What We Do In The Shadows Season 1 Review: This Vampire Mockumentary Has A Lot Of Heart (And Hopefully No Stakes)

"What We Do In The Shadows" just finished it's season 1 run on FX. It's based on the 2014 horror comedy by the same title. The movie was written/directed/produced by Taika Waititi (director of "Thor: Ragnarok") and Jemaine Clement (currently Oliver Bird on "Legion") .

Over ten episodes we've gotten to know four vampires who are sharing a house on Staten Island. They include:

Nandor The Relentless (Kayvan Novak). He was previously an Ottoman warrior. He has a LONG SUFFERING familiar named Guillermo (Harvey Guillen). Guillermo is completely loyal to Nandor but its obviously Nandor never plans to make him a vampire. Guillermo doesnt get paid and has to take care of everything for the vamps (procuring virgins, cleaning up blood splatter, etc).
Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Laszlo (Matt Berry) are a couple. She is pining for a solider (Gregor) she knew hundreds of years ago. They meet again, he gets decapitated. Gregor is then reincarnated and the cycle begins again.
There also an addition that wasnt in the original film. Colin (Mark Proksch) is an "energy" vampire who sucks (pun intended) the life out of everyone he encounters. He even spoils potential victims of the vamps by boring them to death. Too funny!

We see the vamps get into some strange (and hilarious) situations as they try to maneuver modern world:

Nandor attends a city council meeting to tell them he's going to take over the borough. They tell him to come back in three months for the general meeting.
Laszlo gets captured while in bat form and taken in by Animal Control.
Colin battles it out with a fellow energy vampire as they try to one up each other with how pathetic they can be. All I can say is, those poor coworkers. PS I love the addition of the energy vampire to this show. He might be scarier than the actual vampires.
The group rumbles with some local werewolves.
The "Ancient" one stops by a visit. Baron says he wants to check on their progress in taking over the country. In fact, he just wants to party. After plotting to kill him, the gang decides against it. But Baron ends up dying anyway. The group gets hauled in for a vampire trial which includes lots of famous vamps including: Tilda Swinton "Only Lovers Left Alive", Paul Ruebens "Buffy", Rachel Evan Wood "True Blood", and Danny Trejo "From Dusk Till Dawn". Wesley Snipes "Blade" joins via Skype. Yes, I know he's technically only half vampire. This may be one of the best episodes of the season IMHO.

The house prepares for a big orgy but it doesnt go well.
Nandor applies for citizenship.
Nadja "turns" a girl named Jenna and tries to show her the ropes of being a vampire. She fails at pretty much everything. Her attempts to turn into a bat are too funny. Jenna's superpower is later revealed. Jenna can make herself invisible. Cool!
The group attends Nandor's great, great, great... granddaughter's funeral (he scared her to death by levitating outside her window). But of course vamps and churches dont mix. Their eyes start bleeding and they catch fire. All in all it was still a valiant effort.
Guillermo submits Nandor's DNA to an Ancestry.com-type-site with some interesting results. He has some 200,000 living descendents. Nandor had like 40 wives/concubines before being turned into a vampire. That's a lot of alimony. Colin rains on Nandor's parade by reminding everyone that Genghis Khan has 16 million living descendents.
In the season cliffhanger, Guillermo learns some interesting news (which I wont reveal here). Let's just say its doubtful that Guillermo will ever become a vamp now.

Grade: 4 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). "What We Do In The Shadows" has a lot of heart (and hopefully no stakes). This quirky little mockumentary is a lot of fun. Do all the jokes hit? No, but I dont really care. I love seeing our band of misfit vampires and their long suffering familiar try to navigation un-dead life on Staten Island. Luckily we'll get to see more of them since FX has renewed the show.