Certain movies translate to the screen really well. Sure, there are a lot of flubs out there with movies to television adaptations but there have certainly been some great shows that have come from film. From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, Fargo, and Watchmen all stand out as great shows adapted from movies. It’s not often that a comedy translates well from movie to TV. Clerks, Bill & Ted, Back To The Future, and Ferris Bueller all tried TV shows, live-action or animated, but it didn’t really work. Recently, perhaps the best example of a movie turning into a television show that worked is What We Do In The Shadows.
What We Do In The Shadows, created by Jermaine Clement and based on the 2014 movie, follows vampires Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), and Colin (Mark Proksch) as they navigate life in modern-day Staten Island. Along with their familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), the four of them get into hijinx and adventures as they enjoy their immortal lives. What We Do In The Shadows season four is ten episodes, originally airs on FX, and streams on Hulu. FX has already renewed the show for seasons five and six before the new season aired.
Before we get into what actually happens in season four, let’s try to catch up on what happened in the previous season.
Previously on What We Do In The Shadows season three (spoilers ahead for season three):
Guillermo is in a jam as he has been taken prisoner by the vampire council for being a vampire hunter. Nandor and Nadja get elevated to be in charge of the vampire council and Guillermo is released. Nandor attempts to find love but it doesn’t work out. Colin is left in a perilous position as it is written, he doesn’t have a lot of time left in the world. Laszlo does what he can to help figure out how he can help Colin. On his 100th birthday, Colin dies but is resurrected as a baby. Nadja gets the bright idea to start a vampire nightclub.
One of the nice things about What We Do In The Shadows is that the episodes are largely episodic.
There’s not a lot of overlap among the episodes so you can drop in and you won’t be missing a large, overarching plot point.
There are some things that have a season-long arc, mainly Colin as a baby and Nadja’s club, but everything else is just wacky adventures. It’s something I appreciate about the show because I can go at my own pace without having to struggle to figure out things that are going on.
As always, these vampires work so incredibly well together and they are absolutely hilarious together. Nandor and Nadja get a lot more to do since they are not only in charge of the vampire council but they also have their own adventures this season to contend with. Laszlo is largely sidelined this season, which confuses me a little because he’s one of my favorites. The main thing he has to do is watch baby Colin. I really liked this storyline though because watching Laszlo as a father figure was a really great sight to see. He’s a natural and I do hope this inspires him to eventually feel like he can be a dad.
Along with the core cast, this season has some wonderful guests or recurring stars. The Guide (Kristen Schaal) gets an expanded role this season and is in more storylines than usual. There are also some fun pop culture vampires that make an appearance. It was a great way to show how smart they are in recruiting a guest star. An actor also has a cameo on a zoom call that had me rolling on the floor laughing.
Something this season does really well is they manage to introduce more types of creatures than in previous seasons. There are witches, and djinns, among others. It’s a great way to expand the creature universe within this world. There have been others in previous seasons like werewolves, sirens, or possessed objects. The djinn storyline was really cool and the way Nandor uses him was really great too.
There were two main highlights for me this season. The first is the eighth episode of the season involving an HGTV-style house flipping show coming to the vampires’ home. This episode was hilarious because it felt like a flip or flop style show with brother hosts and mock-ups of what the house would look like after all was said and done. As a fan of these types of shows, I love how this was incorporated into the season. It was a strong episode and one of my favorite of the entire series.
The other was everything involving Guillermo. He’s my MVP for this season. Guillermo was always the unsung hero of this household, always putting up with everyone and also struggling with the prospect of becoming a vampire but never having that promise fulfilled. Guillermo really comes into his own this season and reveals something about himself. I really liked that storyline and how it plays out. Kudos to Guillén for his performance and his honesty this season. It was so great to see.
What We Do In The Shadows season four has some wonderful moments of heart and is as funny as ever.
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The performances were outstanding and the storylines were really great. I’m glad we will have these vampires for the foreseeable future. I love this universe and these wonderfully weird vampires. This show keeps getting progressively better each season and this is my favorite season so far. This is a recommendation for sure, and one of the highlights of the summer.
Score: 8/10
