Wellington Paranormal: S1 E1 (Demon Girl) and S1 E2 (Cop Circles)

July 12, 2021 10:25 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

Because the US is airing the episodes as double-headers, each post will cover two episodes. Demon Girl: Officers Minogue and O'Leary bring in what appears to be a projectile-vomiting drunk teenager. Sergeant Maaka delves deeper and invites the officers to join his Paranormal Unit. Cop Circles: Sergeant Maaka sends Officers Minogue and O'Leary to investigate the report of a cow stranded on top of a tree at a remote farm. Maaka believes that aliens did it, but Minogue and O'Leary are skeptical - until they meet the farm's owner.
posted by rednikki (7 comments total)

I've seen the entire series to date, and it's interesting to go back and see what was established from the beginning and what evolved over time. I feel like the first two episodes of the season are not the strongest and it really hits its stride with episode 3.

For the Americans who watched the show – did you find yourself at a loss with the accents, or did everything make sense to you?

In Cop Circles, did everyone catch that the guy stumbling down the road is the same guy as the "farmers"?
posted by rednikki at 10:27 PM on July 12, 2021

I love this show! Thanks for posting.

Even with a good familiarity with Kiwi accents, there were a lot of throwaway lines and things I missed until I turned on subtitles. I recommend doing that if you're a not a Kiwi.

I loved it when Maaka and O'Leary spun off on the tangent about the dog maybe just barking in a way that sounded like speech.

I think the Aotearoa New Zealand flag should be three stripes of plaid flannel - red & black, blue & black and green & black, just like the farm family was wearing.

There's definitely a lot of Kiwi-specific humor and references. I wonder how it will play to non-Kiwi audiences.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 3:31 AM on July 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

I could understand most of the dialogue but it was a strain, and my girlfriend commented several times that she was lost with the accents. I had to do a lot of "translating" for her. Good to know that the show picks up, because I wasn't super impressed. It was watchable but a lot of the gags were kind of weak and it almost seemed more like a WWDITS fan film than a spin-off. The characters were dumb in a way I don't associate with the franchise. In the original film the cops were dopey because they had a magic whammy put on them, but it seems like that whammy never wore off.

I'm amazed this is airing on the CW. It seems a world away from their usual fare and I can't imagine it'll be a big hit with their demographic. How the heck did the show end up there instead of, say, FX?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:23 PM on July 13, 2021

Maybe they're trying to pick up the "horror fan" side of Supernatural's fanbase?
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:38 PM on July 13, 2021

(Also thanks for posting, I had no clue this was out already!)
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:43 PM on July 13, 2021

I watched this on Australian TV with a VPN earlier this year. I agree that the first two episodes are not quite as entertaining as they get later on. And I did have to turn on the subtitles. It's subtle humor, but the two leads are so endearing that I ended up loving it.
posted by gemmy at 6:09 PM on July 13, 2021

Season 1 Episode 3 is a fully-formed example of the show. If you don't like that episode you probably won't like the show as it continues.

There's an interesting bit of trivia that explains why it doesn't quite hit its stride until Episode 3. The show was originally meant to be a lot scarier. But the plant aliens in Episode 2 were so bad that they had to lean into the goofiness instead. The bright side of this, says Jemaine Clement, is that he can watch it with his kids.
posted by rednikki at 8:14 PM on July 13, 2021 [2 favorites]