WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS Season One
Fangs Of New York
UK BBC Two, Sundays US FX, Wednesdays
Showrunners Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Paul Simms Cast Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou
Sometimes it’s the small things that nudge a comedy from “I suppose I could manage a chuckle” to “barking out loud in laughter”. In What We Do In The Shadows – the new show spun off from the 2014 movie – it’s the fact that Laszlo the vampire always shouts “BAT!” before he morphs into one. At first it’s mildly amusing, but as the episodes pass it gets funnier and funnier.
It’s just one of many, many funny moments in this wonderful mockumentary series, which follows the lives of four vamps living in Staten Island. Batty Laszlo is played by Matt Berry, who seems to have waited his entire life to have this much fun in a role; Kayvan Novak is the goofy Nandor the Relentless; Natasia Demetriou is Nadja, Laszlo’s wife and the show’s best character – always rolling her eyes at her fellow vamps, while being just as useless as they are; and Mark Proksch is Colin, an “energy vampire”. He’s funny because we’ve all met one in real life, usually trying to talk to you at work when you’d rather stick pins in your eyes.
The humour’s naughty (Laszlo makes vagina-shaped topiary!), the cast are stunning, and they ad-lib with an impressive joke hit-rate. Best of all, the worry that the film used up all the best ideas is unfounded: there’s a gleeful supernatural inventiveness here that bodes well for years of toothy comedy. Prepare for this to grab you by the jugular. Jayne Nelson
Bodes well for years of toothy comedy
According to writer Paul Simms, these vampires can’t eat any human food – but they can chew on or suck leeches. Yum.