What We Do in the Shadows, the 2014 big-screen release, introduced me to Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. Their dry humor with a supernatural twist was right up my alley and the original vampire mockumentary had me in stitches. Instantly, I became a fanboy. While both filmmakers went their separate ways en route to Hollywood, they would return to collaborate in adapting their undead creatures to the small screen five years later.
Not exactly a reboot, the FX television show is set within the same shared cinematic universe, one where Viago and Vladislav will randomly make appearances. Expanding upon the canon, this series follows the every-day exploits of Laszlo Cravensworth (played by Matt Berry), Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou), Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) and Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillén).
Through five seasons, the vampires’ ultimate plans of conquering the Western hemisphere may have somewhat stalled, but each episode, they do their best to take over Staten Island in their own ways. At times, it feels like a supernatural Seinfeld — a show about nothing — and maybe that’s why I’m such a huge fan. That groundbreaking comedy was one of my favorites and this one has also proven to be full of comedy gold.
Even though Nandor is the self-proclaimed leader of this brood, more often than not, Laszlo is the brains behind the bunch. While the latter character may not get the most oneliners of this group, he does demand their respect (especially whenever he’s incredibly wrong). Especially in Season 5, Matt Berry proved to be acting his ass off, and his hard work has finally been recognized by the television industry by receiving the nomination of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series at the Primetime Emmy Awards!
Pride Parade was probably the most outrageous episodes of Season 5, which is currently nominated for quite a few Emmys.
This is incredible news, because for so many years, genre entertainment was always snubbed by the awards shows. Slowly but surely, that trend changed somewhere around the time that The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones became mainstream hits, along with Twilight (shudder). For a show that’s received many nominations and a few award wins from various critics’ groups — Shadows won its only previous Emmy for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes in 2022 — this is the show’s biggest singular acting nomination, and it shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Throughout the past year, Laszlo has been tirelessly tasked with finding a cure for delaying or even stopping the vampiric transmogrification of the group’s familiar, Guillermo. Acting more like a mad scientist than a friend, his attempts usually end up with haywire results, and I’d expect nothing less from Waititi and Clement.
One of my favorite episodes of the entire series involves Mark Hamill as a special guest star in Season 2. “On the Run” finds Laszlo fleeing from a former roommate, Jim the Vampire, who demands overdue rent from 167 years ago, as well as retribution. Of all the times I wanted to see an undead Luke Skywalker make his presence firmly felt, it was Berry who shines the most and dare I say, outacted Hamill as he takes on the persona of Jackie Daytona. I was shocked by that outcome (and continue to love the episode to death), but that was the moment when Berry began to flex his big acting chops.
It’s been three years since that seminal moment and a lot has changed for our main characters, but Berry’s acting felt like it began to improve from that point moving forward. And the show has prospered with that development.
What We Do in the Shadows is currently nominated for eight Emmys and I truly hope the show wins a few awards, as Season 6 will be the show’s swansong. Awards season is finally upon us.
The 76th Primetime Emmy Awards will include Shadows noms for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series, Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Program (Half-Hour), Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes, Outstanding Picture Editing For A Single-Camera Comedy Series, Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (Half-Hour) And Animation and Outstanding Stunt Coordination For Comedy Programming, to go with Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series.
I’ll be cheering on the show, but especially Mr. Berry, who deserves the trophy!