What We Do in the Shadows: City Council

April 3, 2019 8:07 PM - Season 1, Episode 2

The vampires get embroiled in local Staten Island politics as their first step to world domination.

Den of Geek - The vampires take their case for world domination to local leaders of Staten Island on What We Do in the Shadows' episode 2, "City Council."

posted by oh yeah! (10 comments total)

I loved the film and assumed I'd love the series too, but so far I'm not really enjoying the company of these vamps very much. The film managed to work a weird trick where the vampires were bloodthirsty killers but they were also somehow endearing. Viago in particular was a real sweetie when he wasn't murdering people, and even when he was murdering he generally tried to be a gentleman about it. Despite their bickering the vampires cared about each other, and they had Stu the human they inexplicably adored. They were creatures of the night, but they were also lovable losers.

So far the vampires on this show don't seem like they like each other that much, and hanging out with them just isn't that fun. Do any of these characters have a sweeter side? The closest we've come to seeing that is the lady vampire pining over Gregor-Jeff and doing a pity-turning on that poor little junior college virgin, and that mostly reads as her being horny, capricious and selfish but justifying it with emo vampire stuff.

Perhaps because the vampires haven't won me over yet, the killings bother me in a way the violence in the film didn't. The LARP girl seemed like such an utterly innocent, lovable little squirrel, and when she was bitten I just felt sad. I'm not really looking forward to watching her turn into a monster and kill her dickhead geek boyfriend. Maybe if she loves being a murdering fiend that will seem neat and empowering to some people, but she's the one character I've liked so far and I'm kind of desperate for somebody to root for in this thing.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:11 AM on April 4, 2019

I don't think she'll become a murdering fiend. I think she'll be lovely and terribly daggy (nerdy) whilst still thirsting for human blood. I'm looking forward to seeing more.
posted by h00py at 7:19 AM on April 4, 2019

this made me laugh outright at several points, it was just so absurd - the pile of pied piper'd racoons!
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 9:48 AM on April 4, 2019 [6 favorites]

I liked this episode more than the first. Everything about the city council meetings was great. I feel like there's actually an incipient story here, rather than a loose collection of jokes.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 7:54 AM on April 5, 2019 [4 favorites]

I too liked this episode more than the pilot - but also agree that the comedy-murdering probably isn’t going to work for me long-term. Kinda like how I can handle grim/bleak/depressing dystopia in movie-length doses but not so much in weekly-tv doses. (Whoever wants dibs on posting the Fanfare threads, feel free to take over.)
posted by oh yeah! at 9:18 AM on April 5, 2019

As a City Planner-type, I'm an easy sell for a half-decent public meeting gag or setup, and as Ivan noted, this feels like it's building a story line, and I'm starting to care for the characters more.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:42 AM on April 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

Colin is terrifying.
posted by heatvision at 3:24 AM on April 9, 2019 [4 favorites]

"Colin is terrifying."

He certainly was during that second council meeting. The actor deserves a lot of credit for that enraptured, open-mouthed grin. Coupled with the blue eyes...
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:35 AM on April 9, 2019 [5 favorites]

I was actually a little puzzled by Colin's reaction because I thought his thing was making people bored to the point of stupor and sucking out their energy. A big fight in the city council wouldn't seem related to that at all, but I suppose maybe he was just getting off on it in a sadistic, monster bloodlust-y way.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 7:02 PM on April 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

Upon rewatch (season 5 is airing presently) I loved everything about this episode. Tons of fantastic gags, especially in context of future episodes. And, is that Matt Berry singing over the credits?
posted by rebent at 6:41 PM on August 9, 2023 [1 favorite]