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Netflix's Arcane Season 2 Act 1 delivered all of the action, emotion, intensity, and heartache we hoped for and then dialed it up further.
Posted in: FX, Review, TV, What We Do In The Shadows | Tagged: fx networks, Review, season 5, what we do in the shadows, wwdits
What We Do in the Shadows Season 5 E01/E02 Review: Vampiric Conundrum
What We Do in the Shadows kicked off with "The Mall" & "A Night Out With the Guys," and it was as if they were never gone in the first place.
This week the new season of FX's What We Do in the Shadows kicked off with its first two episodes, "The Mall" and "A Night Out With the Guys," and it is as if they were never gone in the first place. The show continues on as strong as ever and does not miss a beat; it organically fits into the previous season's finale and seamlessly continues and recounts the story of what happened right where we had left off.
It seems Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) has been acting very off lately – even the vampires have noticed. It has been a few weeks, and Guillermo refuses to fully disclose what happened, at least in one sitting. Laszlo (Matt Berry), as always, seems to be more observant and knows something is off, which Nandor (Kayvan Novak) believes to be because they forgot Guillermo's birthday and decided to go celebrate where Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) is now a waiter out feeding off of customers annoyed with his antics, just as boring and quirky as ever.
We find out the biggest humiliation for a vampire is for their familiar to be turned into a vampire by someone else; it is so frowned upon Nandor informs Guillermo that he would have to kill him if that ever happened and then kill himself. Last we saw Guillermo he had taken all the money he had kept aside from the club and brought it over to Derek (Chris Sandiford) in exchange for being turned into a vampire. However, he did not count on Derek having an issue with seeing his own blood and fainting at the sight of it. Guillermo also did not count on not fully turning into a vampire and being stuck as a mongrel in-between. Guillermo is still able to eat and even walk under the sun. I always imagined and discussed with my roommate how I believe Guillermo's background would make it impossible to be turned, though I did not have it in my bingo card that he would turn halfway into a dhampir pretty much. Now I wonder if it is because of Guillermo's lineage or because Derek is not his master.
I do find it funny that Guillermo agrees to take them to the mall with him and actually believes they will stay still. I loved there was a carousel that Nandor was enjoying way too much, and that Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) finds their version of Build-A-Bear. I am a fan of when the adventures take place outside of their home, which by the way it is now fixed. No more racoons or water damage, yay. Guillermo on his end goes to get a new pair of glasses while Laszlo is following him to get an inkling of what is going on since they cannot quite pinpoint what is wrong with Guillermo. Not going to lie, all the time they were in the mall all I could think was of Robin Sparkles song in How I Met Your Mother. Enjoy it with me now.
The first episode seamlessly connects to the second one, as Guillermo has already made it a point of addressing how the vampires keep forgetting to hide their supernatural abilities, always resulting in having to hypnotize humans. We see an example of Nandor hypnotizing a whole NBA stadium after tripping on the stairs. Laszlo keeps calling him out for resorting to hypnosis for everything instead of using his charm the way Laszlo himself does. We see them go out on a boys' night with Sean (Anthony Atamanuik) and his friends while hilarity ensues as Laszlo and Nandor try using their charm to get out of increasingly worse situations. Very few things are better than Nandor and Laszlo bickering in competition.
On her end, The Guide (Kristen Schaal) is back and trying to become part of their vampire clique; she has now become the new Guillermo/Colin, and they seem to get pretty annoyed with anything she does. It was as funny as it was sad, I have a soft spot for the guide, and her face kept breaking my heart trying to act like she belongs while Nadja keeps saying she has no girlfriends. However, the Guide helps her find the cause of her bad luck, which seems she will never really get considering she seems to lack the capacity to be kind to a needing soul, as we see throughout the episode.
Guillermo goes with Derek to visit one of our favorite vampires, Baron Afanas (Doug Jones), who is still living with the Sire. I love that the Baron is back; I hope to see them get into more adventures now that his body is back (a standalone episode?), though I will miss his half-charred self riding the hellhound. The Baron does bring some insight into Guillermo's situation and shows him what could happen if he were to be turned again by Nandor. Hint-hint? No bueno.
The first two episodes of What We Do in the Shadows were fantastic, and I have to say that Laszlo further solidified his spot as my favorite bat-boi. I love how observant he is, even when he acts like he does not care. Toward the end, we see him approach Guillermo, stating he knows what he is hiding – which Laszlo believes to be the shits. Of course. However, being scared, Guillermo confesses to what he has done, and, even while angry, Laszlo tries to help by suggesting charming Nandor into biting him again – which Guillermo refuses because we already know what could happen if that was the case. So many questions! Is it Guillermo's blood? Derek's? Or the fact that Derek is not his master? I am excited to see where this season of What We Do in the Shadows goes and cannot wait to see what Guillermo discovers along the way.
What We Do in the Shadows Season 5 Episodes 1 & 2: "The Mall" & "A Night Out With the Guys"
9/10
This week the new season of FX's What We Do in the Shadows kicked off with its first two episodes, "The Mall" and "A Night Out With the Guys," and it is as if they were never gone in the first place. The show continues on as strong as ever and does not miss a beat; it organically fits into the previous season's finale and seamlessly continues and recounts the story of what happened right where we had left off.
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