For six seasons, What We Do in the Shadows has brought fans to tears with its hilariously unhinged shenanigans and shockingly crass and dry humor. Season after season, as the documentary crew has filmed and observed, it’s clear that the Staten Island vampires, Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), are content with their way of life, which viewers and especially Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), their familiar, know is riddled with absurdity, foolishness and ignorance.
From the moment Nandor presented his housemates with Baron Afanas’ letter in the pilot, fans have been hooked on every word and have eagerly watched every ridiculous moment as these vampires make fools of themselves. The vampires and Guillermo have battled everything under the sun, from mailer daemons to the Jersey Devil, and dealt with semen-stealing witches, ghosts, werewolves, necromancers, zombies, sirens, wraiths, and hybrid creatures. They’ve tried understanding the human world by going to “Superb Owl” parties, casinos, the city council, the mall, and even Wall Street. Through it all, the vampires and Guillermo remain unphased and unchanged. Either way, this beloved dark comedy and its characters slay fans at every turn, with some of the best What We Do in the Shadows seasons becoming classics. Even when it didn’t quite hit the mark regarding story or humor, viewers were still happy to return to Staten Island.
- Release Date
- March 27, 2019
- Showrunner
- Paul Simms
- Seasons
- 6
6 Season 6 (2024)
No. of Episodes: 11
After his turning and unturning in Season 5, Guillermo tries to reconnect with humans in Season 6. Trying to move on (sort of), he’s right back where he began, working at Panera Bread, but he quickly gains a job in the mail room of Cannon Capital Strategies. Nadja thinks he’ll kill them if he can’t reassimilate, so she goes overboard, helping him work his way up in the company until he becomes the boss’s assistant. Meanwhile, Laszlo finishes his monster, a life-long dream, shuns his father’s ghost from returning, and helps his friend Sean multiple times despite failing. Nandor, who’s fallen in love with The Guide (Kristen Schall), also watches over Guillermo at Cannon Capital as a janitor. After Guillermo fires him, he goes on his wildest fling ever. Jerry, their re-awakened housemate, is unsatisfied with the state of the vampires and embarrasses Baron Afanas (Doug Jones), but Cravensworth’s monster sweeps in and kills him.
Despite being the final season of What We Do in the Shadows, Season 6 is the worst of all. Besides the Cannon Capital storyline, most of the season’s episodes are not connected and random. The show seems to want to tie up loose ends and bring everything to a tidy close while adding in new things and faces into the mix. They give Laszlo his monster, Guillermo, his fancy job, and bring the Baron take-over of the New World plot, which hasn’t been discussed since Season 1. However, most of this, and most of the season, fails because of their lack of story and funny moments. “The Return of Jerry” seemed promising but fell limp, as does “Headhunting.” Most of Nandor’s moments seem pointless, too, and his newly found feelings for The Guide are unsatisfying. Nadja doesn’t even get much of a storyline either, only finding herself at Cannon Capital. Sadly, the ending of this incredibly hilarious show ends with fewer funny moments than any other season. Nothing is ridiculous or makes viewers cry with laughter. It confuses more than anything else.
5 Season 1 (2019)
No. of Episodes: 10
At the beginning of What We Do in the Shadows, Laszlo, Nadja, Nandor, Colin, and even Guillermo’s lives seem to drag on without much excitement. However, things get chaotic once Baron Afanas visits them on Staten Island. Before they left the Old World, the Baron tasked them with conquering the New World. They panic as they haven’t exactly achieved that yet. In their desperation to conquer even a bit of Staten Island, the trio asks fellow vampire and successful club owner Simon the Devious for help and even tries gaining power through the city council. Their issue is eliminated once Guillermo accidentally kills the Baron, but the trio is charged with his death. Guillermo, who’s dealing with new-found vampire-killing skills, and Colin save the day, and the vampires resume their shenanigans. Laszlo sabotages their orgy, Nadja turns a college student, and Nandor takes a citizenship test.
The vampires and Colin are hopelessly ignorant, stuck in the past, and plain ridiculous, while Guillermo constantly cleans up their mess and saves them from themselves. The first season beautifully creates this curious dynamic and immediately drops viewers into a wildly hilarious vampire nest. Outside worldbuilding, there are countless priceless moments and standout outliners. Everything mentioned in the first season has a hysterical backstory accompanied by wacky visuals. However, Season 1 is only the beginning. It’s the jumping-off point for storylines, jokes, and unexplainable shenanigans. While its moments are classic, they don’t compare to later seasons.
4 Season 3 (2021)
No. of Episodes: 10
After Guillermo saves the vampires at the Nouveau Théâtre des Vampires at the end of Season 2, they’re scared of what he’s capable of and lock him up. However, if Guillermo hadn’t whipped out 70 percent of the most powerful vampires in the Tri-State area, the Supreme Worldwide Vampiric Council wouldn’t have asked the vampires to lead the local Vampiric Council. Nadja and Nandor share the duties begrudgingly. Unsurprisingly, they don’t exactly familiarize themselves with their new responsibilities and lose the Sire. Meanwhile, Nandor’s been feeling lonely. He fails courting a gym club receptionist and an old flame, Gail. He’s even suckered into a vampire cult and resolves to go into a super slumber while Colin’s life gets shockingly complicated. When each housemate travels abroad, Laszlo is left with his own surprising new responsibility.
What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 has good overarching storylines, but other seasons have multiple that intertwine and wrap up better in general. For instance, in Season 1, there are many hilarious moments that have become classic, but there are also many episodes that fall short and are forgotten about, including “The Chamber of Judgement” and “The Siren,” and even the premiere episode, “The Prisoner.” This season fails to make us laugh like the first two seasons.
3 Season 2 (2020)
No. of Episodes: 10
Guillermo continues to hone his vampire-fighting skills after learning he’s a descendant of Van Helsing at the end of Season 1. He accidentally encounters a group of amateur vampire hunters and realizes they’re just as ignorant and foolish as the vampires he’s trying to protect. Guillermo has to save the day when the hunters enter a huge vampire lair, and it only later contributes to the charges against Nadja, Nandor, Laszlo, and Colin. When the Vampire Council abducts them at the Nouveau Théâtre des Vampires, Guillermo kills 70 percent of the most powerful vampires in the Tri-State area. When Guillermo’s crimes aren’t amounting, the housemates encounter ghosts, the “Superb Owl,” semen-stealing witches, and some old nemeses.
Season 2 is full of wacky and weird moments, but its episodes are less connected than those of other seasons. There are not exactly any major storylines, which is surprising as Season 1 at least had the Baron’s storyline running throughout most of it. There’s Guillermo’s vampire fighting, but it’s not exactly prominent enough to be considered a storyline. Most of the season feels like a bunch of random, unrelated episodes, but that doesn’t diminish the season’s hilarity. Where Season 1 was the starting point, Season 2 finally finds its spark. Most of the episodes revolve around something simple, but the concept and the writing are spot-on and ingenious in every way. Most of Season 2 has viewers crying with laughter.
2 Season 4 (2022)
No. of Episodes: 10
Two major storylines coincide in Season 4 of What We Do in the Shadows. When Nandor and Nadja return from their travels, unsurprisingly at the same time, they discover that Laszlo has been raising baby Colin, who sprung out of older Colin’s chest after he died at the end of Season 3. Throughout the season, Laszlo takes his responsibility of raising the boy very seriously, although his parenting methods are, of course, questionable. Meanwhile, Nadja turns the Vampire Council into a club, but things don’t always go her way, and Nandor continues his search for love, marrying and ultimately discarding Marwa. By the end of the season, Colin is back to his normal self, having forgotten Laszlo raised him, Nadja’s club has literally gone up in flames, and Nandor is once again loveless. Guillermo, on the other hand, has gotten everything he ever wanted… sort of.
By Season 4, the writers of What We Do in the Shadows had perfected the art of intermingling storylines that come to one big unhinged climax. Baby Colin performs at Nadja’s club while Nandor and Guillermo become increasingly closer despite getting involved in each other’s love lives. While getting better at telling an overarching story, the show doesn’t forsake its bread and butter, which is to have ridiculous moments sprout from simple things. For example, the housemates’ meeting with a principal or The Guide’s hindering the club’s construction. Many episodes are told perfectly and give fans some of the wildest moments of the show, including “Private School,” “The Wedding,” “Go Flip Yourself,” and one of the most epic finales ever, “Sunrise, Sunset.”
1 Season 5 (2023)
No. of Episodes: 10
At the end of Season 4 of What We Do in the Shadows, Guillermo is turned into a vampire by his friend Derek. In Season 5, this is an issue for him as Nandor, his master, was supposed to do the honors. Once Laszlo discovers Guillermo’s secret, he begins experimenting on him, trying to figure out why the former familiar isn’t a full vampire yet. That isn’t the only mystery or calamity of the season. Meanwhile, the housemates participate in a pride parade, a roast, and a weekend getaway. Their secret is nearly revealed, too. Then, finally, Nandor learns of Guillermo’s secret and threatens to kill him. Guillermo goes into hiding until Patton Oswalt, of all people, convinces Nandor to repair their friendship. He gives Guillermo blood to full turn, but when the housemates go to feed, the former familiar realizes he’s not cut out to be a vampire due to empathy. Guillermo returns to where he starts, a human, after a ceremony that sees Nandor drive a stake through Derek (although he doesn’t exactly die). Everything is normal for the housemates again.
What We Do in the Shadows Season 5 is nigh on perfect. Throughout the show, Guillermo yearns to be a vampire, and after a long yet ingenious buildup, it finally happens. However, in typical Shadows fashion, it doesn’t exactly pan out like he thought it would. To lead the season with this storyline is excellent, as viewers have waited for this just as long as Guillermo. Outside the storyline, tons of priceless episodes make viewers cry with laughter unlike ever before. Nandor’s trip to space and subsequent fall to Earth in “Pride Parade,” the chaos that ensues once Nandor believes he revealed their secret in “Local News,” and the results of most of Laszlo’s experiments on Guillermo, perfectly exhibited in “Hybrid Creatures,” are some of the most unhinged moments of the entire series. Season 5 showed viewers how wild things can get for the Staten Island vampires and their familiar.
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