most people still seem to be sleeping on. Despite being critically acclaimed and garnering 17 Emmy nominations, including a Creative Arts Emmy win, the show remains quite underappreciated. But ifCommunityis anything to go by, there is still time for the audience to come along and gather more boisterously to appreciate the dark comedy, where anything can happen because the core characters are stark raving bonkers!
Shot in a mockumentary style,What We Do in the Shadowsstars Kayvan Novak (Nandor the Relentless), Matt Berry (Leslie “Laszlo” Cravensworth), Natasia Demetriou (Nadja of Antipaxos), Harvey Guillén (Guillermo de la Cruz), and Mark Proksch (Colin Robinson). While Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja are three regular vampires who have very little care for modern human ways, Colin is an energy vampire who lives to frustrate humans and supernatural creatures alike.
Guillermo is Nandor’s human familiar who aspires to become a vampire himself one day. They live together as housemates in a haunted-looking house in Staten Island, which is almost always falling apart without Guillermo’s supervision. But by the end of season four,Guillermo has had enoughof being taken for granted by Nandor and co., and a rare impulsive decision on his part sets up the course of the fifth season seamlessly.
Be Careful What You Wish For
The fourth season ofWhat We Do in the Shadowsliterally takes on the theme of “be careful what you wish for” and lets chaos ensue. Nandor comes across a djinn (Anoop Desai) in a lamp and promptly proceeds to waste all his wishes on things only he deems important, like removing all his wrinkles, bringing back all 37 of his partners from when he was alive, and then getting rid of them one by one in a bid to find “the one.”
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Laszlo’s wish to nurture Baby Colin into an interesting individual as per his standards goes to waste as well by the end of the season. Colin is back to his energy-sucking ways with no memory of Laszlo playing father figure to him throughout his young and adolescent years – so typical of teenagers to forget all about the sacrifices their parents made to raise them! Even Baby Colin’s desire to grow up into an impressive adult, worthy of Laszlo’s expectations, goes for a toss when things come full circle for the energy vampire once more.
However, now that we know that every Colin who has perhaps ever existed has left meticulous notes for the next one to come, will we get to learn more about energy vampires? Where do they come from? Who turned Colin? Was he even turned, or has he just always existed as long as the universe has?
After her disappointing turn atthe Supreme Vampiric Councilin London, Nadja returns. She wishes to make something of her own and opens a successful nightclub. But then, due to greed and lack of foresight that vampires in the Shadow-verse ironically always seem to have, she loses it all. Including the money she was stealing from her own business. Even Guillermo put aside a stash for himself, but he argues he deserves the money for all the thankless devotion he put in for years. But what about his ultimate wish?
Guillermo’s Future
For four seasons, we have seen Guillermo wish to become a vampire. When he finally reveals this to his family, in the same breath he comes out to them, it is the former confession that shocks his family. Guillermo is a descendant of Van Helsing and is genetically wired to be an expert vampire hunter. His family had a visceral reaction to Nadja when they came to visit him in the seventh episode, “Pine Barrens,” which opens the doorway to the conflict Guillermo might face once he does turn into a vampire.
In the season finale, we see Guillermo take his bag of money and hand it over to his vampire friend Derek from the Mosquito Club (amateur vampire hunters). After being a subservient passenger in his own life, Guillermo has finally decided to take things into his own hands. He demands Derek turn him into a vampire.
It will be interesting to see how season five and six explores Guillermo as a vampire. Will he have to fight his inherent vampire-hunting instincts after he turns? Will he still remain as nice and cautious without his soul? Will he decide to be roommates with his former master? All we know for sure is that wishes are merely hilarious lessons in disguise for the Shadow-verse inhabitants. Murphy’s law is the one true constant inWhat We Do in the Shadows.
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While talking withEntertainment Weekly, show producer Paul Simms said about Guillermo’s decision:
“All through this season, we saw him trying to look out for himself a little more, including embezzling money from the nightclub. It was just the idea of seeing such a cautious character make such a rash decision. Even without knowing the details, we know it’s not going to go perfectly as planned. That was the fun of it.”
He further called it an ill-considered decision and added, “That’s obviously gonna have massive repercussions.”
Overcoming The Smurfette Trope
In season four, Kristen Schaal returns as The Guide as a regular cast member. She becomes closer to Nadja while helping her turn the Vampiric Council’s headquarters into the happening nightclub for vampires and unsuspecting indie celebs like Jim Jarmusch and Sofia Coppola, and Thomas Mars.
The Guide, Nadja, Nadja’s ghost doll, and Nandor’s resurrected wife Marwa (Parisa Fakhri) get together to have a fun girl’s night,watchingMamma Mia!while sipping on blood cocktails. This is one of the rare moments when the show manages to break away from the Smurfette syndrome (the tendency for works of fiction to have exactly one female amongst an ensemble of male characters), which is refreshing. But with Marwa turned into an exact copy of Guillermo’s ex-Freddie, and leaving the vampires behind, we can only hope for another regular female cast member on the show next season.
As fun as the show is on its own, more interesting female characters are always welcome in pop culture. Nadja and The Guide are stellar to watch together. But a ghost doll of Nadja herself and Marwa, a woman whose willpower has been taken away by a genie’s command, are barely the breath of fresh air that it could have been in this vampire mansion. All in all, here’s hoping for more mad fun next season!
