What We Do In The Shadows Season 2 Review: Guillermo Finally Gets His Due

"What We Do In The Shadows" just finished it's season 2 run on FX. The 10 episodes are also available on Hulu or Amazon (for $18). The TV series is based on a HILARIOUS 2014 movie. See my review here

For those not in the know, "WWDITS" is about four vampires who have make their home on Staten Island. There's 757 year old Nandor The Relentless (played by Karyvan Novak). He used to be big on pillaging, but now, not so much. Najda (Natasia Demetriou) and Laszio (Matt Berry) are a married couple. Then there's emotional vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch). Nador's long suffering familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) takes care of the group. He cleans the house, disposes of bodies, helps Nandor dress, etc.

Our favorite vamps get into all sorts of trouble this season. First they hire a familiar named Topher (Haley Joel Osment) and fawn over him (which upsets Guillermo). Luckily Topher gets accidentally turned into a zombie and ends up in a necromancer's sweat shop. The gang goes to a Super Bowl party which for some reason they think is a "Superb Owl" party. Nandor's old familiar shows up and gives Guillermo a glimpse of his future. Nadja's lover Jeff/Gregor returns from the dead as a ghost. Then the ghosts of the rest of the gang show up. At one point they get an email and think they've been cursed. Nadja blames everything on witches. Later they actually show up and kidnap the men in order to extract "man seed".

I'm happy to see Guillermo in an expanded role this time around. He infiltrates a secret vampire hunter group to defend his master. Remember Guillermo found out last season he is a Van Helsing descendant. He secretly fights all sorts of vamps who sneak into the house. Great fun! His takedown of all the vamps on the mosquito control group's first outing is one of the highlights of the season.

My other favorite episode is "Colin's Promotion". Colin has always been an outlier on the show because, unlike the other blood suckers, he's an energy vampire. No one wants to be around him because he'll suck out their life force. Colin gets a promotion at work. This gives him tremendous power. He grows hair, starts to fly, grows a big bulbous head and even multiples himself. He almost kills the other vamps when he gets them to fight amongst themselves. They think he's dead and say some kind words when burying him. All is well in the house again. The original Colin survives but the duplicates are gone. Then Colin moves to another company because he bankrupted his old one.

In the finale we're kinda back to where we started. Remember last season the group went in front of the vampire council for killing Baron Afanas. We know it was really Guillermo who accidentally opened a door and offed him with sunlight The three vamps were sentenced to death. Luckily they escaped thanks to Colin Robinson and Guillermo. Now the vampire council is back again to finish the job. Guillermo saves the vamps by staking half the theater. Nandor, Nadja and Lazlo are always reluctant to say how important Guillermo is but he's saved their butts on numerous occasions.

Grade: 4 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). "What We Do In The Shadows" continues to be stupid silly fun-- and who couldnt use that these days? Since each episode is only 30 minutes long, it's a super fast watch. In season 2 the roles of Guillermo and Colin Robinson have been expanded. Yeah! Like season 1, there are some great guest stars including Mark Hamill "Star Wars", Benedict Wong "Doctor Strange" and Haley Joel Osment "The Sixth Sense". "What We Do" was recently renewed for a season 3 so stay tuned for more hilarious vamp adventures. I just wish we could see the other spinoff of the movie "Wellington Paranormal" in the US. Apparently it only airs in New Zealand.