'SHADOWS' TAPS A VEIN OF HUMOR

Unless you count snarky heroes and heroines with snappy comeback, humor is sometimes hard to find in our world of square-jawed starship captains and tough alien fighters. The same can be said for our sister authors’ world of paranormal lusty shapeshifters, vampires and werewolves. Makes one long for the days of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (a film I can practically quote line for line).

I had high hopes for The Orville, Seth McFarlane’s homage to Star Trek on the FX Networks. But often the series can’t decide whether it’s a full-out comedy, a parody/satire, or some form of dramatic honorific to the original series. Most episodes elicit little more than a chuckle.

Born in the 12th Century? Your cake needs lots of candles!

But FX keeps trying. Even if vampires and werewolves aren’t particularly your thing in a serious vein (ha-ha), What We Do in the Shadows, the latest FX paranormal parody, is bound to make you laugh. I tuned in on a whim and found it hilarious. This half-hour mockumentary following the misadventures of a tiny nest of modern-day vamps (including one energy vampire!) and their hapless human familiar is just the thing to watch after a long day of depressing news and an extended TV schedule of dark dramas.

In this show, based on a 2014 New Zealand film, an ancient Turkish vampire, Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), attempts to lead his supposed followers, Nadya (Natasia Demetriou) and Lazlo (Matt Berry), with less success than he might have herding cats. His bumbling familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) wishes only to become a vamp but is constantly ignored and belittled. Then there is Mark Proksch’s Colin Robinson (always the full name), the energy vampire of your nightmares (or your office). He basically talks you to death, his eyes lighting up as he steals your energy all the while.

A recent episode had the vamps fighting off an attack from a pack of werewolves (the werewolves were pissing on the lawn). Rules of a truce between the two groups demanded that each side choose a champion for a showdown. The wolves chose their biggest fighter to face Nandor using as weapons only his teeth and claws. Nandor chose his weapon—a squeaky toy. Which he promptly threw off the roof where they were fighting. The werewolf chased it over—and down to his death. I, um, howled!

How long the writers and directors (original film writer Jemaine Clement, among others) can keep this going is a real question. Watching the Undead from the 12^th Century (or Victorian England or Romania—Lazlo and Nadya are “younger”) trying to navigate such modern-day bafflements as the grocery store or a city council meeting is pretty funny, but, as we are seeing with Saturday Night Live, even a good gag—and a talented cast—eventually stops producing laughs.

For now, though, I’m happy to be along for the ride.

What We Do in the Shadows, Wednesdays at 10:00 EDT on FX.

Cheers, Donna