Recently, the sixth and final season of What We Do In The Shadows concluded with a bittersweet, extremely meta finale. The beloved vampire mockumentary managed to maintain its consistently hilarious tone for its last outing, even if the season as a whole felt more directionless than one might expect for a last hurrah.
★★★½
Beware, spoilers ahead for season six of What We Do In The Shadows.
A spin-off of Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s beloved 2014 movie of the same name, the TV show followed the antics of four Staten Island vampires: married couple Laszlo (Matt Berry) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), group leader and ‘fearsome’ warrior Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), and resident energy vampire, Colin Robinson (Mark Prosch). The vampires are also joined by their former familiar, Guillermo, (Harvey Guillén), a descendant of infamous vampire-slayer, Van Helsing.
Season six follows on from Guillermo’s decision to turn back to a human, after becoming a vampire at the beginning of the previous season. Spending most of his vampire life hiding his new existence from Nandor, the real emotional climax of the season came when Nandor discovered his secret. Ultimately, Guillermo couldn’t cope with killing innocent people (ironic considering his multiple dismemberings throughout the series), and turned human again, ending a series-long arc for his character.
Guillermo’s struggle to redefine his purpose drives him to return to the human world, leading to his new job at Cannon Capital, one of the season’s three main plotlines. Alongside Guillermo’s corporate ventures, the show also explores Laszlo and Colin’s efforts to create Cravensworth’s monster, and Nandor and Nadja’s attempts to blend into the human world. All of these subplots make for entertaining viewing, placing the vampires in wacky and absurd situations that highlight their awkward attempts to blend into the human world.
In general, the comedy this season was particularly stellar, with each cast member delivering a memorable performance. Kayvan Novak’s physical comedy as janitor Nandor was ridiculously funny (carefully emptying the desk bins and then chucking them in the main bin straight after), and Matt Berry’s line delivery is always a treat to listen to (best of the series: offering Jack Mancuso “A succulent Chinese meal” in P.I. Undercover: New York). Colin’s standout episode ‘March Madness’ features him unable to stop beating up Guillermo at Cannon Capital after offering to help him find his ‘office identity’. Nadja is also always entertaining to watch when she interacts with humans, and this season leaned into her desire to act more human whilst also completely misjudging how to behave, allowing Natasia Demetriou to show off her stellar comedic timing.
The best episodes this season balanced the humour with the emotional weight of the character’s relationships, even if WWDITS often shied away from more serious storylines. Both ‘Sleep Hypnosis’ and ‘Nandor’s Army’ dealt with the brewing tension between Nandor and Guillermo now that Guillermo was trying to distance himself from the vampires, with ‘Sleep Hypnosis’ using an excellent premise (the Baron accidentally hypnotises the vampires into forgetting each other) to recreate Nandor and Guillermo’s first encounter, as a hypnotised Guillermo interviews for Nandor’s familiar in a very sweet and nostalgic final scene.
‘Come Out and Play’ is another standout, explicitly parodying the 70s action movie The Warriors as the vampires run from every other vamp gang after the Monster misguidedly kills ex-roommate Jerry. One of the few tension-filled episodes, we see Nadja and Laszlo actually talk through their relationship and resolve their ongoing argument over Laszlo’s protectiveness. Guillermo is allowed to return to his Van Helsing badass days, and the vampires acknowledge he is part of their little family, albeit in their typically offhand manner. The episode perfectly balances comedy with character growth and a thoughtful exploration of Guillermo’s relationship with the vampires, illustrating that the show can be both serious and entertaining.
This season shines when episodes include these small moments of genuine connection and affection between the characters, showcasing the vamps’ ability to evolve and grow even as they remain physically unchanged. This is why the finale didn’t quite work, as the writing seemed at odds with the clear character development viewers watched Nandor, Laszlo and Nadja go through. A common complaint among fans has been WWDITS’s tendency to drop storylines, such as the father-son relationship between Laszlo and Colin, Guillermo’s Van Helsing ancestry, and an overarching story for Nadja. The final episode decided to (mostly) ignore this growth in favour of (admittedly very funny) gags and experimental mockumentary tropes.
Halfway through the episode, Nadja tells Guillermo, who is upset the documentary crew is leaving after six years of filming (an unsubtle nod to fans devastated over the show ending), that she can hypnotise the audience to watch the ending they would deem most satisfying. This was a surprising twist, and a largely successful one, with The Usual Suspects parody in particular standing out for its impressively accurate recreation. The show clearly tells its audience not to expect some dramatic, tear-jerking finale, with Guillermo’s attempts at a heartwarming goodbye speech undercut by the Monster having sex with a stuffed bear. It was a very funny episode overall, but the writing did feel as if it deliberately ignores the development of its characters in favour of one last joke. An underwhelming finale, but not out of character for the show itself.
Overall, the final season was a mixed bag, not quite balancing the comedy with the more emotional moments that previous season finales have excelled at. Although writers of the show have pointed to WWDITS’s status as a comedy to justify the lack of emotional pay-off, this doesn’t ring quite true for the finale. Many zany comedies have kept their characters in developmental stasis and still managed to wrap up their shows in a satisfying manner. WWDITS unfortunately misses the mark in this respect, dropping plot points haphazardly (where did the Monster’s Bride go?) and refusing to acknowledge the finality of this season.
The show works so well because of its characters and the actors playing them, and viewers keep watching because of the palpable chemistry between the cast. Despite its flaws, WWDITS will undoubtedly be missed, as one of the funniest shows on TV in recent years. It leaves behind a legacy as one of the most successful spin-off shows of its time, with unforgettable characters and unmatched comedic timing.
Words by Emily Nutbean
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