What We Do in the Shadows Maintains Hysterical Bite in Fifth Season | TV/Streaming

At the top of the fifth season’s premiere episode, “The Mall”—where you guessed it, the vampires go to the mall for the first time and get into wacky hijinks, something that’s hard to believe hasn’t happened yet—Guillermo does the deed but the stakes (pun intended) are dire and unexpected.

A few weeks following the incident—framed hilariously in signature gory/quirky fashion—Guillermo’s behavior changes around the house. He’s slightly more aggressive and confident but tries to keep his secret confidential. Bothered that the vampires have been more careless in keeping their identity hidden than usual, Nandor suspects his attitude is due to them forgetting his birthday. Laszlo, meanwhile, presumes something else. At a birthday dinner, the vamps reveal that to be turned by another is the highest dishonor a master can have. And, of course, like most things ever established in the series’ Vampiric rubric, the consequence is death.

“WWDITS”’s latest season comes alive with Guillermo’s predicament. Interwoven cleverly as B-plots in each episode, the former vampire slayer’s long-anticipated transformation journey offers some of the show’s best horror-comedy work yet. The writing team has always had an “anything goes” approach to rule-setting and worldbuilding. Still, they raise the stakes here with Guillermo’s process, which takes longer than usual compared to other vampire peers, leading to great gut-busting body horror. 

As briefly shown in the season’s trailer (so it’s not a spoiler), Laszlo soon gets involved in Guillermo’s plight, surprisingly offering a fun, enticing character-clashing dynamic between them. While character growth for these literal ageless vampires is negligible to nonexistent—like the other FXX ensemble in the “It’s Always Sunny” crew—it’s always heartening to witness the characters show some care when push comes to shove. Plus, it gives Laszlo a new activity following his fatherhood era with Baby Colin cut short. 

Even though things in the house “never change,” Season Five significantly shifts the camaraderie with Kristen Schaal‘s promotion to a series regular. Schaal’s presence as The Guide has been a delight since her first guest star appearance in Season One. In Season Four, she became vital to Nadja’s business venture, where the two got close (or at least the Guide thinks). Still subservient to the vampire crew, who are negligent to their vampiric council position, she’s simply crashing at the house, desperate to be Nadja’s best friend. Schaal isn’t forced into the main crew; she’s just part of the fun full-time. While she doesn’t have as much agency as in Season Four, seeing her is still a joy. Besides, who doesn’t love Kristen Schaal? This critic fist pumped in the air with glee once they saw her credit during the updated intro. 

You can view the original article HERE.