When do you know a sitcom has run its course? More than any other television genre, most sitcoms are basically just an excuse to hang out with a group of likable characters rather than see them meet a particular objective. Still, there are implicit finish lines that experience tells us a sitcom should not overrun. When your main “will they/won’t they” finally gets together or your lovable teenage outcasts have survived high school, the salad days are over. By all rights, What We Do in the Shadows should have ended last year, with human familiar Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillién) deciding at last that he did not want to be a vampire, and his undead master of 15 years, Nandor (Kayvan Novak), amicably releasing him from his service. Nevertheless, the outlandish vampire comedy returns for one last season, and frankly, the magic is waning.
Season 6 opens with “The Return of Jerry,” in which Nandor the Relentless, Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry), Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou), and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) finally remember to awaken their never-before-mentioned fifth roommate, Jerry the Vampire (Mike O’Brien). Jerry has been slumbering for half a century, and is astonished to find that the gang has made no progress whatsoever towards their stated goal of conquering the “New World.” His return prompts the rest of the gang to recommit themselves to their evil undead purpose, which would be a great way to inject a little (forgive me) fresh blood into the show. The Staten Island vampire clan has been able to justify their laziness by assuring themselves that, as immortals, they have all the time in the world to get around to becoming its masters. The addition of Jerry to apply a little pressure to the vamps, a textual representation of the show’s impending expiration, is a welcome change.
Except, it doesn’t actually change much. After debuting in the season premiere to play Frank “Grimey” Grimes to their Homer Simpson, Jerry doesn’t even appear in the following two episodes, which were provided in advance to critics. This storyline will no doubt pick up later, but the urgency implicit in his arrival is instantly lost.
This isn’t to say that WWDitS should suddenly turn into a proper horror or action-adventure show. It’s merely that the possibility of an exciting new status quo for the final season is dangled in front of our noses and then clumsily cast away. Is it out of character for a show that has deliberately and delightfully dodged any real narrative stakes for 50 episodes? No. But if there was ever a time for What We Do in the Shadows to develop something resembling a plot, it’s now. Why not watch the gang try and fail for a change, instead of fail to try? Hell, it’s the end of the series—why not watch them try and succeed?
It’s not as if WWDitS is totally resistant to change. On the contrary, its writers have demonstrated that they’re willing to go all-in on a throwaway gag if it’s funny enough. (Exhibit A: Nadja Doll.) But throughout the series, the most adjustable variable amidst eternally static characters has been Guillermo, who has developed from hapless stooge to secret badass to self-possessed adult. He’s still on the show, but he’s essentially outgrown it. Even if he and Nandor were to finally hook up romantically—surely the ideal endgame for a lot of viewers—it would no longer feel like a happy ending for a character who, frankly, deserves better. (For the record, the time to do this was the end of Season 4.)
This isn’t to say that the first three episodes of the season aren’t funny. It would be hard to imagine putting this cast into a scenario and not conjuring a few laughs. But it’s telling that the best episode of the bunch—the second, “Headhunting”—is the one that brings them to a new setting. Guillermo, having spent most of his adult life working for vampires, finds himself right at home in the world of high finance. This seems to be the season’s running “outside the house” plot, akin to Nadja’s nightclub from Season 4, which would be a nice enough change of pace had it not come on the heels of a much more exciting idea.
Teasing a shake-up and then delaying its execution (which, again, is sure to come by the end of the season) only highlights how little is left to do with these characters. What expletives have yet to be bellowed in Matt Berry’s mellifluous baritone? What supernatural forces are left to be lampooned? We have literally witnessed Colin Robinson’s entire life cycle! The players are no less charming, but the act is growing thin.