What We Do in the Shadows : Season 3
Might contain spoilers.
Another delightful season that loses none of its humour or quality. Guillermo is so confident now, and it’s fun to see him scheme successfully as well as unsuccessfully, being both as smart as he thinks and not quite that smart. The central trio becoming the Vampiric Council and having a whole lot of underlings might have interfered with the story in lesser hands, but here, it just adds to the madness. (With a free dose of Taika Waititi!)
I really enjoyed the balance between episodic hijinks and the overall story. Nandor’s ennui and desperation for a partner complement Colin’s search for meaning while Nadja and Laszlo completely avoid the existential crises, instead continuing to casually kill people and have a rollicking good time. Nandor’s depression develops in a believable way: you have to feel sorry for him when Guillermo kidnaps him to save him from the ‘human again’ cult and Nandor tells him he was happy for the first time in decades. (Speaking of the cult, Jan and the water had me laughing away.)
Colin Robinson and Laszlo make an unexpectedly good pair, too. I couldn’t stop laughing at Laszlo running Colin over twice, leaving him the most flustered he’s ever been (even if it does become more somber in retrospect).
In fact, Colin gets some of the best moments of the season, like his fascination with the TV
show and how he sucks the people at the blackjack table dry before leaving with an embarrassed,
I don’t know how to play this game
, not to mention him contributing to Nandor’s post-life
crisis by explaining the universe. There’s also the whole mesmerizing sequence of him being
unintentionally boring when all he wants is to play a game, with delicious moments of his
confusion. One can only feel pity for him when Laszlo rescues him from the siren.
There are flashes of shocking violence, like the boxer who punches his opponent’s head off and Laszlo blitzing through the people on a boat he wants. And, of course, Nandor accidentally putting his hand through the dead Colin Robinson’s face. The last two episodes are filled with moments to make you gasp: emotional, humorous, repulsive, and more. The finale left me reeling.
The characters are endlessly compelling. Gail (whom everyone is convinced Nadja is jealous of), Sean (who sweetly and unhesitatingly hands over his credit card to his buddy Laszlo without a second thought, even if it was a comic moment), the cheerful return of the Baron, the monstrous yet oddly cute Squire, the stop-motion gargoyles who sound like truck horns, all the guest stars in the penultimate episode, the hellhound who really is a hellhound, the Guide with absolutely no faith in them, Derek… everyone is funny, everyone is worth watching more of.