Emmy Catch-Up: What We Do in the Shadows

Every year, I watch the six submitted episodes of every series I don’t regularly watch that’s up for one of the Emmy series prizes. This year, I’m watching the entire season of every series nominated in the top category.

What We Do in the Shadows: Season 2, Episode 8 “Collaboration” (B)

This is the third of the episodes of this show to be nominated for an Emmy for writing, and it was amon the more entertaining installments thus far. The vampires are so out of touch with modernity that they didn’t realize that all the songs Laszlo wrote have been turned into something else that’s become wildly popular, with the exception of Kokomo, which apparently is exactly the way that they wrote it. I’m not sure why they never seem to realize that Colin is trying to drain them when he pretends to be helpful, and he got so excited about the opportunity to unlock anger and boredom with the unbeatable recipe of old-timey music. He wasn’t happy with how the audience ultimately embraced Laszlo and Njada, and to their credit, they at least decided not to lead with lyrics like “Tell us, Mr. Hitler, what you have planned next.” The sudden return of Benjy, the now-elderly former familiar of Nandor who was left at a rest stop years earlier and regained his memories after taking Lumosity, made Guillermo feel hopeless about ever being turned into a vampire, and as a result he had a teary goodbye with the master who put on a show that he didn’t care about him at all. I just saw actress Greta Lee, who played Celeste, in an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” and she also appeared recently on “Miracle Workers” and “Russian Doll.” Her newfangled approach to being a vampire seemed too good to be true, and the return of her twelve-year-old master resulted in a brutal bloodbath. It was endearing to see Nandor come back to get Guillermo and agree reluctantly to his terms of one day off a week and better snacks than ice chips.