“What We Do in the Shadows” was never intended to be the perfect pandemic comedy. In the way of all TV legends, it simply happened to peak at the right time, hitting its creative stride in a sophomore season that coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With many of us retreating to our crypts and sanctums, Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), his "lady wife" Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) really got us.
Think about it – they spent most of their time inside their Staten Island mansion, only leaving when the streets and stores were emptier at night. Even doing that was risky.
The only household member who could (besides Colin Robinson, a day-walker) is Nandor’s familiar Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillén), who assumed bodyguard duties when he discovered Van Helsing's lineage in his bloodline. Together they pulled off successful coups, took over the Eastern branch of the Supreme Vampire Council, and even welcomed new roommates. The Guide (Kristen Schaal) was a frequent guest in the third and fourth seasons, before becoming a regular in Season 5, while Cravensworth's Monster (Andy Assaf) came to life in the sixth. Otherwise, none experienced meaningful emotional growth.
Now, without any warning to Guillermo, their six-season mockumentary has shut down. Fans of the show had plenty of notice, though, even if in the middle of “The Finale” Demetriou's Nadja breaks the fourth wall to seemingly address everyone watching at home. “How are you guys doing with this whole thing ending? Do you need to talk to someone? Because I’m here.”
It’s a lot of pressure, concocting a flawless ending. Showrunner Paul Simms and his collaborators on the last episode, Sam Johnson and Sarah Naftalis, nod in that direction by interrupting what looks like another idiotic venture – the Monster is horny, so Laszlo decides to make him a companion — with our vampires knocking off with zero fanfare. Since Nadja enjoys pretending to care, she “hypnotizes” the audience into thinking they’ve achieved the perfect finale by recreating what most people agree to be the perfect movie ending, albeit a version starring our vamps.
To mark the ending of what’s been a beautiful six-season relationship, we checked in with Novak and Schaal to get their sense of how the story landed and what its long run portends for TV comedy more broadly.
The following interview transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
“What We Do in the Shadows arrived at a time that was very uncertain for the world, and now it's leaving at a time that's very uncertain for the world. And I wonder what it’s like to be departing at this point, from your perspective?
Kristen Schaal: It is sad. . . . And I think I was saying that I feel like I'll never be on a show as surreal and quick and weird as this one. It's just such a unique show, and I'm hoping that somebody else will write more shows like this, like you know that go into a mythological, supernatural world, but it's still sort of accessible and funny as hell. That's my dream. But I think the world's gonna be OK. I think we're gonna get through this.
What about you, Kayvan?
Kayvan Novak: I gotta say, man, this whole experience gets an A+ from me. It's been a beautiful journey, and I met some beautiful people, and . . . I felt like I've raised my game and learned a lot. And, you know, meeting the fans — the way you express how fond you are of the show. That’s really what it boils down to — the audience getting a kick out of it. I'm just a small piece of the puzzle, so I'm just lucky that all the other pieces of the puzzle fit so beautifully together.
To Kristen's point, there aren't that many series like this. By that, I mean that there are all these ongoing debates right now about what is a comedy, and this so clearly is. That’s something I wanted to talk to you about Kristen, is the fact that you are co-starring in this and you're also in “Bob's Burgers." When we think about comedy now, especially on broadcast TV, a lot of it is animated comedy. What do you think “Shadows” shows us about the potential for the role of classic, live-action comedy on TV?
Schaal: Well, that it can be embraced by a big audience, and that people will really love it and they need it. Yeah, it's such a good point. Like people love “Bob's Burgers” and “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” — all those shows. There's something about just comedy that feels so good to people, and I think it's really healing. It's so important. I think it kind of gets disrespected. I’ve said that over and over again: I think people take for granted what a necessary part it is of the human experience. So yeah, being on “What We Do in the Shadows,” where comedy is king, the joke comes first, is something people might be scared to do. But in the end, it also found the heart that everybody craves . . . but in a way that was, sadly, really unique. Because there are not a lot of very funny live-action comedies out there. I do like “English Teacher” a lot.
Me too.
Schaal: In any case, I forgot what your question was, but I hope I answered it.
You did. I think what I'm going to miss is the fact that this is probably the closest a live-action comedy can get to what is classically said about animated comedy, which is you can do things in animation that you can't do with live-action. Kayvan, as someone who's been part of the cast since the beginning, what has been your favorite aspect of that unreality that you’ll maybe miss the most?
Novak: I think it's a sum of all its parts. . . . It’s such a collection of senses and flavors and textures that just to single one thing out, I don't know that I could. Wearing fangs, going up on a wire, being able to fly. Being some kind of superhero, almost, but an incredibly selfish one. Yeah, it's just an experience like no other. I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna have an experience like it again, but that's OK because it’s so great that I got to experience it for so long anyway.
Schaal: And I also want to just give some props to FX for taking a chance on a “Shadows” TV show. I mean, [executive producer Taika Waititi], and [creator Jemaine Clement] had created something that was already a bit of an underground classic, but . . . nobody's weird idea about vampires living together is getting any money these days. And to give it time, too, to grow and to get an audience is so important. There are a lot of shows that, if it doesn't get an audience within two episodes, they can them. So this show was just so lucky to be protected.
I also like to think about how, like, Jemaine with “Flight of the Conchords” and this show, it's like, these aren’t people who are thinking about, “What's going to make money? What's been working? What can we copy?” Like, these are guys living in New Zealand, kind of far away from everybody being like, “What makes us laugh?” And it's these shows, that touch everybody's imaginations, and are taking us away in a fun escape — I just want more of these kinds of shows, and I hope that they happen.
And then part of it too, and this is going to segue into the next part is looking at these relationships over time, of course, Kayvan, one of them was Nandor and Guillermo, but I'm wondering, if you how you two thought about the outcome of Nandor announcing he had a crush on The Guide, and her saying, “Oh, no.” Was that ever something that you two had hoped would become solidified or are you in agreement that the evaluation that The Guide made was correct?
Schaal: I think in the end, her evaluation is correct. I think she's too tired for that BS. But I was excited to have any scenes with Kayvan because he's such a lovely scene partner. I wanted more Kayvan at work, so that was good. And just to circle back to the finale, I think it's rare that a show gets told that they're going to end. So to be able to hone an ending was also like another gift. Of course, we would have loved to have gone on for 25 more seasons, but I'm usually on a show that gets canceled, and we didn't think we would, and then we don't get to have a good closure. It's going to be good for the box set.
Novak: Yeah, I agree with all that. I didn't think that Nandor was ever gonna get anywhere with The Guide. I mean, come on she knows him too well. You know, she’s met the guy and she knows exactly what he's up to. He's just taking his chances because he's run out of ideas. So, you know, she's the last potential partner at the house party who just has no interest in him whatsoever. It was never gonna happen.
I can't let you go without referring to . . . the movie reference [to "The Usual Suspects"] that was in the finale. Do you both agree that's one of the most perfect outcomes or perfect finales to a film?
Schaal: I agree! I loved it. I think it is, I was saying to the last, the last beat, where they go down into the tunnel. I think is such a gift for the fans to know that you're saying, “These stories are not over.” And if they want to pick up and write the adventures of Guillermo and Nandor in a comic book or a movie or fan fiction online, they should. I hope they do.
There was a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight,” in comic book form. So who knows?
Novak: I thought they picked the right movie to parody because that ending . . . is so iconic. It needed to be something that is kind of burned into people's consciousness, really, unless you haven't watched it, and then you wonder what the hell is going on. But you know, you've got to take chances.
It was a fearless ending. And now we are seasonless and jobless, but also, fearless.
All seasons of "What We Do in the Shadows" are currently streaming on Hulu.
