‘What We Do in the Shadows’: Inside FX’s Relentlessly Funny House of Vampires

John P Johnson/FX

This is the story of centuries-old vampires who live together in present-day Staten Island, do vampire stuff and have their lives taped. Find out what happens when vampires stop being polite and start getting real.

What We Do in the Shadows (Wednesdays beginning March 27 at 10pm ET/PT) is FX’s series adaptation of the 2014 cult-hit film by writers, directors and stars Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok). The mockumentary revealed the mundane lives of four vampires from the old country who try (and often fail) to maintain their undead identities in a modern world that hasn’t yet tolerated drinking human blood. (FX will have a few airings of the movie in advance of the TV series premiere: There’s one on March 25 at 11pm ET/PT.)

While the film was set in New Zealand and followed vampires Vlad (Clement), Viago (Waititi), Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) and Petyr (Ben Fransham), the series takes place in New York with a whole new cast of housemates:

Nandor (Kayvan Novak) This former soldier in the Ottoman Empire was known as Nandor the Relentless for his unwillingness to relent. Fastidious Nandor does not appreciate his housemates leaving half-consumed victims lying in the basement.

Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) Frequently hovering outside men’s bedroom windows, Nadja has a romantic interest in a man she believes to be the reincarnation of her old lover, Gregor.

Laszlo (Matt Berry) Once the most handsome man in a village severely afflicted with plague and leprosy, Laszlo was given the curse of immortality by Nadja.

Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) Nandor’s “familiar” human assistant who desperately wants his master to bite him some day. Until then, he’ll cut the lawn, acquire virgins for feasts and dispose of emptied corpses.

Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) A powerful “psychic” vampire who can drain people’s energy merely by enraging them or boring them with long conversation (his office workplace is his “hunting ground”), Colin also has the ability to siphon energy from other vampires.

 

 

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Member of the Television Critics Association. Charter member of the Ancient and Mystic Society of No Homers. Squire of the Ancient & Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49, Long Beach, Calif. Costco Wholesale Gold Star Member since 2011.