What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)
What We Do in the Shadows is an American mockumentary comedy horror television series created by Jemaine Clement that premiered March 27, 2019, on FX. Based on the 2014 film of the same name written by Clement and Taika Waititi, the series follows four vampire roommates in Staten Island, and stars Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén, and Mark Proksch. It is the second television series in the What We Do in the Shadows franchise. The 10-episode second season debuted on April 15, 2020, and in May 2020 the series was renewed for a third season.
Premise
Set in Staten Island, What We Do in the Shadows follows the lives of three traditional vampires; Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja; Colin Robinson, an energy vampire; and Guillermo, Nandor's familiar. The series revolves around the centuries-old vampires interacting with the modern world and other supernatural beings.Cast and characters
Main
- Kayvan Novak as Nandor the Relentless, a 757-year-old vampire who was once an Iranian soldier of the Ottoman Empire. He regards himself as the leader of the group. He is able to transform into a bat as well as a dog. He was also the king of a country called Al Quolanudar which is in Southern Iran where he was born, but the country dissolved in 1401 when Nandor was just 139 years old.
- Matt Berry as Laszlo Cravensworth, an English nobleman vampire who was turned by Nadja and is now married to her. He frequently disagrees with Nandor's leadership and enjoys making music and topiary sculptures, especially of vulvas. He is able to transform himself into a bat, shouting "Bat!" whenever doing so. Laszlo reveals to the other vampires in one episode that he was Jack the Ripper.
- Natasia Demetriou as Nadja, a Romani vampire, married to Laszlo. She is particularly adept at climbing walls and has a unique ability to transform into a swarm of rats. Demetriou also voices Nadja's ghost from when she was human, which inhabits a doll made in her likeness.
- Harvey Guillén as Guillermo De la Cruz, Nandor's Latino familiar. He has served his master for 11 years in the hope of being made a vampire like the fictional vampire Armand in the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire, played by Antonio Banderas, who first inspired him. Guillermo finds he is a descendant of the famous vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, and he proves to be very skilled at killing vampires.
- Mark Proksch as Colin Robinson, an energy vampire who lives with the trio. He drains humans of their energy by boring or frustrating them. He is a "day walker", allowed to roam day or night. Unlike regular vampires he shows no outward sign of vampirism, except that his irises glow when he feeds on energy and his reflection shows a pale version of himself. The others are continually annoyed by him, and often try to avoid associating with him, although they ultimately are unable to refute Robinson's claim that they are, in fact, friends.
Recurring
- Doug Jones as Baron Afanas, an ancient vampire from the Old Country who believes vampires should rule the world. Both Nadja and Laszlo had secret affairs with the Baron, though he lacks genitals. Later is disclosed that he is not actually a Baron, but "Barren", because he was unable to have children.
- Beanie Feldstein as Jenna, a LARPer and virgin who Guillermo lured for the vampires to feast on. She was later transformed by Nadja into a vampire when she witnessed Jenna being treated poorly by her peers. During her vampire training with Nadja, she discovers she has the rare ability to turn invisible, which fits the tendency of people to ignore her.
- Jake McDorman as Jeff Suckler, a reincarnation of Nadja's former human lover, Gregor, a knight who has been killed by decapitation in each of his lives. Nadja eventually restores Jeff's memories of his previous lives so that he can be more like his former self, leading to him falling into insanity and being committed to a mental institution. It is later revealed to Nadja and Gregor that Laszlo had been causing each of his deaths.
- Anthony Atamanuik as Sean, the human next-door neighbor. He sometimes witnesses Laszlo doing something vampiric, but is easily hypnotized into forgetting everything. The vampires spare him because he brings their trash cans in when they forget.
- Veronika Slowikowska as Shanice, Jenna's college roommate who is aware of her being a vampire, and later joins the Mosquito Collectors of the Tri-State Area, a secret team of amateur vampire hunters.
Guests
- Nick Kroll as Simon the Devious, a vampire who rules over the Manhattan vampires and owns the Sassy Cat nightclub. He was a close friend to the Staten Island trio when all the vampires first arrived in America. He is obsessed with Laszlo's hat made out of witch skin.
- Mary Gillis as June, Nadja and Laszlo's familiar. She appears to be an ill old woman that communicates through grunts. She is killed when the Baron sucks all her blood when he arrives on Staten Island.
- Hayden Szeto as Jonathan, a LARPer college student that Guillermo lured for the vampires to feast on. However, Colin beat them to it by draining his energy instead.
- Gloria Laino as The Baron's Familiar. She is keeping a silent, watchful eye on the vampires of Staten Island as her master awakes. Guillermo says that she pops out of nowhere and hears "everything".
- Marceline Hugot as Barbara Lazarro, the madam president of the Staten Island Council. She was going to be the vampires' way of taking over Staten Island until Laszlo left a pile of dead raccoons on her doorstep in an attempt to win her trust, resulting in her believing it was a form of terrorist threat.
- Vanessa Bayer as Evie Russell, Colin's co-worker. She is an advanced form of energy vampire — an emotional vampire — who feeds off of the pity generated from her outlandish stories of suffering rather than simply frustrating people for energy to drain like Colin. She and Colin date for a short time, feeding together on bored and pitying humans, until he begins to feel the relationship is unhealthy. Her first name is a homophone of "E.V."
- Arj Barker as Arjan, the pack leader of the Staten Island Werewolf Support Group. He entered into the truce between his kind and the vampires.
- Jeremy O. Harris as Colby, a human familiar to Dantos the Cruel and Radinka the Brutal, two 400 year old vampires who appear to be children while Colby portrays as their father.
- Kristen Schaal as The Guide, an envoy of the Vampiric Council who likes to float and sometimes speak in a demonic voice.
- Dave Bautista and Alexandra Henrikson as Garrett and Vasillika the Defiler, vampires imprisoned by the Council after Garrett was framed by Laszlo for turning a baby into a vampire, and Vasillika for too much defiling.
- Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh, and Jemaine Clement reprise their roles as Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav from the original film. Three vampires arrived from New Zealand to participate in the Vampiric Council.
- Tilda Swinton as Tilda, the leader of the Vampiric Council.
- Evan Rachel Wood as Evan the Immortal Princess of the Undead, a member of the Council who just goes by her first name.
- Danny Trejo as Danny, a Hispanic tattooed member of the Council. He has an open dislike towards Wesley.
- Paul Reubens as Paul, a member of the Council.
- Wesley Snipes as Wesley the Daywalker, a half-vampire member of the Council who could not participate in person but only video chat through Skype. Danny despises him, claiming he's a vampire hunter, which he denies.
- Craig Robinson as Claude, the leader of the Mosquito Collectors of the Tri-State Area, a secret team of amateur vampire hunters.
- Mark Hamill as Jim the Vampire
- Haley Joel Osment as Topher, Nadja and Lazlo's new familiar
- Benedict Wong as Wallace, a necromancer and tchotchke salesman
- Greta Lee as Celeste, a familiar who pretends to be a vampire
- Lucy Punch as Lilith, a witch and rival of Nadja
- James Frain as the voice of Black Peter, a goat and witch's familiar
Episodes
Season 1 (2019)
Season 2 (2020)
Production
Development
On January 22, 2018, it was announced that FX had given the production a pilot order. The pilot was written by Jemaine Clement and directed by Taika Waititi both of whom are also executive producers alongside Scott Rudin, Paul Simms, Garrett Basch, and Eli Bush. On May 3, 2018, it was announced that FX had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes, which premiered on March 27, 2019.According to Jemaine Clement: "We stay pretty basic '70s/'80s vampire rules, with a little bit of '30s. They can turn into bats. They can't go in the sunlight; they don't sparkle in the sun, they die. They have to be invited in; in a lot of literature vampires have to be invited into private buildings, but this is a documentary so it's the real rules which means they have to be invited into any building." The main influences on the series are Fright Night, Martin, The Lost Boys, Nosferatu, Interview with the Vampire, Vampire's Kiss, and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
The song used in the opening credits is "You're Dead" by Norma Tanega.
The second season premiered on April 15, 2020. On May 22, 2020, FX renewed the series for a third season.
Filming
for the first season took place from October 22 to December 18, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario.Writer/producer Paul Simms said that series does not use CGI effects: "There's no fully digital characters or anything like that. One of the movies we really talked about a lot when we were conceiving the show was Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula where he went back to really doing as many effects as possible in camera and figuring out ways to do that. One of my favorite supernatural moments is completely in camera. It's where Beanie Feldstein's character is walking along in the park and Nadja appears walking next to her. That was all just done completely the old fashioned way where Natasia was hiding behind a tree and the camera was tracking a long and at the right moment, she walked out from behind a tree. I think there's something about that old fashioned way that makes things more interesting than when you can tell it's digital and rubbery and fake looking".
Among the cinematographers D.J. Stipsen and Christian Sprenger's influences for the series was the work of Michael Ballhaus and production designer Thomas E. Sanders on the Coppola-directed Bram Stoker's Dracula: "We referenced that film for the general sumptuousness of the vampires' mansion, which was our main set. Our take, however, was that the Staten Island vampires have let their place go. The former glory is evident but now exists in a worn, faded and distressed state. Production designer Kate Bunch and I had a lot of conversations about striking the right balance between sumptuousness and neglect. There are strong reds, but also yellow that has faded to the point of being a warm brown."
Release
Marketing
On October 31, 2018, a series of teaser trailers for the series were released. On January 10, 2019, another teaser trailer was released. On February 4, 2019, the official trailer for the series was released.Premiere
On October 7, 2018, the series held a panel at the annual New York Comic Con moderated by Rolling Stones Alan Sepinwall and featuring co-creators Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, along with fellow executive producer Paul Simms. Before the panel began, the first episode of the series was screened for the audience. The world premiere for the series was screened during the 2019 South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas as a part of the festival's "Episodic Premieres" series.Reception
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 94%, based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 7.84/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Delightfully absurd and ridiculously fun, What We Do in the Shadows expands on the film's vampiric lore and finds fresh perspective in its charming, off-kilter cast to create a mockumentary series worth sinking your teeth into." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable review".On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season has an approval rating of 100%, based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Bat! What We Do In the Shadows loses no steam in a smashing second season that savvily expands its supernatural horizons while doubling down on the fast flying fun." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".