What We Do In The Shadows takes us on a gorgeous road trip
When this final season of What We Do In The Shadows kicked off, I noted that it felt a bit like the show was running through a greatest-hits compilation of its best episode "types": the "single vampire quirk taken to its illogical extreme" episode," or the "vampires try to fit in with regular people" installment. Tonight's episode, "Nandor's Army," then, is the sixth season's run at the show's most ambitious episode style: the vampire road trip. And while the episode can't quite match the heights of classics like "On The Run" or "The Casino," it's still an absolutely gorgeous half-hour of comedy, with Kayvan Novak and Harvey Guillén doing their typically excellent best at finding the humanity in this intensely goofy supernatural comedy.
We kick off in the aftermath of "The Railroad," with Nandor having vanished due to the humiliation of Guillermo firing him from Cannon Capital Strategies. After his roommates exhaust all possible avenues of searching for him—bear traps, yelling, a reward that steadily escalates to five whole American dollars—the Baron calls to let them know he's holed up in New Hampshire. (Nadja, whispers: "Don't tell him about the reward money!") It turns out Nandor's gone full Colonel Kurtz in the wreckage of the Hancock & Sons clothing factory after it was destroyed by Cannon's buyout, and it's up to his roomies (and Gizmo) to bring him home before his ranting draws too much attention. Cue a unique title sequence (complete with a cover of the theme song): It's road trip time.
The most immediately notable thing about "Nandor's Army" is how good it looks: Although it uses its mockumentary format well—and always has a distinctive look, thanks to the care that goes into its costuming and set design—What We Do In The Shadows is as prone to visual formula as any long-running sitcom. The show falls back, more often than not, on traditional single-cam setups because they work, and because the focus is on the comedy and the performances more than the visuals. Occasionally, though, it's clear that regular director Yana Gorskaya—the show's go-to helmer for anything involving action—would like to flex a bit, and "Army" is a beautiful example. Bathed in the eerie lighting of the ruined factory (whether it's the candle light and flickering fluorescents of the main room, or the harsh glow of Nandor's mannequin-filled "war room"), this is a lovely-looking episode of television, filled with artfully shot close-ups that put emphasis on Nandor's descent into madness. (The fact that a lot of these are direct visual riffs on Apocalypse Now doesn't change the fact that Novak looks cool as fuck perched in shadow in Nandor's full warrior's regalia.)
It's a case of the episode looking a bit more original than it actually is, with the script telling a pretty basic Guillermo-Nandor story, along with a very What We Do In The Shadows twist. (It turns out Nandor's not crazy, he really does have an army, and he sends them to go raze Dartmouth after he gets talked out of the whole endeavor.) None of this is bad, mind you: This is a very funny episode, with the rest of the cast navigating their buddy's madness in character-typical ways. Colin Robinson gets lost in the fantasy, Laszlo retreats into his own intellectual authority, Nadja gets pissed at Laszlo retreating into his own intellectual authority, and Guillermo actually solves the issue. Those last scenes are the heart of this whole thing, and the point where it becomes more than just a bunch of gorgeously shot jokes layered over familiar story beats. Because, not for the first time, Guillermo and Nandor get into it.
The surface issue is, of course, the firing, but the pair quickly dig into the real conflict: the break-up they went through when Guillermo decided he didn't want to be a vampire anymore. Nandor's vision of his perfect loyalty to his former familiar is typically skewed by his vampiric self-absorption, but the basic point is very human: The two of them had a plan, Guillermo backed out of it to go do something else, and now they're both floundering a little. As with the best Nandor-Gizmo fights, the heaviness of the feelings is leavened with both comedy and affection (including Nandor's confession of his human days that he might have betrayed "some of the wives, but, you know, it was a different time," complete with a shameful little glance at the camera). In the end, Nandor gets what he actually wanted, an acknowledgement from Guillermo that he hurt him, and resolves to wrap up the whole "waging a bloody war on Wall Street" thing. At which point, of course, Laszlo and Nadja's B-plot "ruse" goes off, re-triggering their deranged buddy into battle mode and ending the episode with a bit of pyrotechnics, a brief confrontation with a police officer, and then a quick meeting with Nandor's actual army.
"Nandor's Army" isn't perfect Shadows: Colin's plot is rote, for all that Mark Proksch sells lines like "Somebody help me frag myself!" And the Nadja-Laszlo conflict feels manufactured, despite making some gestures to tying into the season-long plot of Nadja being interested in doing stuff in the human world. (Nadja and Laszlo are very funny characters, but one of the reasons they tend to end up in B-plots is because, unlike Nandor's roiling ball of need, their interests and wants are inherently mercurial.) But imperfect What We Do In The Shadows is still better than most other comedies on TV, and when a show looks this good, lands this many jokes, and still manages to service its central relationship so well, it's hard to lodge more than a handful of surface complaints.
Stray observations
- • It's kind of shocking this show has never done a "finger food" joke before. Matt Berry redeems the basic joke-book-level barb with how enthusiastically he sucks those digits.
- • Doug Jones is always welcome as the Baron; he manages to fit like three extra syllables into "New Hampshire."
- • "Ugh, it smells like slow death in here." "Malaria." "Nightmaaares."
- • "Ah, but what I found…"
"A bunch of preppy crap?"
"Preppy essentials."
- • When Colin Robinson calls out Laszlo's plan for helping Nandor as "Shutter Island rules, so to speak," Berry responds with what might be the single weirdest "Mmmmhmmm" I've ever heard.
- • Laszlo would like to remind you that the "sex doll monster thing" is not a sex doll.
- • "Nadja, what I meant to say was something with the identical sentiment that wouldn't piss you off."
- • "THE DEAD DO NOT MENSTRUATE." It's always fun to see Nadja actually use her powers. (Similarly, seeing Laszlo kick the car around later looks cool.)
- • "My darling, you are the funniest, most clever, sweetest, and most beautiful woman in the world—not just Staten Island, the world. And I'm not even mentioning the ten out of ten pussy. You deserve the best."
- • Reunited, Laszlo and Nadja make the perfect cop seducing team: "Hello Mr. Officer, what seems to be the problem, apart from the fact that my large, wet bosom won't stop sloshing around?" "I say, officer, you remind me of a cross between a young Paul Newman and a man I'm about to fuck."
- • Oh, and the cop briefly draws attention to the film crew (for those of you keeping track of how many times they've been put in the foreground this season).