Return to a nightmare world of blood, darkness, horror, and awkward social interactions as the fifth season of one of New Zealand’s most successful exports kicks off. Grab your crucifix and add an extra bulb or two of garlic to your grocery order, because season five of What We Do in the Shadows hits NEON on July 16.
A spin-off from the wildly successful 2014 film of the same name by Jemaine “still beloved” Clement and Taika “Christ, not that guy again” Waititi, What We Do in the Shadows takes the same premise, ships it off to a new location, and packs it with fresh characters, giving us a share house full of vampires in modern day Staten Island. Grappling with bot modern social mores and the intricate politicking of the undead demimonde.
The comedic talent on hand is hellaciously impressive, with Matt Berry as louche Laszlo, Natasia Demetriou as ancient sexpot Nadja, Kayvan Novak as former warlord Nandor, and MVP Mark Proksch as Colin Robinson the energy vampire. Plus there’s Harvey Guillén as put-upon familiar Guillermo, with regular appearances from Kristen Schaal, Nick Kroll and Doug Jones.
This season sees Guillermo, his wish to become a fully fledged vampire finally granted, negotiating the transition from familiar to fiend, while Colin, whose power to drain emotional energy makes him both less deadly and more annoying than his more sanguinary fellows, is running for local government. How will that turn out? Who can say? This isn’t exactly the most plot-centric of shows, the storylines working as supportive scaffolding for the jokes more than anything else.
Luckily it’s very funny, and all other considerations aside it’ll be fun to see what vampire-adjacent celebs they manage to collar for a cameo this season (Wesley Snipes in season one being the high water mark). If you’ve been waiting for a comedy you can really sink your teeth into, point yourself at NEON.
