Season two of FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows” aired in the spring of 2020 and leveled the show up to a new level of acclaim and industry appreciation. It earned a surprising, but widely celebrated, Emmy nomination for Best Comedy Series. More than a year later it’s back for season three (premiere date: September 2), so has the mockumentary series about vampires on Staten Island still have its bite?
Does it ever! The reviews have been universally glowing. On MetaCritic it has a score of 98 based on nine reviews counted thus far; it almost goes without saying that all of those reviews are positive, with seven of them rating the show a perfect 100s. Rotten Tomatoes currently rates the season 100% fresh, though only five critics’ reviews have been aggregated there as of this writing.
Critics wondered how the story would evolve after the events of season two, which ended with vampire familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) revealed as a vampire slayer after he rescues Nadia (Natasia Demetriou), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nandor (Kayvan Novak), and Colin (Mark Proksch) from the Vampiric Council by laying waste to the vamps who held them hostage. But while the show has a “new depth of sadness,” it “doesn’t sacrifice good humor for vampiric ennui.” It’s “as funny as ever” thanks to writing that’s “some of the sharpest on television” and its “tremendous ensemble.” Not only is “Shadows” still good, it’s “maybe even better than ever.”
It’ll have to wait until the summer of 2022 for Emmy nominations, where it could expand from the two it received in season one and the eight it picked up in season two. But over the course of the winter season it could continue to expand its awards footprint after breaking through earlier this year with the American Cinema Editors, Art Directors Guild, Costume Designers Guild, Producers Guild, and Writers Guild. Are you as excited for the new season as critics are? Check out a few of the reviews below, and join the discussion on this and more with your fellow TV fans in our forums.
Andrew Crump (The Playlist): “‘What We Do in the Shadows’ doesn’t sacrifice good humor for vampiric ennui, thank goodness, not that that’s worth worrying about; without jokes, the show simply wouldn’t have a reason to exist, and in season three, the jokes fire off in fusillades of banter and slapstick … Hilarious, in-character, and so cleanly integrated that the gag doesn’t clang against the series’ new depth of sadness: That’s how ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ makes us laugh.”
Brian Tallerico (RogerEbert.com): “After too long away from the bloodsuckers of Staten Island, it’s comforting to report that the program is as funny as ever … The writing on ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ remains some of the sharpest on television, balancing physical humor with hysterical plot twists. The jokes are never easy or predictable, and the humor emerges from a finely-tuned balance of unpredictable narrative turns and how much we know these characters after 20 episodes.”
Ross Bonaime (Collider): “It’s one of the best shows on television … ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ has been one of the funniest shows on television since it debuted, while season two escalated our appreciation for each individual character on their own. Season three continues to be hilarious and advance character development, but does all of this while unifying this group even tighter as a tremendous ensemble.”
Allison Keene (Paste): “It’s clear that ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ has a lot of confidence going into these new episodes (the show was also recently renewed for season four), and that it’s operating on its own terms. It does its best work that way, especially as it balances the particular strangeness of the vampire world with the everyday normalcy of ours … ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ is still very, very good — maybe even better than ever.”
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