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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
A lesser-known hero in action is always sight to see. What We Do in the Shadows‘s second season finale is titled “Théâtre des Vampires;” it is written by Sam Johnson (Frasier, How I Met Your Mother), executive producers Paul Simms (Flight of the Conchords) and Stefani Robinson (Man Seeking Woman, Atlanta), and series creator Jemaine Clement; and directed by Kyle Newacheck (Workaholics, Community).
Some spoilers ahead for those of you who are not caught up with the episode, the season, or the series. If you haven’t done either, you should get to that now, then return to this article!
Kyle Newacheck ends the season with an excellent story, revealing to the Staten Island vampires a deeper conspiracy, which has been explored since the introduction of the Vampire Council in the first season. The vampires Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry), his wife Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) are left without a human to assist them and are then invited to attend a live performance at a theatre, hosted by Councilmember Vladislav (guest star Jemaine Clement). Nandor’s Latino familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) returns to the mansion to find that matters are not what they seem, and he goes off to save his masters from peril.
With Guillermo having been gone for a week, the vampires have to clean up after themselves. Human bodies are scattered throughout their mansion, and without a familiar, they have no clean clothes to wear. The hilarious writing of this episode calls for them to fetch “the village washerwoman,” if any exists, but they ultimately send Robinson on a journey he claims he may not be able to return from. In a deceptive manner, he tells the camera crew that he is just simply going to the dry cleaner to wash the blood out. Meanwhile, the vampires’ familiar returns to his own home where he says “it’s good to be wanted,” but he makes a visit to the mansion when he remembers he had left something behind.
The vampires enter the theatre as supposed guests but end the episode as the performers. Robinson ruins the play they are watching by talking while the performances are going on, and this irritates Nadja — perhaps another one of his means of draining the life force and energy from others. The Staten Island vampires are clueless at what is happening, with Robinson guessing that Wu-Tang Clan and Hamilton references are being made.
The theatre is set up as a trap for the vampire group, where they are surrounded by members of the Council. A Memoriam for all the vampires who were killed throughout the series — accusingly by the Staten Island protagonists — is played for the audience, provoking some laughs in the actual viewers of the episode.
The plot here reminds me of Newacheck’s directed episode of Community Season 3 (“Contemporary Impressionists”) in which a group of adults attend an event where performance means everything, but everything goes awry and the group is saved by an unusual occurrence.
This season finale of the series develops both the Staten Island vampires and their familiar, bringing out a terrific performance from Guillén. The writing on Johnson’s, Simms’s, Robinson’s, and Clement’s behalf (as a collective) is just splendid, especially in the scenes about the vampires wanting to get blood stains off their clothes, or when they know nothing about Guillermo aside from his first name, or when they have no idea whatsoever of the purpose of their attendance at the theatre. These vampires, most notably Nandor, admit their need for the familiar when they start to miss his presence. Additionally, Guillermo makes an allusion to a possible ancestor named Abraham Van Helsing, which could be a loose reference to the novel (and its film adaptation) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
What We Do in the Shadows ends its second season with some of the best writing, performances, and character developments to date. The finale seems to conclude the storyline surrounding the vampires who come after our main characters, and makes promise that Guillermo’s background will be explored in further seasons, developing him as both a vampire familiar and a vampire hunter.
10/10
What do you think? Have you seen this series? If not, do you plan to binge it sometime in the near future? Let us know! For more What We Do in the Shadows, FX, horror, and comedy-related news and reviews, follow The Cinema Spot on Twitter (@TheCinemaSpot) and Instagram (@thecinemaspot_).
Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
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