Created by Jemaine Clement, who co-wrote the 2014 film version with Taika Waititi, What we do in the shade is an epic horror comedy that most people still seem to sleep on. Despite being critically acclaimed and garnering 17 Emmy nominations, including a Creative Arts Emmy win, the show remains quite underrated. But if Community there’s something to pass by, there’s still time for the audience to come along and gather noisily to appreciate the dark comedy where anything can happen because the core characters are grim, frenzied!
Shot in a mockumentary style, What we do in the shade starring Kayvan Novak (Nandor the Relentless), Matt Berry (Leslie “Laszlo” Cravensworth), Natasia Demetriou (Nadja or Antipaxos), Harvey Guillén (Guillermo de la Cruz), and Mark Proksch (Colin Robinson). While Nandor, Laszlo and Nadja are three ordinary vampires who have very little concern for modern human ways, Colin is an energy vampire who lives to frustrate both humans and supernatural beings.
Guillermo is Nandor’s trusted human who aspires to one day become a vampire himself. They live together as roommates in a haunted Staten Island house, which almost always falls apart without Guillermo’s supervision. But by the end of season four, Guillermo is fed up with Nandor and co. to be taken for granted, and a rare impulsive decision on his part determines the course of the fifth season seamlessly.
Be careful what you wish for
The fourth season of What we do in the shade literally takes the theme of “be careful what you wish for” and let chaos ensue. Nandor encounters a jinn (Anoop Desai) in a lamp and promptly wastes all his wishes on things he only cares about, such as removing all his wrinkles, bringing back all 37 of his partners from when he was alive, and then get rid of them one by one in an effort to find “the one”.
Laszlo’s desire to raise Baby Colin to be an interesting person by his standards is also lost at the end of the season. Colin is back to his energy-guzzling ways with no memory of Laszlo playing a father figure to him during 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 to be an impressive adult worthy of Laszlo’s expectations is shaken as the energy vampire comes full circle.
But now that we know that every Colin who may have ever existed left meticulous notes for the next, shall we learn more about energy vampires? Where do they come from? Who became Colin? Had he even changed, or has he just always existed as long as the universe has existed?
After her disappointing turn at the Supreme Vampiric Council in London Nadja returns. She wants to make something of her own and opens a successful nightclub. But then, due to the greed and lack of foresight that vampires in the Shadow verse ironically always seem to have, she loses everything. Including the money she stole from her own business. Even Guillermo has set aside a stash for himself, but he feels he deserves the money for all the thankless dedication he’s put in for years. But what about his ultimate wish?
Guillermo’s future
For four seasons, we see Guillermo wanting to become a vampire. When he finally reveals this to his family, in the same breath out to them, it is the earlier confession that shocks his family. Guillermo is a descendant of Van Helsing and is genetically set to be a skilled vampire hunter. His family reacted strongly to Nadja when they came to visit him in the seventh episode, ‘Pine Barrens’, which opens the door to the conflict Guillermo could face once he turns into a vampire.
In the season finale, we see Guillermo taking his bag of money and handing it over to his vampire friend Derek from the Mosquito Club (amateur vampire hunters). After being a submissive passenger in his own life, Guillermo has finally decided to take matters into his own hands. He demands that Derek turn him into a vampire.
It will be interesting to see how Guillermo is explored as a vampire in seasons five and six. Will he have to fight his inherent vampire hunting instincts after he turns around? Will he still be so kind and careful without his soul? Will he decide to become roommates with his former master? All we know for sure is that wishes are just hilarious lessons in disguise for the Shadow-verse denizens. Murphy’s law is the only real constant in What we do in the shade.
While talking to Weekly entertainmentsaid show producer Paul Simms about Guillermo’s decision:
“Throughout the season we saw him take a little more care of himself, including embezzling money from the nightclub. It was just the idea of seeing such a cautious character make such a hasty decision. Even without knowing the details, We know that things don’t go perfectly as planned. That was the fun of it.”
He further called it an ill-considered decision, adding: “Obviously that will have huge consequences.”
Conquering the Smurfette Trope
In season four, Kristen Schaal returns as The Guide as a regular cast member. She gets closer to Nadja and helps her turn the Vampiric Council headquarters into a lively 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 girls night out. Mama Mia! while enjoying blood cocktails. This is one of the rare moments when the show manages to break out of Smurfette Syndrome (fiction’s tendency to have exactly one woman in an ensemble of male characters), which is refreshing. But now that Marwa has 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, more interesting female characters are always welcome in pop culture. Nadja and The Guide are great to watch together. But a ghost doll of Nadja herself and Marwa, a woman whose willpower has been taken away by a ghost’s command, are hardly the relief it could have been in this vampire house. All in all, we hope for more crazy fun next season!