“It is a dark time in Staten Island,” Nandor (Kayvan Novak) gloomily states in the opening to What We Do in the Shadows Season 3. When we last left this house of New York vampires, Nandor’s familiar, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) had not only been revealed to the group as a vampire hunter, but had killed 70 percent of the vampires in the tri-state area. Between living with a descendent of Van Helsing, and the Vampire Council out to kill them, things were at an all-time low for this quartet of blood-suckers.
But What We Do in the Shadows is a comedy, and not only that, it's one of the best shows on television, so instead of tear the group apart, the actions of Guillermo only bring this group closer together in Season 3. With plenty of new openings on the Vampire Council, the group becomes the Leaders of the Vampire Council of the Eastern Seaboard of the New World, while Guillermo gets a sort of promotion as Vampire’s Bodyguard. In Season 3, what didn’t kill this group has actually made them stronger, as these new positions of power for our favorite Staten Island vampires makes What We Do in the Shadows even better than ever.
In the first four episodes of Season 3, the What We Do in the Shadows team is mostly splitting their time between their home and their new base of operations at the Vampiric Council Headquarters. This new location is full of wonders — many of which end up being poorly used or ruined by the new council members — much to the chagrin of their Vampiric Council advisor, The Guide (Kristen Schaal). In the episode “The Cloak of Duplication,” the title garment is used to help Nandor get a girlfriend at his local gym. Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) seeks out information about his past as an energy vampire, while Laszlo (Matt Berry) is preoccupied with the library’s wealth of pornography, including the “Knobnomicon.” Meanwhile, Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Nandor are bickering over who should be the true leader of the council.
By binding this group together even tighter than before, and making Guillermo a much more pronounced member of this team, What We Do in the Shadows becomes almost like a big family in this new season. Especially in Nandor’s search for love — a prominent part of “The Cloak of Duplication,” and the third episode, “Gail” — we see just how much this group truly cares for each other after centuries together. The jokes are funnier and faster than they’ve ever been, yet it’s the way that Season 3 pulls these five together that makes this feel less like a workplace comedy than it has in previous seasons.
What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 also brings together combinations of characters that shouldn’t work, but come together beautifully. In “Gail,” Laszlo and Colin have pity on each other’s loneliness and begin to bond as they attempt to move Laszlo’s coal/petrol hybrid car out of the Vampiric Council offices. As we see different mixtures of characters, we get to see heretofore unseen layers that go beyond the characterizations we’ve come to know and love. This means that after the first four episodes, we start to have empathy for Colin’s lack of a past, Guillermo's difficult childhood, and Nandor’s desire to find his 38th wife. What We Do in the Shadows becomes one of the few shows with heart that also features a person getting their heart literally ripped out of their chest.
While Season 2 proved that giving individual characters their time in the spotlight could bring about some of the show’s best episodes, as with the Jackie Daytona-starring “On the Run,” What We Do in the Shadows also brilliantly excels when it focuses on this group as a whole. The best of these first four episodes, “The Casino,” takes the crew to Atlantic City for what might be the show’s finest half-hour.
“The Casino” shows how well this crew works as one, but also how easily this group falls apart without the help of Guillermo. Nandor becomes obsessed with a The Big Bang Theory slot machine and the concept of The Big Bang, Nadja relives her period as a Frat Pack groupie with a terribly unconvincing tribute band, and Colin finds a new favorite television show: the in-room hotel ads. As if that’s not enough, the episode tops the packed trip with a heist that would make their Ocean’s Twelve-loving neighbor, Atlantic City partner, and Laszlo’s best friend, Shaun (Anthony Atamanuik) proud. While the episode end with Colin Robinson semi-cynically saying “we’re all a big family here,” the episode has made this feel like this has been an honest evolution of this group.
What We Do in the Shadows has been one of the funniest shows on television since it debuted, while Season 2 escalated our appreciation for each individual character on their own. Season 3 continues to be hilarious and advance character development, but does all of this while unifying this group even tighter as a tremendous ensemble. By bringing new power and new responsibilities to these characters, What We Do in the Shadows brings new blood and an exciting future to one of television’s great comedies.
Rating: A
What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 premieres its first two episodes on September 2 on FX+, with new episodes airing on Thursdays.