Warning: Spoilers for What We Do In The Shadows’ series finale are in play.
Without the obvious pun intended, the stakes couldn’t have been higher for What We Do in the Shadows. In one of the 2024 TV schedule’s best lines of dialogue, Mark Proksch’s Colin Robinson laid out exactly all of my fears since the FX comedy hit announced its ending almost a year ago by saying, “A lot of shows biff it when it comes to sticking the landing.”
I didn’t think it was possible for Long Island’s beloved family of vampires, and their put-upon human familiar, to deliver a satisfying ending. However, I’m pleased to say that “The Finale” proved me pleasantly wrong.
Over six seasons of mischief adjacent to Ne-ew Yooork Cit-tayyy, What We Do in the Shadows’ final episode devoted most of its comedic energies to dissecting the concept of a series finale. As the documentary covering Lazlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Nandor (Kayvan Novak), and Colin (Mark Proksch) randomly decides to end production, everyone is content to go on with their immortal lives.
The lone exception, of course, is Guillermo (Harvey Guillen), the former vampire hunter/aspiring bloodsucker who’s all too mortal. Falling into a spiral of anxiety, What We Do in the Shadows has its lovable loser demanding a satisfying ending that will make sense of it all. Strangely enough, after tons of gags involving callbacks and Nadja hypnotizing the audience into believing their ideal finale has taken place, it’s Gizmo that gives us a perfect two-pronged finale.
For the documentary, Guillermo is left to be seen by the audience as mourning the series’ end, and going off on his own while everyone retires to their coffins. But in a brilliant twist, he returns to Nandor in the mid-credit scene, and he gets reluctantly roped into a trip to the new underground lair where he plans to fight crime.
The meta-commentary written into “The Finale” by writers Sam Johnson, Sarah Naftalis and Paul Simms is why this all works out so perfectly.
Instead of trying to find a neat and tidy wrap-up that answers every question and addresses every character’s fate, Guillermo's ending becomes the one that matters, and for a really keen reason. The assortment of undead creatures in What We Do in the Shadows aren’t going to fret over a series finale like we regular human bartenders (or beating hearts of any profession) would.
However, in the choices made through “The Finale’s” clever send-up of classic TV show endings, we actually did get a certain kind of closure. It's a very vampiric answer to a most human problem.
The door is still open to return, should showrunner Paul Sims decide to disregard Taika Waititi’s potentially half-serious remarks about What We Do in the Shadows running "too long." But if the final say is left at Guillermo and Nandor plummeting into a life of crime-fighting, then I can’t say I’m upset at all. Well played, you vamps of Staten Island, you hedonists of pop culture, as you didn’t biff up the landing at all.
What We Do in the Shadows truly was one of the best examples of TV shows going beyond the source material in all of ca-ble tee-veeeee, and I’ll miss it all the more because it’s allowed me to walk out the door thirsty for more. Anyone who wants to know how to watch What We Do in the Shadows’ final act can jump onto their Hulu subscription, and enjoy all 61 episodes at their leisure.
And for those of you catching up on “The Finale” in its streaming home, or if you’ve watched the broadcast version and want some more, I have one last piece of advice. Head over to the “Extra Hypnosis Features” tab once you’ve caught the final episode, and enjoy two more of Nadja’s alternate endings to the show. Heed her warning carefully though, as she’s been known to scramble people’s brains from time to time.
