What We Do in the Shadows: Go Flip Yourself
August 24, 2022 1:18 PM - Season 4, Episode 8 - Subscribe

The mansion gets a makeover.

IMDB is all messed up with what season this is, but I'm going to go with what it says for consistency.
posted by geoff. (14 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I did not like this episode or I didn't get the joke. I read the reviews online which are just gushing over this because there's apparently some LGBTQ overtones? I always assumed the joke was that they are just vampires who will do anything, I certainly didn't see anything gay about this episode.

To me this episode just fell flat.
posted by geoff. at 1:22 PM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


I can't believe I missed the fact that the entire season had been building to this, but in retrospect it feels obvious. And then they put a hat on a hat (so to speak) and somehow made it feel even more like things had been building to this for ages.

It wasn't the greatest episode of the show ever, but I loved the fact that they suddenly paid off the fake commercials for Go Flip Yourself they'd been inserting into the show (and the fact that Laszlo had been watching the show all season).
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:57 PM on August 24, 2022 [5 favorites]


I've watched the Property Brothers, and Go Flip Yourself is a perfect parody. I can't believe that Nadja ate Toby so quickly! And Marwa's man cave really is perfect for Nandor, although I don't believe she plans to let him into it. I loved how quickly everyone but Guillermo got into the renovation, especially Nadja and her gold toilet.

I really thought we'd find out what was driving Baby Colin to make holes in the basement with a hammer, but maybe that's not a supernatural thing.

Was the wickedly talented Adele Dazeem always a part of Simon the Devious's crew? Somehow I missed that joke before.
posted by gladly at 7:38 PM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


Nadja eating Toby right out of the gate seemed a weird choice to me, too. Why cast the Sklar brothers only to take one out of the show completely?

The final twist was A Lot. I laughed, hard, when it hit. But as it settled in it just seemed so far over the top.

OTOH, "Go Flip Yourself" has been on TVs and in fake ads this whole season, THAT payoff was fantastic
posted by Frayed Knot at 7:46 PM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


I was surprised that Laszlo don’t get a shiplap wall because it has the perfect amount of artistic flair for any aesthetic. Also, not a budget-buster.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 9:24 PM on August 24, 2022 [12 favorites]


I feel like once a season or so this show does an episode that's kind of over-the-top goofy, where logic, continuity and character consistency really take a backseat to the gags. The "Jackie Daytona" episode, basically. This felt like one of those, where you just can't let yourself think too hard about stuff like how the vampires already have their own TV show but for some reason they're worried about Flip Yourself exposing that they're vampires. Every few minutes there was something to make me go, "Wait, but..." At least this one stayed pretty true to the characters, and the Simon the Devious reveal was fun.

Why cast the Sklar brothers only to take one out of the show completely?

Well, probably because it's the very last thing you'd expect, so the shock is the gag. I was fully expecting that one or both of the brothers would end up getting turned into zombies or werewolves or something, and this sure wasn't that.

Geoff, are you sure the reviews weren't talking about the episode where Guillermo came out? I don't think there was any LGBTQ stuff here, although I wasn't quite sure what Nandor was saying when he talked about guys getting behind each other in the mancave. It sort of sounded like he was talking about pouncing on victims, but maybe he was talking about butt stuff. I dunno.

Marwa has been brainwashed to like everything Nandor likes, but she seems to want time away from him. Does that mean she likes time alone just because he likes it? Or does it mean that since he's growing to not like himself, she doesn't like him either?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:05 PM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


At first I was a little annoyed by the over-the-top goofiness that Ursula mentioned, but as the episode went on the jokes started landing better for me, and by the end I was pretty entertained. Count Rapula's sound tech-themed rhymes were pretty awesome, NGL.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:29 AM on August 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


I really liked Nadja's preemptive strike! It was very in character, down to the thumbs up. Free candy!

Simon the Devious is the ideal laid-back comedy villain. You never get too worked up about him pulling one over on our protagonists, because for him "winning" is "sticking a witch's asshole on his head and immediately falling down a flight of stairs". His victory condition is failure. I fucking love it.

Also always nice to see Desdemona the Shrieker.
posted by phooky at 2:13 PM on August 25, 2022 [8 favorites]


One thing I always love about Simon the Devious is just how long the list of his crew always is. Somehow they always have 50–100% more people than you would expect, and they’re always great names
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:25 PM on August 25, 2022 [5 favorites]


I wasn't enthused by previous episodes with Simon and the curséd hat, but I thought this episode was great. I loved that the entire home makeover show was an idiotic long con. Seems exactly the sort of thing an immortal doofus would come up with. And the end when he keeps doing the show and explodes a house, because curséd hat, bwahaha.

I wonder if reactions to this episode are divided by amount of exposure to HGTV and its ilk. I haven't watched a home makeover show in years, but back when I traveled for work I at least had this kind of show on in the background of my hotel room for hundreds of hours. See also Law and Order variations. This was a spot on parody, but I imagine some sections were just boring if you don't watch this genre.

I also think it's funny that both WWDITS and Girls5eva had home makeover show plots in their most recent seasons. If you enjoyed this episode, a month of Peacock premium is worth it to binge Girls5eva.
posted by the primroses were over at 6:10 AM on August 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


"That was episode 73, 'Ramshackle Ranch.'"
"You really watch the show? That means the world to me."

That really is some hat to prompt all that effort.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 8:10 PM on August 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


I thought this was a hilarious payoff to the season's preoccupation with Go Flip Yourself, and was also disappointed that there was no shiplap in the proposed renovation. My husband somehow just sort of ignored all of the fake commercials and mentions of the show and thought it was just weird and silly, until the big reveal at the end (and also the rest of the house looking unchanged but worse, and then they stuck a potted plant on it). I wonder what would have happened if Nadja had tried to eat Bran instead of Toby.
posted by SeedStitch at 10:13 AM on August 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


Matt Berry showed up on trending on Twitter for over a day for the line reading, that as @NateAndDestroy put it:
The script:
“You really are the most devious bastard in New York City”

Matt Berry:
“You really are the most devious bastard in ✨NeEeW YoOoRk CitaAaH✨”
posted by Pronoiac at 12:36 PM on August 27, 2022 [10 favorites]


I am watcthing this in the basement, by myself (am the only one in the family who likes the show) and everyone wonders why I was howling with laughter - they could hear me from upstairs and the other end of the house.

This has been building for the whole season - it is a perfect satire of the reno shows (Property Brothers, that Brian guy, etc.) and just hits every single funny-bone in my whole body.
posted by rozcakj at 4:44 PM on September 8, 2022 [1 favorite]


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