#matt berry and kayvan novak so far

[starrrberry]

OMG THAST KAYVAN NOVAK !! WAJ I MISSED U SO MUCH <3

[marvelousmatt]

Guillermo Shouldn't Become a Vampire in 'What We Do in the Shadows' Season 5 Be careful what you wish for!

SHAWN VAN HORN PUBLISHED 19 HOURS AGO

What We Do in the Shadows is a mockumentary following the lives of four very odd vampires in Staten Island. There's Nandor, who sees himself as the leader, though he's anything but. There's also horny husband and wife Laszlo and Nadja, and the hilariously dull energy vampire, Colin Robinson, who had quite the Season 4. The real leader, maybe the real star of the whole show, is Guillermo. He does everything for his undead companions from finding them human food to keeping their home maintained, but they barely notice him and usually don't care to. Sometimes he's even called "Gizmo," because remembering his real name is too much of a bother. BY

From the very beginning of What We Do in the Shadows, one of the best characters has been Guillermo (Harvey Guillén). At first, he seemed like a trope, a weak and timid human living as a familiar for vampire Nandor (Kayvan Novak). Quickly, however, we learned that there was more going on with Guillermo than any sidekick could contain. Over four seasons, Guillermo has grown more than any other character in the series, with him now a master vampire hunter due to his lineage to Van Helsing. One thing hasn't changed in four seasons, though. Guillermo has desperately wanted to be a vampire and join in the blood-sucking fun with Nandor, Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch). Nandor, however, constantly rejects him or makes promises that he'll turn him "some other time." At the end of Season 4, it appeared that Guillermo's dream to be a member of the undead was about to happen. While it would make for an interesting storyline, it isn't the right direction for this character.

Guillermo Has Wanted To Be a Vampire Since Day One

What We Do in the Shadows is a mockumentary following the lives of four very odd vampires in Staten Island. There's Nandor, who sees himself as the leader, though he's anything but. There's also horny husband and wife Laszlo and Nadja, and the hilariously dull energy vampire, Colin Robinson, who had quite the Season 4. The real leader, maybe the real star of the whole show, is Guillermo. He does everything for his undead companions from finding them human food to keeping their home maintained, but they barely notice him and usually don't care to. Sometimes he's even called "Gizmo," because remembering his real name is too much of a bother.

All Guillermo asks in return is for Nandor, the vampire he directly serves, to turn him into a vampire. Nandor always comes up with an excuse not to do it right at that moment, promising to do it later... and then inevitably failing to do so. Nandor needs someone to take care of him and Guillermo is great at it. If Nandor turns him, then he loses Guillermo as a servant. Over four seasons, Guillermo takes and takes the abuse, going from naive, to angry, to begrudgingly accepting that his vampire dreams just might not happen. Then something life-changing happens that alters Guillermo's fate: He finds out that he's a descendant of famed vampire hunter Van Helsing.

Guillermo Is More Interesting as a Human

Guillermo as the familiar begging to be turned had run its course as a storyline. What We Do in the Shadows needed to shake things up, and boy did they ever. It was perfectly ironic to see Guillermo, who wanted so badly to be a vampire, to now be such a master at killing them. He was like Blade with the way he could swiftly dispatch any undead enemy who dared harm his friends. It almost came easy to him. It made his home life a bit awkward, living with vampires while killing them and all, but he was accepted because he was protecting them. Laszlo even went so far as to force Guillermo to accompany Nadja to London at the end of Season 3 because he knew he could protect her.

Still, Guillermo wants to be a vampire. That hasn't changed, no matter what. At the end of Season 4 he tells the camera crew, "Nothing is going to change unless I change it." He tells the crew they can use his room for storage because he won't be needing it anymore. We then see him go to a convenience store where his friend-turned-vampire Derek (Chris Sandiford) works. Guillermo plops down a huge suitcase full of money and tells Derek, "You're going to make me a vampire." Guillermo smiles at the camera, ready for what comes next.

It would admittedly be fun to see Guillermo as a vampire, with the possibilities that could open up for new storylines and hilarious moments. What would Guillermo do as a vampire? Would it be as glorious and satisfying as he thought it would be? How will his vampire friends react? But then what? It's a bold commitment. If you turn Guillermo, there's no undoing it. This isn't like when a sitcom puts two people together knowing they can break them up if it doesn't work. There's no way out of this. More important than a twist to shake things up is the long-term direction of What We Do in the Shadows if Guillermo becomes a vampire. He, as the only lead human character, stands out from the rest for being so different.

To turn him because Guillermo wants to be like everyone else does just that: makes him like everyone else. Guillermo as a vampire loses his uniqueness. The showrunners may be aware of this as well, for the trailer for Season 5 of What We Do in the Shadows shows Guillermo having been bitten by Derek, but not able to successfully turn. One clip shows Guillermo telling the documentary crew, "I thought the transformation would be overnight, but it's been sixteen days." He then tries to turn into a bat by saying the word and spreading his arms, but nothing happens. Now this is an interesting direction to go.

Becoming a Vampire Would Betray Guillermo's Growth

Hidden not so far under the surface of the silliness of What We Do in the Shadows are other, more realistic themes, like identity struggles, sexuality, and an overall feeling of isolation. Guillermo has come out on the show, though his sexuality has not always been a defining character detail. Nandor has been married to both men and women during his very long life, and Laszlo and Nadja have both been with the opposite sex as well. It was a powerful moment when Guillermo tells his vampire family that he's gay. A cousin responds by telling him, "We don't give a shit about you being gay. We've known that forever," while the rest of his family expresses their love for him. In an interview with the Advocate last year, Guillén said, "That was interesting to think that you'd [Guillermo] be willing to risk a secret that could potentially disown you from a family, a very religious family with his upbringing -- that he'd be willing to let that go just to save the chosen family that he was living with."

Guillermo is growing. He's a warrior. There is a man in his life. He's come out to everyone he loves about who he truly is. To have him give that up to become a vampire betrays that growth. It would be akin to giving up or conforming rather instead of accepting who he is and living his best life. And that life might be leading him to Nandor, someone who is always on the prowl for true love. He even brought back one of his wives, Marwa (Parisa Fakhri), from the dead and married her again, but believe it or not, he still isn't happy. Marwa even told Guillermo in Season 4 that Nandor has said he wants to hug and kiss Guillermo. Did he mean that as a friend, or something more?

There is intrigue and laughs to be found in Guillermo becoming a vampire, that's for sure, but there's more to be found in keeping Guillermo human. Yes, there's the will-they-won't-they between Guillermo and Nandor, but beyond that, it's the continuing struggle of the only human among near immortals trying to find his place and meaning in his life. Much more interesting than a Guillermo with fangs who sleeps in a coffin is a Guillermo accepting who he is, master vampire hunter and all. And in the journey, maybe he can one day find more than just a little respect from the vampires who depend on him.

[aion-rsa]

What We Do in the Shadows: Ranking the Best Vampires

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If there’s anything vampires appreciate, it’s a good old-fashioned power struggle. 

Living as an undead creature of the night forever can get boring. So to spice things up sometimes you have to argue with your spooky peers as to which vampire reigns supreme. We’ve seen this struggle play out on season 3 of FX’s What We Do in the Shadows. 

After the Staten Island vampires’ familiar Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillen) took out virtually the entire Vampiric Council in season 2, his vampire friends were invited to fill the power vacuum. With Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) busy trying to find the nature of his energy vampire existence and Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry) busy looking for the filthiest erotica that the Vampiric Council library has to offer, that left Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak) and Nadja Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou) vying for the very literal vampire throne.

Since Nandor and Nadja split throne-sitting duties for much of the season, it got us wondering: if we could select our favorite vampire from What We Do in the Shadows, who would we pick? So we endeavored to do exactly that.

A carefully curated cadre of Den of Geek contributors put their heads together to rank the best vampires on What We Do in the Shadows from 10 to 1. After threats of violence were resolved and votes were cast, the following list is what we came up with. Bear in mind that this list is primarily focusing on the What We Do in the Shadows TV series, not the movie. Movie characters that appear in the TV series (like Viago and Vladislav the Poker) are eligible for the list but only their TV work can be considered. 

First off, the runners-up…

Other vampires receiving votes: Evan (Evan Rachel Wood), Paul (Paul Reubens), Evie Russell (Vanessa Bayer), Jan (Cree Summer), Goëjlrm a.k.a. The Sire, Vladislav the Poker (Jemaine Clement), The Guide (Kristen Schaal), Tilda (Tilda Swinton)

And now the top ten…

10. Viago (Taika Waititi)

Whie Taika Waititi’s Viago is best known for his appearance in the original What We Do in the Shadows film, his brief stint on the TV series shone brightly enough to gain him entry onto our list. Viago and roommates serve as the Staten Island vampire gang’s proper entrance to the Vampiric Council. His deadpan introduction of the increasingly famous other vampires on the council helps make one of What We Do in the Shadows’ best moments work.

9. Simon the Devious (Nick Kroll)

All great vampires need an equally great epithet. Simon, however, is a shitty vampire and therefore gets a shitty epithet. Simon is the leader of the Manhattan vampires and he is, indeed, devious. It’s just that most of his devious plans involve trying to steal Laszlo’s obviously cursed witch hat. 

8. The Half-Vampire Wesley (Wesley Snipes)

The Vampiric Council is positively full of vampiric A-listers from Tilda (as in Tilda Swinton), Paul (Paul Reubens), and even an unseen Kiefer. Still, it’s the Half-Vampire Wesley’s appearance via video conferencing that stole our Vampire Selection Committee’s hearts. Wesley’s internet connection is so bad that he barely gets to participate in Vampiric Council business but even getting to see the Daywalker Blade himself is such a treat.

7. Jenna (Beanie Feldstein)

Jenna, a college student LARPer turned vampire by Nadja, hasn’t had a lengthy run thus far on What We Do in the Shadows. After popping up in four episodes of the show’s first season, the young vamp has not been seen nor heard from again. That’s probably because she’s played burgeoning superstar Beanie Feldstein (Lady Bird, Booksmart). And the reason why we haven’t seen that much Jenna of late is also the reason we truly love her: the hilarious Beanie Feldstein is just hard not to appreciate. 

6. Baron Afanas (Doug Jones)

There are all sorts of different archetypes when it comes to vampires’ appearances. More often than not you get your traditional handsome aristocrat look like Dracula. Sometimes, however, you get something more bestial akin to Nosferatu. Alongside “The Sire,” Baron Afanas is one of only two vampires on WWDITS old enough to appear as a full-on monster. The reason he works as a character though, is that he’s far more cheerful than his demonic features would suggest. Who could forget the Baron’s exciting night out on the town – getting lit and wearing a New Jersey Devils hat? Though it ended in tragedy, the Baron eventually returned, as all great vampires do.

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5. Jim the Vampire (Mark Hamill)

Mark Hamill’s Jim the Vampire is the highest ranking vampire on our list outside of the “core four” protagonists. This is an impressive achievement given that Jim appears in only one episode. It helps that that episode, season 2’s “On the Run” is an instant classic though. While we all love Laszlo’s stint as Jackie Daytona, regular human bartender, none of it would work without Jim as a perfectly corny antagonist. Hamill, who is a big fan of the show, gives the role his all to deliver a real delight of a vampire.

4. Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak)

Nandor the Relentless is the de facto leader of his Staten Island vampire clan. As both the oldest and the most…uh, relentless vamp he comes across his leadership capabilities naturally. Unfortunately, those leadership abilities often lead him and his friends quite awry. Kayvan Novak’s performance as Nandor is truly something to behold. No matter how hard you try, you’ll never be able to tonally replicate his accent when saying “Colin Robinson” or “this fuckin’ guy.” He’s one of the best vampires of all time but our voters just happen to like three of his peers a little better.

3. Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry)

Wait a minute. What’s a regular human bartender doing on this list? We kid, we kid. We know that Jackie Daytona is really Laszlo Cravensworth. For one, he doesn’t have a toothpick in his mouth. Matt Berry is one of the most brilliant and deranged comedic minds of his generation. In many ways, Laszlo feels like the natural conclusion to every character Berry has ever played. Laszlo is husky, he’s hirsute, he’s horny, and he’s going to live forever, baby. Now hop in this Model-T and read some vampire erotica with him.

2. Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch)

Colin Robinson isn’t a traditional vampire per se but he is an energy vampire and that counts. This Dilbert looking guy is What We Do in the Shadows’ most welcome and unique entry into the vampire canon. Energy vampires look like your average accountant. One big difference is that their eyes just happen to light up with a bluish hue as they drain the energy from your body with a perfectly curated boring anecdote. Mark Proksch is truly superb as Colin Robinson. So much so that we hope the show is just joshin’ with this whole “energy vampires only live 100 years” thing.

1.Nadja Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou)

Here she is: the people’s champ! Najda Antipaxos is our favorite vampire on What We Do in the Shadows because she is somehow the most human of the bunch. Jealous, loud, and narcissistic – she has the elements of humanity down better than most people do. Plus, who could forget her turning young Jenna, or her centuries long tryst with Gregor? The real secret to Nadja’s success, however, might just be that there are two of her. Nadja and her doll familiar make for one hell of a vampiric team.

The post What We Do in the Shadows: Ranking the Best Vampires appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[b-rollbanshee]

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS IS GETTING A THIRD SEASON!

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS IS GETTING A THIRD SEASON!

Yesterday it was announced that FX will be renewing What We Do in the Shadows for a third season!

The series stars Matt Berry, Kayvan Novak, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén and Mark Proksch , and it is based on Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi‘s 2014 film of the same name.

Season 2, which has been absolutely excellent so far, will come to an end on June 10th. While I’m not happy about it…

[theconservativebrief]

New York Comic Con feels like it gets bigger every year.

Its growth makes sense: Comic and geek culture have become mainstream culture. Doctor Strange and the Guardians of the Galaxy are no longer esoteric comic book superheroes. If you ask somebody what they think of Doctor Who, they’re likely to respond by asking you to specify which iteration of the show you’re talking about. And the number of people who are familiar with Taika Waititi’s work has exploded since he directed Thor: Ragnarok.

The drawback to this golden age of entertainment is that it makes compiling any given “best of” list extremely difficult. For some, the task might compare to such challenges as choosing between money and love, deciding on a hypothetical desert island meal, or definitively naming Marvel’s best Chris.

With that said, of all the TV and movie offerings I had the chance to preview at this year’s New York Comic Con, I’ve highlighted my top five below, in no specific order.

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The sly, infuriating, and ultimately most heartbreaking thing about writer Rick Remender and artist Wesley Craig’s 2014 comic book Deadly Class was how it made you fall in love with its 1980s antiheroes — a group of damaged teenagers whose crime lord parents enroll them in a prep school for future assassins and murderers — before showing their monstrous sides and their seemingly inevitable downfalls.

The comic is now being adapted into a TV series (Remender is credited as one of the executive producers, along with the Russo brothers, among others) that will debut on SYFY in January, and those who attended its NYCC panel got to screen the first full episode.

Lana Condor (best known for playing Lara Jean in Netflix’s breakout hit To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before) and Benedict Wong (who starred as Wong in Avengers: Infinity War) are the most recognizable names in the cast, and both actors are playing characters who are the polar opposites of their famed roles. But Deadly Class belongs to sentient chestnut Benjamin Wadsworth as the show’s protagonist, deeply troubled Marcus Lopez. The show centers itself on Marcus’s experience and his own vulnerabilities, and Wadsworth holds that spotlight effortlessly.

“Gritty,” “grim,” and “murdery” aren’t unique traits for a show to have in the ever-growing field of comic book and superhero television (see: Gotham; every single Marvel superhero show on Netflix; Arrow; and even some elements of Riverdale). But Deadly Class boasts a few elements — like Henry Rollins playing a professor who teaches an “Introduction to Poison” course or its Harry Potter-esque setting — that heighten and brighten its world.

It’s also fitting, and almost too cutting, that amid America’s current introspection into how our institutions are run and the culture they breed, one of the most exciting TV shows coming down the pike focuses on the next generation of supervillains.

Deadly Class premieres January 16, 2019, on SYFY.

Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s beloved 2014 vampire roommate mockumentary gets ported over to television via FX in spring 2019, and attendees of the show’s NYCC panel were treated to a screening of the pilot episode.

Like the original movie, the show depicts how mundane aspects of real life — from drugstore crepe paper to roommate quarrels and city living — become exponentially funnier in the hands of centuries-old vampires who have decided to break with the old world and move to … Staten Island.

Fans of the film will remember that Clement and Waititi (who hadn’t yet found mainstream fame for directing Thor: Ragnarok) starred in, co-directed, and co-wrote it. They’re back for the show as executive producers, along with Paul Simms, but are handing over the starring roles to three new vamps played by Kayvan Novak, Natasia Demetriou, and Matt Berry. Harvey Guillen, meanwhile, plays their faithful and scene-stealing human servant.

There’s something wildly hilarious, but also sad — or at least sad-adjacent — about this cadre of vamps finding the meaning of life and adjusting to its bleak modernity, and I can’t wait to see more.

What We Do in The Shadows doesn’t yet have an exact premiere date but is slated to debut on FX in the spring.

A still from Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy. Netflix

One of the common themes of the new TV shows featured at NYCC concerned fictional schools and academies — and more specifically, how broken they can be or what they signify. Deadly Class is about a prep school for death dealers, and one of the main conflicts of Netflix’s upcoming The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is centered on the dark magic school that Sabrina is supposed to attend.

The Umbrella Academy fits that theme but explores something different entirely: the idea of a chosen family. The series is adapted from the Eisner Award-winning 2007 comic book of the same name, by Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Bá.

The story centers on a “family” of adopted superhuman kids with quirky abilities brought together to save the world by a figure named Sir Reginald Hargreeves. The group is dubbed “The Umbrella Academy,” but they eventually break up after years together and carry the trauma of being superheroes.

In this Netflix adaptation, which is anchored by Ellen Page and Mary J. Blige (who promised the audience at the show’s NYCC panel that she’s pure evil in this series), the Academy — who are now young adults — is brought back together after the death of their mentor Hargreeves. They find out that dealing with each other, and mending their relationships, is just as difficult and important as saving the world.

Attendees of the show’s NYCC panel got to see stylish footage from the series, which featured the beginning of the group’s formation and slivers of the numbers (the members of the Academy have numbers, such as No. 7, as code names) showing off their superpowers.

The Umbrella Academy premieres February 19, 2019, on Netflix.

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One of the most intriguing things about X-Men: Dark Phoenix isn’t necessarily good. The movie’s release date has been continually pushed back — it was originally scheduled to release in theaters in November 2018, then was pushed to February 2019, and then pushed again to June 2019.

This much jumping around and uncertainty isn’t usually a good thing for movies. So it’s possible that Fox wanted to calm some of fans’ reservations by scheduling an NYCC event.

Audience members at Dark Phoenix’s offsite panel got to see the first 13 minutes of the movie, which features the team going to space to save a NASA mission gone awry. Jean Grey (played by Sophie Turner) seemingly becomes a casualty, but not so fast — cosmic rays bombard her, and for some unexplained reason, she survives.

As any X-Men fan could tell you, said unexplained reason is that Jean is imbued with the Phoenix Force, a cosmic entity with immense power.

The footage sets the foundation of the fourth movie in the rebooted franchise (it is preceded by 2011’s X-Men: First Class, 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, and 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse) by lighting the fuse that will end with the team going up against its most powerful adversary — and someone who happens to be one of their own.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix hits theaters on June 7, 2019.

David Harbour is essentially the prom king of New York Comic Con. Harbour is currently most widely known as Sheriff Jim Hopper on the Netflix TV series Stranger Things. But he’s also building on that geek cred by playing the titular role in Lionsgate’s forthcoming Hellboy reboot.

And during the movie’s Comic Con panel, Harbour even said he would officiate a wedding in character as Hellboy if this tweet gets 666,000 retweets. At this point, any celebrity who wants to win over a Comic Con crowd should be paying Harbour for a clinic — the man knows his audience and how to play to it.

But Hopper’s biggest crowd-pleasing moment during the panel came when he and original Hellboy comic creator Mike Mignola showed a brief trailer for the upcoming movie.

We’re introduced to a more rambunctious, ruder, and crasser Hellboy than the one originated by Ron Perlman in the first film. The footage from the new movie suggests it will skew darker and more along the lines of a horror movie (Mignola said so) with a go-for-broke energy (think: a giant sword engulfed in flames) than the world that director Guillermo del Toro created in 2004.

This isn’t to say that del Toro did a bad job — far from it. But Harbour, Mignola, and director Neil Marshall are aiming for something completely different with the character and the story, rather than trying to trace the steps of the work of a master like del Toro. And by the looks of it so far, they’ve done just that.

Hellboy hits theaters on April 12, 2019.

Original Source -> 5 highlights from New York Comic Con, from Hellboy to Deadly Class

via The Conservative Brief

[marvelousmatt]

Improvisation On The Set Of What We Do In The Shadows Is Serious Business

BY MATTHEW BILODEAU/APRIL 9, 2022 9:30 AM EDT

"What We Do in the Shadows" is easily one of the funniest shows on television. Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement's 2014 mockumentary feature of the same name is a hilarious and constantly amusing comedy that still makes me laugh, but I think the show's creative team not only honors the film, but surpasses it. It's true that a television series gives you more time to fall in love with the characters, but when "What We Do in the Shadows" pops in my head, my mind is flooded with the many memorable episodes spent with Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), and, of course, the great Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillén). In three seasons, the cast and crew of the vampire sitcom has wholeheartedly won me over.

In case you've been out of the loop, akin to the film, the half-hour comedy depicts the eventful misadventures of a Staten Island home to three traditional vampires, a soul-draining energy vampire, and an undervalued familiar whose evolution throughout the show has been wonderful to watch unfold. This cast has extraordinary chemistry together, and it shows in how flawlessly they bounce off one another when delivering their jokes.

Improvisational ad-libbing can sometimes lead to a bigger laugh or unexpected reaction from the cast while rolling, but there's also the possibility of it being a real detriment to the project. There's room for letting a joke go uncomfortably long, but oftentimes it's a case of seeing where the joke should have naturally ended — you see it drawn out to the point where any impact that gag may have had has dissipated. Even Berry laments that he's "never been interested in comedy from people that are aware that they're being funny." But this is where "What We Do in the Shadows" differs.

The consistency of vampire laughs

Alan Sepinwall's profile on the "What We Do in the Shadows" cast for Rolling Stone notes how deeply important it is to everyone to stay dedicated to the spirit of the characters:

"The actors don't just take their characters' connections seriously, but the entire ludicrous world of 'Shadows,' an attitude crucial to making the show as riotous as it is."

Even Mark Proksch explains how the cast's playful alteration of the material never goes too far off the rails:

"It's not your typical 'yes, and' type of comedy ... We're actually acting in character and listening as those characters would."

Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement's brand of humor, coupled with the series' talented team of writers, is so sharp to the point where the characters have always remained consistent. Some jokes don't hit their mark, but the "What We Do in the Shadows" crew never loses sight of who each character is. I wouldn't even be able to point out what was made up on the spot.

Hamming it up

From Doug Jones to Benedict Wong, "What We Do in the Shadows" has featured a number of incredible guest stars across its three seasons, but one of the more memorable appearances came from Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill. According to Jemaine Clement, Hamill would have a hard time keeping his composure on set:

"Matt Berry ad-libs like crazy ... You have to stay in character, because my character doesn't think he's funny, but Mark Hamill thinks he's hilarious."

He's right! Berry has this innate ability to make gold out of whatever comes out of his mouth. His delivery is impeccable. Hamill's episode in particular, "On the Run," gives him and Berry ample room to work off one another as his character, the aptly named Jim the Vampire, attempts to track down Laszlo for skipping out on a month's rent for a guest room in his San Diego beach house that's 167 years late. The strife causes Laszlo to don a new identity in Clairton, Pennsylvania, as Jackie Daytona, a regular human bartender and town legend who's totally not a vampire obscuring his identity with a toothpick in his mouth. Jim and Laszlo inevitably get into a bar scuffle by the episode's end, which sees the two brandishing pool cues as lightsabers, but never calling them such.

I'll bet there's an outtake that sees Hamill cracking up at the sight. He's got a wonderful sense of humor and fits in perfectly among this show's gallery of guest stars.

[aion-rsa]

What We Do in the Shadows Season 3: Harvey Guillén Wants Buffy to Train Guillermo

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This article contains spoilers for What We Do in the Shadows season 3 episode 3.

Things have changed for the Staten Island vampires on What We Do in the Shadows season 3 as they step into positions of power. This may not make much of a difference for Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), whose new job as secretary of the Vampiric Council, is much like his fake job, at a cubicle in an office. But Laszlo (Matt Berry) may spend a little more in the potting shed. His love Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), is running the council, along with Nandor (Kayvan Novak), who’s familiar, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), has been promoted to the position of bodyguard. It was easier than killing him.

Based on the 2014 feature film by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, What We Do in the Shadows follows four vampires, who have been roommates for longer than anyone cares to remember, as they cope with life in the modern world. Which is not held up on the shoulders of four horses.

Nandor the Relentless was a fierce and terrible Ottoman warrior, known for pillaging villages and turning the Euphrates red with blood. Guillermo worked at Panera Bread. The bond that ties vampire to familiar is a strange one. The pay isn’t great, the hours are daunting, and they don’t get employee-of-the-month plaques. The only real incentive is the promise of everlasting life as a ravenous bloodsucking fiend, and there is something of a hiring freeze at the moment.

British Iranian actor and voice artist Kayvan Novak co-created and starred in the British prank show, Fonejacker, and also can be seen alongside Matt Damon and George Clooney in Syriana, as well as the films Cuban Fury and the Walt Disney live action remake of Cruella. He plays three different characters in Men in Black: International. Harvey Guillén acted in the movies The Internship and in Netflix’s Truth or Dare, and his TV works include The Magicians, and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. He earned a GLAAD Media Award his role in the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Me What to Do” episode of Raising Hope, and made LGBTQ+ Latinx history by becoming the first queer Latinx actor to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Critics��� Choice Award for his role as Guillermo de la Cruz. Starting Sept. 2, Guillén will also host After the Shadows, a new talk show following and discussing What We Do in the Shadows.

Novak and Guillén hovered over Den of Geek to speak about Nandor and Guillermo’s new job descriptions, as well as old habits, cloaks of many voices, and Van Helsing DNA.

Den of Geek: I wanted to congratulate you on your characters’ new duties. Is it more fun running vampires or running from them?

Kayvan Novak: Has Nandor run from a vampire? I guess I have. I think they’re equally as exhilarating and frightening.

Harvey Guillén: I would say fighting the vampires is exciting with all the combat when that opportunity comes up. Yeah.

Guillermo took out the entire local vampire command, but couldn’t stake a vampire council docent. Is Guillermo getting soft?

Guillén: I don’t think he’s getting soft. I think the only reason that he even put himself in that scenario is because he knew that his old housemates, because remember he moved out of the house, his old housemates were in danger. I think at the end of the day we forget that he had mostly only humans in the house. And you know, what separates us from everything else in the world is that humans are driven by emotion and have a conscience and have a heart. So he couldn’t live with himself, if he knew that they were set up by the Vampiric Council to be eliminated at this theater. That’s the only reason he goes and saves his chosen family. Even though they’re total assholes to him, he is still loyal at the end of the day. He’s still loyal to these four vampires, especially Nandor. I think that he’s not getting soft. He’s just starting to see what’s important to him and what’s worth fighting for.

Did the “Cloak of Duplication” episode come up because you were already doing the impressions?

Novak: I guess the writers had an idea. They had a sense that I was a bit of a mimic and I liked doing impersonations. And I think they decided to kind of craft an episode around that. I was slightly apprehensive of the number of impressions that they thought I could do considering I had to do all of my castmates who, although I could do impressions of some of them, I’d never done it to their faces. So it was a new challenge. Not only to learn very quickly how to impersonate them with their help, because they helped me along the way, and they told me how to deliver some of the lines. But then having to do that in front of them, it took some concentration.

Whose voice was the easiest?

Novak: I guess the easiest, or the one that I had done was Colin Robinson. Because he’s got a very specific [voice]. It’s kind of the closest to mine in a way. And the rhythms of it, very specific. Nadja’s voice and Kristen [Schaal]’s voice, I couldn’t actually do. I can only kind of do their physicality. So, the voices you hear are not my voice. They’re the voices of the actual actors. Guillermo’s voice, Guillermo’s delivery, that took a minute to kind of get into that groove. And then Matt Berry, Laszlo’s character, I’d never really tried an impression of him. And it was really more the physicality that I got into to deliver those lines in that rhythm, that really was the key in. Because you’re always trying to find the key in.

Harvey, what was it like hearing Guillermo come out of Novak’s throat?

Guillén: It was great. Because I’ve seen Kayvan do impersonations of everyone, he’s a master. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do me in a full scene. Like he would make a good joke or mimic me and say, “Yeah, yeah, now my friend,” and he does like a caricature of my voice, which is always fun, but yeah, “you’re my best buddy,” that’s like an ongoing joke on set that he always does. But to really kind of do it and kind of really capture Guillermo’s inflections and the volume where he placed him. I was like, oh my gosh, this is great. I was in awe. Like I was like, this is great. I had to do a double take, like that’s not me. That’s wait. That’s not me. Okay.

Blade, Buffy, the Frog brothers, and now Guillermo. Guillermo is the descendant of the greatest Slayer of all slayers. Is this nepotism?

Guillén: I don’t know if it’s nepotism because I don’t think he’s gotten anything handed to him. And he’s worked really hard for everything he has, and even now being the descendant of Van Helsing, it’s still not easy. Now, it comes with another wagon full of problems and choices to be made and predicaments that he now has with his housemates. But I would love to see some of those legendary slayers and chosen ones make an appearance and guide him, maybe help him out. Maybe Buffy pops in and says, I’ll show you how it’s done. That’d be great. Or Blade comes back, Wesley Snipes comes back. We’ve already had him. Who knows? But yeah, I would love to see someone show him the ropes or take them under their wing or, he’s learning by trial and error. And I think so far he’s doing okay. So maybe he’s a self-made Slayer in his own way.

When Nandor and Nadja were introducing themselves to the rogue vampires, you are each soloing, but hitting the beats at the same time. Can you just walk me through the rehearsal of the timing?

Novak: I think to really nail a scene like that, we’re both kind of focused on the direction of, I think Yana Gorskaya directed that scene. And that was just a case of us kind of working together, but also allowing her to kind of pull us through the scene to make sure that we hit those marks perfectly. It took some practice, took a few takes, took rehearsal, but you always know you’re going to get it. And you know that if you’ve got to get something that’s a bit of a challenge to get to, you want to be in the right company. And, and thankfully, we are because we’re in each other’s company.

Harvey, when you interject objections and you break and you look at the camera, they’re like hi-hat taps, are these scripted or are you doing it strictly on an intuitive basis?

Guillén: No, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it scripted for Guillermo that he looks at the camera. I think we do, as we do a rehearsal and we have our DP and our director follow us through rehearsal and whatever feels organic in the moment, there has to be an organic beat. Right? So, if it’s, most of the time it is Guillermo, because he’s the only human in the room, aside from the camera crew. And so, when he looks at the camera crew, it’s like, oh God, you’re going to film this, aren’t you? And the camera catches that moment. And it zooms into it. It’s like, you’re not, oh no, it’s incriminating. And so, as you connect with another human. Did you hear what he said? Or did you, I can’t believe they’re talking like this because who are you going to connect with the vampires who live in their own world of lust and pleasure and feeding. They don’t care, they’re immortal, but the humans in the room are like, we can go to jail at any moment for a lot of these things. I can get in trouble myself.

So, most of the time, when Guillermo looks at the camera, it’s either out of fear or it’s either like I’m smarter than them and you see that, right? So it’s like you saw that, right? But he can never say it. So he can’t verbally say what he’s feeling. So, their face does it all for you to the camera.

Did Guillermo and Nandor meet at Panera Bread?

Guillén: We talked about this. I think the idea that, if he was working at Panera Bread, it must have been shortly after high school or something. And somewhere along the lines, he must’ve met Nandor, he must’ve come in when Panera was closing and maybe tried to feast on him? Maybe, I don’t know. The backstory I gave myself was, he convinced Nandor not to feast on him and kill him, but to service him in return to become a vampire. That’s the backstory I gave myself. But Kayvan, what do you think?

Novak: I think whatever happened there’s CCTV footage of it-

Guillén: Somewhere. Yeah.

Novak: And I think that would be the best way of revisiting that because, if they didn’t have a documentary crew following them, then they’re relying on kind of just, incidental cameras, capturing stuff. I think it would be cool.

Guillén: I think that’s cool. Yeah.

Nandor is 758 years old, and going through an eternal life crisis. Is he becoming too Americanized or does Nadja have a point about there not being anything more to existence than just slaughter?

Novak: It’s a funny one because he’s been around so long, you’re supposed to eventually just blend into your environment and be taken over by and become an American or become a Staten Islander. And for some reason they live in such an insular world that they resisted this. But now for some reason, whether it be an emotional light that’s gone off in his head, he’s decided that no, he wants to humanize himself more and, yeah, be more like the people that he kills, almost. The world that he feeds off. He wants to be part of that. And I think, Nadja, she’s the cynic she’s like, stop dreaming. Stop. You know, there’s always that person that’s like, yeah, you could do that. But there’s lots of people that want to do that too, you know? And you’re like, oh, you’re right. I better not waste my time chasing pipe dreams. There’s always that person in the room and that person, for Nandor, is Nadja.

What’s it like to act against Nadja’s doll?

Guillén: Such a diva. Yeah. Difficult. Late to set. She always has to be carried. I don’t know if it’s in her rider, but the doll has to be carried by two, like men-

Novak: Dressed in green.

Guillén: Dressed in green. Yeah.

Novak: I actually did have to do a couple of scenes where there’s a montage sequence with me and the doll and we actually got onto some really funny stuff. I was teaching her sword fighting, a bit of a spoiler, but it’s very quick. I don’t know if it made it in but I was teaching her sword fighting and then I was like, well, we might as well have a sword fight. And then she disarms me and then she chases after me and I run. But I don’t know if that made it in the cut. I just decided that would have been a funny thing to do. To be disarmed by this doll. I think Nandor has a soft spot for the doll. Obviously, it’s a cool bit of special effects that’s for sure. It’s awesome.

What will you be getting Colin Robinson for his hundredth birthday?

Novak: A new contract. You know, his management team has been slacking.

I was talking with Mark Proksch about the physical comedy and Harvey, yours is particularly perilous. What’s the choreography prep like and making those fight scenes hit their funny marks?

Guillén: Well, I think physical comedy is just as good as you know, anything we do, so I mean, a lot of us do physical comedy in the show, but you never see Guillermo really in motion to do physical comedy most of the time it’s because he’s always so put together. So even with the combat and fighting, the note that Jermaine gave me for the finale was, Harvey doesn’t know he’s been at this. All right. So he doesn’t know what’s happening. So it was more of an idea that his face is like “what’s happening?,” But his hands were coordinated and bad-ass, and that’s the way I’ve been playing him. And now that he’s coming into his own, now he’s more relaxed into his own power of Van Helsing. But it’s also funny. It’s just funny to see someone who’s like a baby duck, like learning to walk for the first time. It’s like he’s trying. And you know, so that physical comedy comes in hand.

Kayvan, can you tell me what it was like working against Aida Turturro and learning to love after, after 37 wives?

Novak: Aida was a riot, from day one. She was a fan of the show, which is always wonderful and incredibly flattering. She was so into the show, she was so into the world and into us as performers. And I think that just, she had so much fun when she was there and we had some intimate scenes. The first time you see us, she’s on her back and I’m on top of her. And that’s quite an introduction. But she just went with it, you know? And it was just a lot of fun, a lot of fun with her and yeah, we just spoke to her today actually, and she was singing the show’s praises again. And she’s genuinely so excited. She’s not keeping her cool or trying not to be a fangirl about it. She was just super enthusiastic to be there. And you feed off that. You love that.

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What We Do in the Shadows airs Thursdays at 10:00 p.m. on FX.

The post What We Do in the Shadows Season 3: Harvey Guillén Wants Buffy to Train Guillermo appeared first on Den of Geek.

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What We Do in the Shadows Season 3: What is an Energy Vampire Anyway?

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This article contains spoilers for What We Do in the Shadows season 3’s first two episodes.

Boredom, tedious, tiresome, flat. These are not the first words which jump to mind when thinking of vampires or comedy, but What We Do in the Shadows wields them like secret weapons without sacrificing a single laugh or scare. The FX horror farce, which is a series adaptation of the 2014 feature film created by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, follows four vampires. They have been roommates since, well, forever, but one is different from the rest.

Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), Nadja of Antipaxos, (Natasia Demetriou), and Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry), are traditional vampires. They drink blood, a virgin’s if possible. This is usually supplied by their familiar-turned-bodyguard Guillermo (Harvey Guillén). A probable virgin himself, but off limits. Even vampires know not to feed on their own supplier, especially one who has taken down the entire local vampire hierarchy. The fourth vampire does not drink blood. He subsists on the lifeforce of others. He is an energy vampire, and no one is safe from his appetites. Familiars are fair game, and so are the other vampires.

Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) looks like an office drone, talks like an automated menu, and has the presence of an interdepartmental meeting memo. A simple watercooler chat can drain a listener of the very will to live. It’s tasty. The Staten Island vampires have been named head of the entire Tri-State vampire community and Colin, who will be celebrating a major milestone this season, is undergoing a search for self.

You don’t have to look far from Colin to find Mark Proksch, the actor who plays him. In Better Call Saul, he played Daniel “Pryce” Wormald, the ineptly arrogant pharmaceutical connection who was very particular about his baseball cards. On The Office, he played Nate, a proven entity, but not without handicaps, like hearing, vision and cognition. With offbeat roles on This Is Us, Modern Family, Portlandia, Drunk History, Bob’s Burgers, and Adventure Time, Proksch has spent his career playing yo-yos, his first appearance was as a self-proclaimed master.

Proksch spoke with Den of Geek about vampire centennials, television perennials, and freezing his genitals playing kickball in the snow.

Den of Geek: Hello and thanks for doing this, and I wanted to wish Colin Robinson a happy birthday.

Mark Proksch: Well, it’s a little premature, but thank you.

I know the season is building to it, but will you be throwing a big celebration?

Yes. There will be some festivities, Colin Robinson style.

Do you know his sign?

I don’t know his sign. Gosh, that’s a good question. I don’t think he knows it, even.

Is there anything he wants for his birthday?

I think what he wants most is to know where he came from, and where he’s going. He’s in a bit of an existential funk right now. And he’s doing a lot of research about energy vampires. The problem is there’s not much out there on energy vampires because no one likes them. So, there aren’t many books about them. When he goes into the big Vampiric Council library, he can’t find a single word about energy vampires. And that’s probably because they’re so reviled within that community, that they don’t respect the energy vampires, or have any of their books.

You’ve been doing a lot of research on the history, and the nature, of energy vampires, as you said. What do you think, or, what do you call what he is feeding from? Is it Prana? Chi? Neurotransmissions?

Oh, yeah. We haven’t learned. He still doesn’t know. I think he’s feeding on the exhaustion of others. The everyday life exhaustion of others, I think, is what he feeds on.

Does Colin ever contemplate the carbon footprint of the energy vampire?

No, I think Colin’s in for it just for himself.

How come Colin can stand fire, he laughs it off, but he can’t deal with a cattle prod?

Yeah. Tony, you’re poking holes here. I don’t know. That’s, again, a very good question. Why doesn’t fire hurt him, but a cattle prod shocks him? Maybe, because one is energy? I mean, electrical energy, I should say. I guess heat is its own energy.

In the Cloak-of-Many-Nandors episode, how did it feel to hear Kayvan Novak do you? And did you give him pointers? Did he drain you in the process?

Yeah. Well, Kayvan has been doing all of us, since day one of shooting. So, it wasn’t a revelation to hear him do my voice. That said, we all sent recordings to him so he could perfect it. I haven’t seen the episode yet. The night we were filming my scene, it was about 4:00 a.m., it was one of the coldest nights in Toronto. So, I didn’t stick around to hear him do my voice. But I’m sure it’s as good as he was doing it on day one.

There’s a lot more location and exterior shooting this season. Is that more fun? Or is it just another day in a different cubicle?

I love our set. Kate Bunch, who is our set designer, is an absolute genius. And we film in the cold months, in Canada. So anytime we get to be on set, near the fireplace that actually works, is a plus. Filming on location has its limitations. We can’t film during the daytime, because the vampires will be burned up. So, we always film at night, when on location. And it looks like it’s 11:00 p.m. or 10:00 p.m., when in fact, it’s usually 3:00 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. And so, when we go on location, we’re usually shooting pretty unpleasant evenings. So, I’d much rather film on set. Filming on location can be fun though, because you have a lot more interaction with real people. And I think that’s one thing that makes the show really funny, is seeing these idiot vampires dealing in the real world. So, it’s kind of fifty-fifty for me.

Did you have fun in the snowball fights?

Yes. There are a lot of snowball fights, yes.

The last time I spoke with you, Colin had just gotten a promotion and it kind of went to his head. How is it for Colin now, to be in power at the Vampiric Council?

I think, as much as Colin loved having some power, I think his M.O. is really, just fading into the background. That way, he can prey a lot easier. Just trying to mix into the group. Be a spider with his web, in the background. I think that’s how he prefers to prey. And so, even when he becomes part of the Vampiric Council, he still allows others to exceed him in power. And so, this season, when Nandor and Nadja are the heads of the Vampiric Council, he’s more than happy to be the secretary. The most boring job you can have in a council setting, taking the notes.

Who do you think Colin would prefer on the throne, Nadja or Nandor?

That’s a great question. I think he would probably prefer Nandor, because Nandor is so stupid. Nandor is very, very dumb. And so, he, Colin, can get Nandor to do pretty much anything he wants. Whereas Nadja, I think Colin likes Nadja. And I also think that Nadja’s too smart to fall into Colin’s traps.

Does he get a jolt out of things like the heart ripping?

Yeah, I think so. I think he does enjoy that type of stuff. Yeah.

Can you feed off Nadja’s ghost in the Nadja doll?

I can’t. And I think I’ve tried to several times. I don’t remember what made it on air. But there’s been several times where I’ve tried to feed off of the doll, and it doesn’t go anywhere.

Will Colin’s research turn up any famous energy vampires? And have you come up with your own?

I’ll drop in names for energy vampires, every once in a while. I don’t think any of them have made it so far. I mean, I’ve done Andy Warhol, who seems, to me, to have been an energy vampire. Truman Capote. I would love to have Bob Newhart on as an energy vampire, because I think he’s brilliant, and he would absolutely kill it. Yeah, I’ve thrown in some of those names. David Crosby, I’ve thrown in. I mean, the more left field, the better. But I don’t think any of those have gotten in. I don’t think they want to insult people.

When you look back on your character’s past, do you find any trace of Les Nessman DNA?

Only in my acting. I loved WKRP, and Les Nessman was definitely a good energy vampire. Just a great character, and acted brilliantly. Yeah, I’m sure I stole from him. You know, it’s interesting, I mostly watch classic television. And I’ll see something, and I’ll be like, “Oh, that’s where I got that. That’s where I took that from.” I haven’t seen him since childhood, but it made an impression on me that, “Oh, okay. That’s why I do that.” And that becomes very eerie to me, when I realize I’m just a culmination of things I’ve been watching my whole life.

I’ve recently been watching it and was amazed by the physical comedy. Arthur Carlson was a genius. So, tell me about the physical comedy in What We Do in the Shadows. Because you’re using not just you, the actors, but you have the effects, and there’s a lot going on, especially, in the backgrounds.

Yeah. I personally love being able to do physical comedy. And Colin Robinson is so great for that, because he’s so at two with his body. He’s not a physical human being. He’s not athletic, to say the least. And I think it adds an extra layer to the character, when you actually see him physically emote, really. Whether it’s dancing, or playing kickball, he’s very unsettling in his movements. Then when you add in the ability to fly, once in a while, or throw people against a wall, it really becomes a playground that not a lot of shows let you get to do. Explore those extremes of physical comedy. And so, I love it for that reason.

You mentioned being free to emote. In the opening episode, you actually are peeved when you can’t feed off of Nadja and Laszlo, and when they shut you down. Does Colin get drained when the feedees don’t give with the Prana?

Yeah, I think he gets really frustrated. It’s almost like a dog that’s always promised a treat, but never is actually given the treat. I think he becomes furious. And he thinks it’s unfair, I would expect, and thinks that they’re not playing by the rules. His bizarre social rules, in which he should be allowed to feed on whenever he wants. Because he gets to do it all day long at work. Anytime he’s out of the house, he gets to do it. But when he’s in the mansion, they know what he’s up to, and they can shut him down pretty quickly. I think he gets frustrated.

Also, still with the first episode, your toilet duties. They only seemed designed to annoy you. So, when you’re actually annoying yourself, isn’t that like cannibalism?

I don’t know if he’s annoying himself. I think he’s really into what’s going on in those toilet buckets. That’s all. I think he’s curious.

You meet a big fan in the rogue vampire house, in Queens. Does Colin’s reputation precede him? And will we see a growth in his vampire community renown?

That’s a great question. I think his reputation does precede him. That said, I don’t know what the writers have in store in that story. I mean, it would be interesting to see him rise to a level of energy vampire stardom, and how he would handle that. But I don’t know.

Is that a little counterproductive?

It would be in his mind, absolutely. Again, it goes back to him being the spider with the spider web, and just, kind of, hanging out in the background.

Do you think the connection you make with energy vampires is different from the connection traditional vampires make? And might we be seeing something of an underground, within the underground?

I think with the traditional, bloodsucking vampires, I think it’s mostly sexual. For them, they just want to get their rocks off. I think with energy vampires, it’s much more subtle, and a little more complicated. And I don’t know if those relationships could last, the energy vampire relationships. What we saw with Vanessa Bayer’s character, Evie, I think that ran its natural course, as far as romantic liaisons with energy vampires.

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What We Do in the Shadows season 3 airs Thursdays at 10:00 p.m. on FX.

The post What We Do in the Shadows Season 3: What is an Energy Vampire Anyway? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Prepares For Colin Robinson’s 100th Birthday

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The liquid-diet trio at the center of What We Do in the Shadows will endure the tortures of endless conflict in season 3. Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), will be taken to task by the entire Tri-State vampire community. Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry) will pay, and dearly, for licentious driving.

For psychic vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), it’s another Wednesday, which some fellas in his office like to think of as Hump Day. What We Do in the Shadows is a series adaptation of the feature film created by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, and for the uninitiated, it is a mock-doc styled vampire reality show. The vampires’ familiar, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), keeps things real for the human audience. Colin brings the vampires to ground.

The psychic or energy vampire’s food source is different from traditional vampires, who subsist on the life-giving fluid of living creatures. Colin drains the neurological system’s electromagnetic debris. Sometimes called prana or chi, it is very annoying and about as exciting as a mid-afternoon interoffice meeting.

“I think it’s a very relatable character and every office across the world has an energy vampire in it,” Mark Proksch said during FX Networks’ appearance at the 2021 Television Critics Association summer press tour. “I think it’s cathartic for a lot of people that are working in offices to see a manifestation, a character that embodies all the people they can’t stand in their office.”

An early trailer revealed the vampires from Staten Island now represent the Tri-State area in the Vampiric Council. WWDITS season 2 ended with the slaughter of almost everyone in a leadership position, so the seats had to be filled. The second rule of vampiric leadership is keeping asses in seats, the first being “don’t kill vampires,” so choosing these four might seem a grave clerical error. This is something far below the bloodsuckers’ pay grade, and obviously an HR problem. That Dilbert-looking guy in the basement apartment is the closest thing the newly appointed bureaucrats have to a human.

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TV

What We Do in the Shadows: Colin Robinson Steals Our Energy Through the TV

By Tony Sokol

“Colin Robinson is very happy to be the secretary and take the minutes, which is the most boring job in any organization,” WWDITS executive producer and writer Paul Simms told the TCA journalists. Nandor and Nadja differ on executive motions, but serve. Laszlo “did not become a vampire to be a paper pusher and doesn’t give a shit about official vampire organizations,” according to Simms. But he does spend a lot of time in the Vampiric Council’s library. While he is usually surfing ancient and archaic porn there, he also comes in very handy to Colin.

Colin spends a lot of time in the library during season 3. It is the largest repository of underworld wisdom in these and any other United States, with the accumulated wisdom of the greatest and most depraved minds history has ever seen. The library has whole floors of shelves filled with books and manuscripts on traditional vampires of every culture. It barely contains a pamphlet on alternative afterlifestyles.

“He’s kind of trying to figure out where he came from and where he’s going,” Proksch said. “And there just isn’t a heck of a lot of information about energy vampires. And so it’s kind of a fruitless journey. But I will say there’s a pretty huge twist for Colin Robinson in the final episode that plays off his hundredth-year birthday.”

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Colin will turn-over a century this season, but energy vampires rarely have happy birthdays. They’re not nearly as nutritious as more emotional celebrations, like funerals and disaster memorials held far too soon.

But for now, Colin Robinson is quite content celebrating “Hump Day.” Even though he’s more of a “what’s the rush to get over the hump” kind of guy. FX shared another Dear Diary teaser, filled with puns, the most exhausting of all the comic arts.

You can watch the season 3 preview here:

As Colin retreats into his reveries on “department meetings, cross-department meetings, sending emails to reschedule team meetings that interfere with department meetings,” the vampires of Staten Island, and their most familiar vampire hunter bodyguard, continue to Excel in their dark reign of humor on What We Do in the Shadows.

What We Do in the Shadows season 3 premieres Sept. 2, on FX.

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Review: In ‘Shadows,’ on FX, Laid-Back Vampires Return for Another Bite

By James Poniewozik March 26, 2019

A key difference between movies and TV series is their relation to mortality. When a movie becomes a TV series, the creators must adapt a finite story into one that can unfold indefinitely. A movie, as a rule, must complete a world; a series must keep building one. A movie must end (at least until the sequel); a TV series must proceed as if it might never die.

“What We Do in the Shadows,” beginning Wednesday on FX, has an advantage on that last front, and not just because its characters, a gang of eccentric vampire housemates, are already dead. The 2015 movie, from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, already played like a tight, brief season of TV, in the most pleasurable way.

The mockumentary, about a group of bloodsucking ancients navigating modern life in Wellington, New Zealand, was driven more by character than plot, much like a hangout sitcom. Like Clement’s “Flight of the Conchords,” it had a deadpan — rather, undeadpan — sensibility and a penchant for characters who were less cool than they imagined themselves.

The FX version recasts and relocates to America while retaining the core premise. Staten Island, apparently the New Zealand of the tristate area, is now home base for Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), a medieval Ottoman warrior; Laszlo (Matt Berry), a Romantic-era English dandy; and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Laszlo’s rapacious old flame and now hunting partner with benefits. (Clement and Waititi, who co-starred in the film, each write and direct several episodes.)

Having undead roommates, it turns out, is just like having mortal ones, except that you have all eternity to get on one another’s nerves. Early in the premiere, the anxious, fussy Nandor holds a meeting to deal with housekeeping issues, such as the problem of people leaving their guests sitting around half-drunk. (In this case, it means that they’ve been half-drunk.)

Rounding out the house is Colin (Mark Proksch), an “energy vampire” who drains people’s life forces rather than their blood, usually by drawing his officemates into long, boring conversations. So far, in the four episodes provided for review, it’s one of the less-successful additions to the story, a one-joke premise that “Saturday Night Live” might have done as an overlong sketch.

The series focuses more than the film did on the “familiars”: humans who serve as personal assistants to vamps in hopes of someday getting the neck-bite of immortality. Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), an earnest nerd, is tasked with procuring the group virgins (“It’s their favorite food!”), whom he sources locally by finding a college medieval LARP (live-action role-playing) group. One member, Jenna (Beanie Feldstein), takes the vampires to be LARPers themselves.

Which, in a sense, they are. A bit like the Chechen mobsters in HBO’s “Barry,” the vamps of “Shadows” seem to be cosplaying themselves, comically performing a received, pop-culture idea of scary-sexiness. (Nandor prepares himself for a special occasion by putting on body glitter, “like ‘Twilight’!”)

In reality, they’re underachievers, more bark than bite. (There is some bite, though, the episodes of violence played for over-the-top, blood-spritzing slapstick effect.) When an ancient overlord shows up to find out why the Staten Island vampires haven’t yet conquered the new world, it provides the (presumably) ongoing story line for the series.

As in the film version, the action is captured by a documentary film crew, though the device recedes more into the background (as it did in long-running mockumentary series like “Modern Family” and “Parks and Recreation”).

But the series retains the screwball-vérité look established in the film by Clement and Waititi, combining naturalistic shaky-cam with exaggerated levitation effects. In an age of inkily-lit cable dramas, this is the rare series where the nighttime palette actually makes sense.

The big question early on is whether most of the best jokes have already been told. The vampires’ feud with an aggro band of werewolves played out better in the film, which focused on the lycanthropes’ embarrassed efforts to control their transformations. But the show comes together in the fourth episode, in which the housemates trek to a nightclub in Manhattan — “Manhatta” in Laszlo’s archaic tongue — to impress a sleazy downtown vampire (Nick Kroll).

If “Shadows” doesn’t seem entirely necessary, it’s perfectly fun. Its pleasures are in the goofy details, like the way Laszlo exclaims “Bat!” as he transforms into one, or the vampire nightclub in which the equivalent of bottle service is waiters carrying a human body on a bed of ice.

I’m still not sure whether there’s a long run of TV in this resurrected premise. But there seem to be some tasty drops left before it’s entirely sucked dry.

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The What We Do in the Shadows Team Explains That Whole Colin Robinson Thing

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This article contains spoilers for What We Do in the Shadows season 3 episode 10.

Nature or nurture appears to be the theme moving forward, as the What We Do in the Shadows’ season 3 finale dropped a bundle on viewers. The vampire housemates are left scattered on ship ports and train platforms, and may be rudderless as an unexpected arrival throws all their plans to the wind.

The ending leaves Nandor (Kayvan Novak) relentlessly waiting for Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), who has been nailed into a coffin by Laszlo (Matt Berry) to ensure a safe passage for his love Nadja (Natasia Demetriou). She is moving to a position of great power in England, as she takes a seat on the Worldwide Vampiric Council, by special invitation. And the former familiar has proven himself a worthy bodyguard. Meanwhile, Laszlo has found a far more fragile creature which needs care and protection.

Colin Robinson’s (Mark Proksch) birthday celebration went awry at the end of “A Farewell,” and “The Portrait” ended with just the most imperfect tilt. For all the research done, including the hidden discoveries, it seems one small detail about energy vampires was overlooked. They gestate new life inside them, and come out fully formed as newborns. While Colin professed to be unaware of his origins and oddities, we are not sure whether this was a detail he knew and kept to himself, just to annoy Nandor’s “Super Slumber.”

It seems What We Do in the Shadows is celebrating something just short of a blessed event. To celebrate, Den of Geek spoke with Mark Proksch, who plays Colin, showrunner Paul Simms, and writer Sam Johnson about the care and feeding of young energy suckers, and the future of the vampire world as we know it.

Den of Geek: Mark, are you looking forward to Colin Robinson’s terrible twos?

Mark Proksch: I am. It poses a new fun twist for something for me to get to play something other than just an arrogant energy vampire. So, it’ll be fun. I don’t think anyone else is looking forward to him growing up to the terrible twos.

Paul Simms: But bringing up the terrible twos makes a good point. Children, often, in their own way, are like energy vampires. They’ll exhaust you and wear you out, and talk about stuff that they’re interested in that has no interest for you. And that’s something we examine in season 4 that we’re shooting right now.

Do you think Laszlo will be a good daddy?

Sam Johnson: I don’t think he can be judged by human standards.

Paul Simms: He’ll be a very active and involved parent or caretaker. But Laszlo, also remember, is an amateur composer, an amateur scientist, and an amateur everything. I think a lot of what season 4 is about is: is Colin destined to grow up to be an energy vampire, is that his fate? Or is it possible that he can be molded and shaped into something else, and maybe actually be an interesting person?

The first baby, is that a full-on effects creation?

Paul Simms: That’s a combination of everything. Our prosthetics maker, Paul Jones, built the body with an actual head. There is a team of puppeteers operating it. The digital part was Mark’s face put on to it, and a lot of iterations, going “the head’s too big” or “the head’s too small,” “the head’s too dry,” “it should be wetter” and “moister.” It was a combination of every different trick of the trade, I think.

How do you plan to merge Mark into the child’s growth? Is that an effects department problem or do you have a Shadows-y shortcut?

Paul Simms: That is the biggest technical challenge that we’ve set for ourselves so far, and we’ve almost figured it out, I would say, two weeks into shooting. It’s a challenge, but it’s going to be worth it.

Introducing babies into shows has killed some series. Are you going to play with all the I Love Lucy/Mad About You kinds of baby-raising scenarios?

Paul Simms: I think part of it, even if it’s a baby or a child knowing that it’s Colin Robinson, you can get away with a lot more. I don’t think anyone is going to see the show and go, “Oh, but season four, they had to add something cute” because it’s a pretty freaky looking creature. And also, there’s always the question of is it really a baby or is Colin’s mind operating in there? Let’s just say, if they were going to make toys from the show, I think they would probably make a Nadja doll toy before they would make a baby Colin toy. Although I would like both of them.

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Sam Johnson: If you come to this show hoping to see an I Love Lucy tribute or Mad About You, I think you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Actually, I think this show is very much like classic TV. I see a Get Smart in it, I’ve seen F Troop. You have new technology, it’s a new concept, the reality show, but you keep the feel of the classics.

Paul Simms: One important thing to us as we’ve done the show is that you can watch any episode out of order. Like the old sitcoms that I love, the Bob Newhart shows and Mary Tyler Moore It’s not serialized. You don’t have to know the history. If you’re a super fan, then it’s fun to watch things develop, but I’ve always imagined you can watch reruns later and you don’t need to be caught up on who did what. They all stand alone, which is how my favorite shows have always been. But it is. I think it’s a great compliment to say that it’s like those old shows because it is. Yeah, it’s insane and it’s vampires and there’s special effects and stuff. It’s a fun story with people you like to hang out with, even though they are murderers.

Sam Johnson: I do think you could draw a direct line from the Code of Silence to the cloak of duplication. I feel like we for sure have all been influenced because those are some of our favorite shows. So yeah.

Laszlo’s discovery scene, where he finds Colin, looks like the aftermath of the body bursting scene in Alien to me. What was the inspiration?

Paul Simms: Early on, just as a joke, we talked about how maybe every hundred years Colin molts like a snake and slithers his body off, and is a refreshed Colin. But we wanted his death to be gruesome, because we always remind ourselves that it is a show about vampires, and there should be some scary stuff in it. And also, we’ve seen Colin fake his death before. We really wanted to establish when the skull collapses: that’s really gross and he’s really dead. And then it just seemed completely logical that there was something gestating inside of him that he didn’t even know about. It just gave him a funny tummy and made him want some diet ginger ale.

It seems like the vampires have much more emotional depth this season. Is that conscious, or am I just reading too much into it?

Paul Simms: No, I think it’s true. I think it’s stuff you wouldn’t do in season 1 because it would be unearned and fake. But, like the idea of Nandor realizing that eternal life is not a curse, also that nothing means anything, would naturally lead anyone to an existential crisis. And Nadja also, having been turned into a vampire at such a young age, never having a chance to be a woman in the world and have any responsibility. That’s sort of what led to her running the Vampiric Council, and finally getting some worth out of her life. It’s hard because part of the story of vampires is they sit around forever and do nothing, but you still want to see them have things they want, and goals that they’re working towards

Nadja seems to represent the old style of slit-their-throat vampires, and I was wondering what are her chances of running the Worldwide Vampiric Council.

Paul Simms: I’d say from what we’ve seen this season? Very good. I mean, when she gets a mission. It’s funny that Nandor is the great, unmerciful warrior who’s killed thousands of people. But as soon as he gets a chance to run things, he’s like, “let’s just be diplomatic and let’s be nice,” and she’s just ripping people’s hearts out. I enjoyed that a lot.

The writers have been having a ball with foreshadowing this season. When did the idea of Laszlo knowing about Colin’s fate begin to be incorporated into the action?

Paul Simms: Very, very early on, from when we started the whole thing. We’re not trying to trick people. We want surprises, but they have to be logical surprises. And that’s why in episode 2, there’s the funny moment where Colin’s talking to the camera, and in the background, Laszlo tears a page out of the book. You think it’s just a joke because he’s talking about how he’s going to whack off to it later or something.

We wanted to get to the end, and it was very satisfying to see people online, about halfway through the season go: “Why is Laszlo being so nice to Colin? That doesn’t make sense. Colin is so annoying.” And “Laszlo is a very perturb-able person. They must have run out of ideas because this doesn’t make sense.” It was our special little secret that, no, it does make sense and we’ve laid all the breadcrumbs. And when you get to the end, you’ll understand everything. It’s fun to surprise people, but surprise people in a way that’s logical. And it’s not just out of the blue.

Then I also have to ask about Colin’s feeding choices, they seemed counterproductive. Things that he was doing were more annoying to him than the people around him. Was this consciously part of what was growing inside him?

Paul Simms: I never thought of that. Mark?

Mark Proksch: I didn’t either. That’s interesting. After the first couple seasons, the writers did a great job of moving Colin away from just being an annoying vampire that always has to feed and creating a better relationship between him and his roommates I think, in that I started looking at the character a little differently as well, and possibly what you’re talking to, is coming out of that. Feeling like I have a little more freedom to go into some areas with the character that we didn’t really touch on in season one and two.

Paul Simms: Yeah, I mean, it started in the pilot as a sort of a one-joke character: “What if there is a thing as an energy vampire and he’s boring?” But we consciously were like: we can’t keep doing that over and over again. And there’s so much more fun ways to go with it. We’re always trying to be conscious of not being repetitive with what works. And that’s why everyone’s like “when’s the next Jackie Daytona episode?” And we say, well, no, there isn’t going to be one because we did it and it was good. You might think you want more of that, but as soon as you see a second Jackie Daytona episode, you’re like: Oh boy, they really are out of ideas.

Is that also the same with the flatulence and the shit bucket changings? Were they indicators that Colin would be going back to infancy?

Sam Johnson: That might be somebody here going back.

Mark Proksch: I mean, the shit bucket was taken from when Paul and Sam came to my house for a weekend.

Paul Simms: The poop bucket was one of the few notes we got for this season. When they saw the episode, they were going, “Do we really need that many references to the poop bucket?” And we looked at it, and we said, “Yes, we think we do.” It’s not just the fact that it was poop, but Mark was very good at coming up with different terms to call it that just make you wince and go like: “Oh, do you have to refer to stinky pickles and Lincoln Logs? It’s just so gross.”

If Nandor and Nadja are leaving, and Laszlo has no interest, who’s going to run the council?

Paul Simms: It’s a good question. Yeah, there’s no one left.

Sam Johnson: I think Laszlo has his hands full, caring for this freaky little creature that will die if he doesn’t at least figure out how to feed it. Bear in mind, that’s just the local Staten Island chapter of the council. They could probably bring in someone from New Jersey to fill in.

Was Donal Logue’s line about starting out on MTV autobiographical to you, and did he do those paintings?

Sam Johnson: Well, Jimmy the Cab Driver was one of my absolute favorite things on MTV back in the day. And yeah, I did work there, but we did not overlap. It was more like Donal Logue has done so many cool things in his career that it was impossible to list them. But definitely, Jimmy the Cab Driver was a highlight to me. In fact, when we were writing that, I went to YouTube and looked up a bunch of those old “Jimmy the Cab Drivers.” They’re still funny. It’s crazy that this 25-year-old kid is dressed up, driving around, but I love it.

Paul Simms: There’s also something very funny, Donal was very good about making fun of himself as an actor, about talking about this thing that the vampires have no idea what he’s talking about. I think even half the viewers are probably too young to remember what it was, but I thought that was very funny. And the painting? No, he didn’t do the paintings himself.

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What We Do in the Shadows‘ “The Portrait” aired Oct. 28 at 10:00 p.m. on FX.

The post The What We Do in the Shadows Team Explains That Whole Colin Robinson Thing appeared first on Den of Geek.

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What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 5 Review: The Chamber of Judgement

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This What We Do in the Shadows review contains spoilers.

What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 5

The vampires get back to their official duties on What We Do in the Shadows  season 3 episode 5 “The Chamber of Judgement.” Nandor (Kayvan Novak) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) are poised to take the throne at the center of the judicial altar in the subbasement office of the Vampiric Council. They poise for quite a while. So long, in fact, it becomes unjudicial.

The battle over the top seat in the council is as petty as it is essential to the proceedings. One of the unsaid traits of the undead on What We Do in the Shadows is the vampires, besides never aging physically, don’t really seem to age emotionally or intellectually. They love their toys, any sense of ritual, glitz or shiny things in general. In the opening episode, Nandor couldn’t get enough creepy paper. When the rogue vampires declared independence from interpretive dance, Nadja made it a specific point from which they would never be freed. She is proven correct as the dance which opens The Ceremony of Judgment is cosmically confusing but comically utilitarian. The seat at the throne means a lot, but familiar-turned-bodyguard Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) wins the childish game of king of the kill by a default of his own.

I am absolutely enthralled by the relationship between Guillermo and the floating vampire Dark Shade (Kristen Schaal). Sometimes it appears like she’s flirting, sometimes she’s threatening. Sometimes the threats are sexy, and most of the threatened sex is downright dangerous. Dark Shade is throwing off some heavy vibes. Shaun (Anthony Atamanuik), who is Laszlo’s (Matt Berry) best human friend, thinks Nandor and Guillermo are lovers. But he also thinks Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) is either related to “Robinson Caruso” or is lost in space, and that an advertisement on a box is a legally binding document.

We have to wonder if Shaun ever really got over the brain-scramblies from last season. He seems a little too open to too much, and it may be a case of post-double-hypnosis trauma. In “The Casino,” it appears he’s just got a gambling problem. He drops everything he’s got, and when Laszlo stakes his losses, Shaun still puts it all on one number at a roulette game.

This week, during “boys only night,” Shaun steals the underwhelming thunder of the great psychic vampire himself, Colin Robinson. What could be more soul-sucking than a garage full of Guy Pillows? They’re a knockoff of a brand which has been keeping people awake for years. It’s a good thing Laszlo doesn’t use a pillow, he’s nowhere near ready to be woke, even if he does wear an old lady’s wig to court.

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“The Chamber of Judgement” balances the scales of justice between the human world and the vampire one unevenly because there is a vampire at each undue process. While Laszlo tips the scales in favor of the wrong party in the Guy Pillow slumber fest, he bites off more than he can chew at the Vampire Court. Nandor and Nadja, with the whispering human Guillermo in the hot seat, debate the fate of misguided bloodsuckers. It’s pretty much a coin toss. Convinced to give leniency to one vampire, who was selling fake pills which were supposed to keep vampires safe in the sun, the next must die a horrible death. The only fate which is worse would be selling The Guy Pillows door to door, which is too much for even Shaun, who gets sued over it.

The human court is Small Claims court, but to Laszlo, there are no small claims, only grand entrances. The age-old vampire recalls, in his far too distant past, he was a barrister of some kind, at least he had been trained in the laws of law. What makes it all so fittingly real is how he came upon this knowledge: from necessity. He had to defend himself on numerous occasions, usually relating to some kind of obscenity charge. When Nadja later congratulates Laszlo on his first courtroom win, we realize he’s lost all of these historic cases. Why this comes as no surprise is somehow surprising. Laszlo also thought “boys-only night” meant a circle jerk. But it seems Laszlo sentences Derek to a life with Laszlo. While the former Mosquito Club member may represent a new low in vampire stupidity, I’d like to see Laszlo in a Hot Topic.

The “fucking guide” bit is classic. It is a line only Nandor can deliver. “Fucking guy” is almost his catchphrase on the show, and the twist on it is something which wouldn’t be out of place in a TV sitcom from the 1980s. What makes it stand out is the language. It plumbs similar, though opposing, comic deliveries which South Park mines through bleeping, but the nonchalance of the transposition stays with you. It’s like changing your name from Jennifer the Dreadfully Loathsome to Gabby the Dreadfully Loathsome, the little things make the difference.

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” the vampires are advised by HR. It is good for team building. Anything goes in the chambers, but usually on Thursdays because it’s tiring to keep up all week long. Colin really should put in an appearance. He’s certainly not getting any satisfaction tonight. The crunching, squealing removal of the throne would have at least provided a quick pick-me-up to the angst-hungry vampire. Colin’s Miss Honeycrunch Mystery game gets hijacked, he is quickly demoted from window to door when the game is on TV, and he never gets closure from a work layoff story. Even his squeaky off-key Yoda thing only gets a “that’s funny” from Laszlo. The psychic vampire has been drinking empties for a few episodes now. It must be part of the preparations for the season-closing birthday celebrations.

Written by William Meny and directed by Kyle Newacheck, “The Chamber of Judgement” weighs heavily in What We Do in the Shadows’ favor. We’ve had our fill of the neighbors, and the energy vampire needs an inspiration infusion, but Nadja’s intolerance, Nandor’s indecisiveness, and Laszlo’s indiscretions overrule the objections.

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What We Do in the Shadows‘ “The Chamber of Judgement” aired Sept. 23 at 10:00 p.m. on FX.

The post What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 5 Review: The Chamber of Judgement appeared first on Den of Geek.

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What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 4 Review: The Casino

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This What We Do in the Shadows review contains spoilers.

What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 4

A coastal resort destination like Atlantic City might not seem the wisest place for a vampire to vacation, but it pays off in “The Casino.” The Staten Island vampires may be shirking their duties on the Vampiric Council, but What We Do in the Shadows  season 3 episode 4 benefits from the change in scenery. This is especially shattering for Nandor (Kayvan Novak), who learns during this episode that the world is not only round, but also not held up on the shoulders of four mighty elephants.

The fang gang, plus energy vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) and familiar-turned-bodyguard Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), are invited out by their favorite neighbor, and Laszlo’s (Matt Berry) best human friend, Shaun (Anthony Atamanuik). He and his, also human, wife Charmaine (Marissa Jaret Winokur) are celebrating their wedding anniversary and put together an 11-person junket. Shaun was inspired by Ocean’s Eleven, which gets laughs all around from Laszlo.

Just when you think that’s about as far as that joke goes: ding-a-ding-ding, Nadja’s (Natasia Demetriou) got the voice of the Rat Pack, and wants their cash. She apparently knew Ol’ Blue Eyes and the gang around the time they were making the original Ocean’s Eleven, but the Rat Pack tribute act are barely recognizable to her since they are merely a tribute act. What’s more surprising is Nadja doesn’t ring any bells for them when she thrusts her best side forward. This is one of the funniest of the visual gags, so watch for it. She and Laszlo begin the journey excited by the possibilities of the “Mecca of the Depraved” and America’s “premiere playground of hedonistic debauchery.” Each sees a particularly seedy byproduct of Sin City by the Atlantic.

Laszlo sees the shadier side of his friend Shawn, who turns out to be a degenerate gambler who loses his entire savings at the casino. Rather than making the money back in some kind of Ocean’s Twelve heist, which we are vaguely led to believe, the vampires do something unexpected. They steal the scam from a different movie: Let’s Do It Again (1975). To paraphrase The Simpsons’ Abe Simpson talking about a sting he stole from The Sting II: the film stars Bill Cosby, so no one will ever admit seeing it. Without giving too much away, it involves boxing, betting and hypnosis. Also unexpectedly, the idea comes from Guillermo.

The vampires make an almost feeble effort to reach out to Guillermo. As Colin says, companies he works at do it all the time. They treat their employees like family so they are more motivated to ignore their real families. The restaurant scene where the vampires try to feign interest in Guillermo’s interests is short of agonizing. He squirms deliciously under questioning which gets more and more intrusive, inappropriate and embarrassing. His best retort comes after Nadja asks if he has a “chubby” girlfriend he’s hiding somewhere. Guillermo wants to know why she’d have to be chubby.

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Vampires need to travel with the dirt of their ancestral lands. Much is made of this as Nadja, Laszlo and Nandor are packing it up, and spreading it out on the beds in their hotels. This tradition, or curse, goes back to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, who had boxes of earth dragged in from Transylvania to Whitby Abbey. It cost a fortune then, as procured by the vampire genre’s original familiar Jonathan Harker, and it runs into a small fortune in “The Casino,” as Guillermo is sent on a journey to the four corners of a round world on a quest to claim the dirt of each of master’s birth lands. Adding to the joke is the idea Guillermo could just have taken a ride to the house on Staten Island in a fraction of the time. This is never mentioned, as it would never occur to any of the vampires, which only enhances the inherent absentmindedness of the immortal characters.

The three bloodsucking vampires experience a harrowing close call when they are deprived of their dirt. They lose the powers of transformation and hypnotic influence, leaving poor Nadja to her natural charms, which boil down to baseless threats uttered from various prone positions. It’s almost sad and pathetic, but it seems to work for her. Hopefully this is a one-off problem and she doesn’t come to find being pitiful is one of her superpowers.

Colin only watches the 24-hour advertorial channel which explains the features of the luxury hotel on a constant loop. This is mildly annoying to the vampires around him, and must provide sustenance, but Colin really seems to be enjoying the show. This works when he’s so involved in the in-house mini-program he doesn’t notice his roommates’ native soil being vacuumed away by the cleaning crew. But it makes you wonder if, as Colin approaches his hundredth birthday, he needs to get out more.

The problem with energy vampires, as a comedic concept, is finding new ways to make boring things interesting. And here we see it played out from the innermost being of the character. Colin is interested in boring things. He doesn’t even achieve a level of ennui, the suggestion every improv comic dreads when asking the audience for an emotion to play. On one hand, you might think Colin has achieved a level of Zen which is rare and possibly enviable. On the other hand, Buddha appreciated a good joke. He’s always grinning. Colin is barely able to register a smirk.

What We do in the Shadow works best when it is at its most ridiculous, combined with the most mundane. Nandor’s obsession with the Big Bang Theory slot machine is a good example of this. He appreciates how the show captures the energy and feel of the game, and identifies with Sheldon, who he pegs for the leader of the TV show’s group, because he is the tall one. The education he gets from Colin, on the big bang reality of the creation of the universe, is actually quite emotional. The former warrior is on a path to some kind of self-discovery this season, he continually slides into periods of morose reflection.

The vampires are growing in season 3, and the exercise and location shots work wonders for them. It is interesting to watch them interact with humans they call friends, and even go out of their way to do a good deed. The best thing about that is something we only hear in the fade, as Shaun drops the whole bundle on 12. “The Casino” is a sure bet for What We Do in the Shadows, and kibitzers on the line.

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What We Do in the Shadows‘ “The Casino” aired Sept. 16 at 10:00 p.m. on FX.

The post What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 4 Review: The Casino appeared first on Den of Geek.

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What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode 2 Review: The Cloak of Duplication

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This What We Do in the Shadows review contains spoilers.

What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Episode2

What We Do in the Shadows  season 3 episode 2, “The Cloak of Duplication,” finds Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak) and Nadja of Antipaxos, (Natasia Demetriou) in a battle of will, strength, and endurance as they vie for the top seat of the local Vampiric Council. As the episode opens, it appears there is little middle ground for the two bloodsuckers. Nadja vows to fight to the very last ounce of her being to claw the top position from the former warlord’s fingers. Nandor is only looking for a firm number 2.

Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) is a little cocky tonight, openly giggling at vampiric shows of prowess, and making sport of the tiny cages superior beings keep trying to secure him in. He is no longer a familiar, and has no patience for waiting rooms. He’s an open range vampire-pet, and now that he’s been laterally promoted to bodyguard, he’s an absolute rascal. No one has forgotten the slaughter of the season 2 finale, “Nouveau Théâtre des Vampires,” when he took out the most powerful vampires in the Tri-State area. Except maybe Laszlo (Matt Berry), who doesn’t bat an eyelash when Guillermo drops voluminously into the council’s reading nook in a feat of superhuman physical comedy.

“Don’t touch that book, Gizmo” is all Laszlo has to say, saving the young man from a fate of “death by pornography.” The Level B office contains a library which stretches stories, shelves bursting with books and manuscripts, wooden scrolls and papyrus. And in it, buried between first editions of ghastly grimoires and heretical hymnals, is a treasure trove of the rarest pornography in the known world. They go back to the books of enormous Egyptian penises, Laszlo explains, reverently. The absolutely most hysterical is “Roy Cohn, Esquire’s 169 Sex Positions (1954).” It comes out of nowhere and is as relevant today as it was when it first went unpublished.

Timing is the most important element of all the moving arts, but paramount to music and comedy. While the cast of What We Do in the Shadows are expert in this with frightening consistency, there are two moments in “The Cloak of Duplication” which showcase the show’s unique take on timing using two completely different approaches. The first comes in the library. Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) is explaining the expanse of books, the wealth of knowledge contained in those books, and how rare and valuable each and every volume is. When Laszlo casually tears a page from one of those books, a large section of the audience will gasp, without thinking, and then laugh. It is like the cymbal hit on the comic drum triplet of old-time standup comics.

The other example comes when the newly appointed council makes their first house call, to rein in a rogue vampire clan in Queens. After knocking on the door, Nadja and Nandor make their introductions at the same time, but with entirely different intents. Nadja is aggressive, almost violently so, while Nandor is conciliatory, embarrassingly so. They are each soloing at the same time, but they hit the exact same beats, culminating in their introduction of Colin Robinson. Nandor presents the psychic vampire jovially, a new friend who’s come to visit. Nadja throws him down as a threat she can unleash.

Dark Shade (Kristen Schaal), the Guide to the Vampiric Council headquarters, is perfectly unsuited for the role. Whether dealing with the water company or touchy-feely bulls in a China shop of priceless antiquities, she defines the concept of above a pay grade. Schaal maintains a shriek of eternal consternation under her voice at all times. Her annoyance is palpable and her restraint is so thinly veiled it is a wonder how long she manages to contain herself. Even as she tries on the mystical garment which makes for the title of the show.

The Coat-of-many-Nandors subplot is a tour de force for Kayvan Novak. Nandor the Relentless’ description of mano a mano one-upmanship in Massive Fitness is as excruciating as his aggressively competitive weight pumps. But when confronted by his true nemesis, vulnerability and anachronistic impotence, he goes far past the distance. That is Novak doing all the voices of the people who wear the Cloak of Duplication. He’s quite the mimic, and apparently has been entertaining his castmates with impressions of themselves since he hit the set. He not only nails the voices, but the stance or slumps or shoulder rolls of the actors who would be playing in his skin. When Guillermo-as-Nandor runs away from the Massive Fitness femme fatale who has captured Nandor’s heart, it is character comedy platinum.

Through all of this, Nadja pulls off the greatest coup d’etat. She asserts her individual brand of personal power long before its heart-wrenching conclusion. When the two councils all agree they are reasonable vampires, Nadja says “Not me.” She never deviates from the plan and fully commits to the joke, which has been bubbling throughout her performance. Nandor, Colin, and even Laszlo think about some of the larger issues. That there may be more to life than slaughter and bloodlust. Nadja laughs at that, and then steals the entire cloak gag by making it a punchline in a sex joke we must have always known was coming.

” The Cloak of Duplication” was written by Sam Johnson and Chris Marcil, and directed by Yana Gorskaya. Accept no substitute, What We Do in the Shadows is a unique voice in televised horror comedy because it is an extremely traditional sitcom. Even with the innovations of the mock-documentary style and constant barrage on the third wall, it works through classic comedy and character commitment.

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What We Do in the Shadows‘ “The Prisoner” aired Sept. 2 at 10:00 p.m. on FX.

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What We Do in the Shadows Season 3: Guillermo Gets a Promotion

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What We Do in the Shadows season 3 opens after a terrifying reveal for the vampires of Staten Island. Their loyal familiar took things a little too far during a night at the theater, and had to unmask himself as a vampire hunter. It’s something in his blood. Now, normally this would be a good thing, but this time it spelled the end of the Vampiric Council. Guillermo, played by Harvey Guillén, took center stage at the performance.

Vampires don’t like to be upstaged. It gets them quite cross, which they like even less. Guillermo’s last name is de la Cruz, which means “of the cross,” so he doesn’t need to carry one. The easygoing vampire familiar took a major loss in the tri-state area. Season 3’s first episode puts the true death toll at somewhere around 70 percent. “Oh, boy. To do the math would be difficult,” WWDITS writer and executive producer Paul Simms said during FX’s panel at the 2021 Television Critics Association summer press tour. “I don’t know how many there are, but I know that all the important ones were there for the Theatre de Vampires.”

This puts Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), in a quandary in What We Do in the Shadows season 3. Should they kill the hunter? He broke the oldest rule of being a vampire: Don’t kill vampires. Everybody says it. Nandor has been hearing it for centuries, and it’s always seemed like a great rule. But now that the entire, remaining, vampire horde might come knocking, or blowing by in a puff of smoke, a vampire hunter might come in handy. What to do?

“Obviously, where we ended last season, we painted ourselves into a corner, as we always do, with some very high stakes about the vampires’ discovery that Guillermo could kill them at any moment and that he has been living as a vampire killer among them the whole time,” Simms said.

The character of Guillermo has grown in one of the most pronounced arcs of the series. The title of season 3’s first episode is “The Prisoner,” but it is only the first stop in what could be a much longer, or much-much shorter journey. Nadja, her Doll, Laszlo, and Colin Robinson all vote to put Guillermo down. But in a show of bad faith, and possibly worse judgement. It appears they put him on the payroll, at least in a figurative, and more importantly, mostly-unpaid sense.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with Guillermo,” Harvey Guillén admitted during the TCA virtual press tour. “I don’t know until the last minute.” But the actor did mention a promotion, of sorts. “He’s joined the rest of the gang as his or their bodyguard, for lack of a better word, and it will lead to some interesting decisions to be made.”

Guillermo is one of the most easily known characters on the series, in spite of his secretive nature, and probably the most recognizable stand-in for the fans. It could be that he’s alive, breathing, and eating more than raw chicken thighs. But that’s just one flavor in the meal.

“Guillermo has been such a positive character in the Latinx community,” Guillén said. “Even the smallest scene, where he’s talking to his mom. We got so much feedback from people who said, ‘I feel like I was watching my mom and myself have a conversation,’ down to the buñuelos in the background, like little details like that that really make a difference.”

We do know Guillermo makes it to season 4, because in episode 4, “You’re going to meet all of Guillermo’s family in a way that makes Guillermo very anxious,” Simms told the TCA. “And we’re going to learn that if he has Van Helsing DNA, then so does the rest of his family, even though they might not realize it themselves. But that one we haven’t even shot yet.”

If it hasn’t been shot, it may never happen. So, that can still be considered speculative, though it’s nothing the audience doesn’t already know. Guillermo may be the last character standing by then. He may have given in to his vampire slaying nature.

But for now, Guillermo is happy to floss fangs for his master. FX Networks dropped a teaser preview called “Friend,” which sees very content vampire familiar catching up with old souls.

“In Season 3, the vampires are elevated to a new level of power and will encounter the vampire from which all vampires have descended, a tempting Siren, gargoyles, werewolf kickball, Atlantic City casinos, wellness cults, ex-girlfriends, gyms, and supernatural curiosities galore,” reads the synopsis. 

We can, at least for now, rest assured the hunter wants to be a vampire more than he wants to slay them.

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What We Do in the Shadows season 3 premieres Sept. 2, on FX.

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What We Do in the Shadows: Colin Robinson Steals Our Energy Through the TV

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“Hopefully I am defining what an actual energy vampire is instead of someone on the outer edges of society,” says Mark Proksch, who plays the life force gourmand on FX’s What We Do in the Shadows. The actor who plays that Dilbert-looking guy who shares a house on Staten Island with a liquid-diet trio tells Den of Geek about the many challenges and bonuses to being an energy vampire.

Regular vampires, the classic kind played by Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), and Laszlo (Matt Berry), drink blood, a virgin’s if possible. It is a reliable staple as far as nutrition and horror lore. The psychic or energy vampire’s food source is a little tougher to discern. Sometimes called prana or chi, it is the neurological system’s electromagnetic debris. It flows like tears, pours out like laughter and lunges at you like terror.

Proksch’s Colin Robinson likes to nibble on the edge of people’s comfort zone, occasionally even discomforting the actor. “The Superb Owl party where I was adjusting the controller on the TV, that was annoying,” Proksch tells us. “I would be so annoyed if someone did that to me and while I was doing that it kinda got on my nerves.”

Like the energy vampire he embodies, Colin Robinson has been an all-consuming role for Proksch. It has even sucked, and yet oddly given, life from roles the character actor has created his entire career. “I saw a tweet the other day about how Nate on The Office was also some kind of energy vampire in some respect,” Proksch says. While Proksch is quick to point out people are “lumping in the kind of weirdos I play with energy vampires as a whole,” there is a temptation to believe it is all a conspiracy to suck the world dry through the dry wit of a single role.

The actor shares a few characteristics with Colin, but it usually feeds a comic need. “I kind of enjoy making people feel uncomfortable,” Proksch admits. “I find it very, very funny.” Before indulging a resource-draining and time-consuming love of baseball cards on Better Call Saul, Proksch’s alter ego fed off live broadcast energies. “I would go on these morning shows as this yoyoist named K-Strass,” he says. “That is totally my sense of humor, where other people are uncomfortable but I am still the butt of the joke. I’m the idiot. So watching their actual normal reactions, that any human being would have, to this dolt, to me is really funny. So telling a bad joke is funny to me because I get to watch the reactions of people who actually think I’m an idiot or a moron, and that’s endlessly funny to me.”

The actor also spoke about some of the deeper mysteries surrounding Colin Robinson, like how old he is. Proksch says that “question varies from day to day.”  His character was supposed to be living with the “other vampires for a couple hundred years but then I was thinking, in the ‘Ghosts’ episode my grandma doesn’t look that old at all, relatively. I feel like there’s some explaining to do this next season.”

What We Do in the Shadows is a series adaptation of the feature film created by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, who occasionally drop by for  guest roles. Clement’s fluid invention is based on keeping actors on the threshold of their comfort zone. “He’ll beg us to go off the script, like they did in the movie which was just outlined,” Proksch says. “I think that’s what he would love to have on the show, is to have it be 100 percent improvised.” Proksch doesn’t see that happening “because we personally, the actors, love the scripts.” He says What We Can Do in the Shadows “is 40% or 30% improvised.”

During the sophomore season, Colin gets promoted to boss at an office of a company he knows nothing about. He booked the Nadja & Laszlo singing duet into an open mic night, and fed off them like Colonel Parker fed off Elvis Presley. He also trolls a Troll.

What We Do in the Shadows season 2 ends with the Staten Island quartet on trial for the murders of Baron Afanas and Countless others by the Vampire Commission, a commission Colin himself sits on and should have been notified, preferably in triplicate. “Sometimes a joke is just a joke,” Proksch admits. “Maybe it’s because they found out my roommates killed another vampire or kicked him off because he was clearly draining them all the time.”

What We Do in the Shadows airs on FX.

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