What We Do in the Shadows · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 27 March 2019
S1E1 Pilot
THE MOMENT The Staten Island vampire council meeting - the episode's comic escalation that demonstrates the series' ability to find absurdity in vampire mythology without condescending to it.
What We Do in the Shadows' FX series premiere transplants Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement's mockumentary vampire format from New Zealand to Staten Island. The American adaptation establishes its register immediately - the Staten Island housemateship of four ancient vampires being documented by a camera crew - and proves that the premise is more elastic than its feature film origin...
Full episode analysis below. Spoiler-light verdict above.
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What We Do in the Shadows' pilot is the best possible argument for the expansion of a beloved IP: it finds the American context for Waititi and Clement's vampire mythology without replicating it. The Staten Island setting is the premise's masterstroke - its specific mundanity makes the ancient vampire housemateship funnier than any more gothic or glamorous location could. The ensemble is perfectly cast: Kayvan Novak's Nandor as deadpan authority, Matt Berry's Laszlo as enthusiastic hedonist, Natasia Demetriou's Nadja as the emotional centre, and Harvey Guillen's Guillermo as the straight man whose dreams of vampirehood give the show its human tether. At 97% Rotten Tomatoes across its run, the pilot established a series that grew only stronger in subsequent seasons.