Me and my 'Shadows'

'What We Do in the Shadows' returns, Billy Crystal tries drama with 'Before,' 'Somebody Somewhere' is back, and more

This week’s What’s Alan Watching? newsletter coming up just as soon as I fetch the Rock and Roller Cola Scroll…

The most devious bastards at New York Comic-Con

I was at New York Comic-Con last Friday night to moderate the farewell panel for What We Do in the Shadows, featuring actors Matt Berry, Kayvan Novak, Harvey Guillen, and Mark Proksch, plus several writer/producers. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I thought it went incredibly well: 3500 adoring fans packed into a Javits Center ballroom, lots of funny lines, lots of love going back and forth between the panelists and the audience, and some great cosplay. (One woman asked a question while dressed as Nadja from the opening of the vampire nightclub, while carrying a Doll Nadja in a matching outfit.) There were even a couple of tribute videos from celebrity Shadows fans Jeff Bridges and Mark Hamill, which the producers sprung on the actors as a surprise.

Because it was the show’s final NYCC panel, I revisited some greatest hits as well as talking about the new season. At one point, I asked Matt Berry how he came up with the way to deliver the line, “You truly are the most devious bastard in New York City.” Berry gave a thoughtful answer about his process, but that wasn’t enough for Shadows showrunner Paul Simms, who encouraged his star to give the fans what they wanted, as you can see and hear in this clip:

Earlier this week, the sixth and final season kicked off with a three-episode premiere, which almost felt like too much of a good thing, given how little of the series is left. But leaving that aside, it was a fantastic kickoff to the goodbye tour. The premiere was probably the weakest of the three, but only because the other two were so great. And it still introduced a promising idea in establishing that there had always been a fifth vampire housemate, Jerry, played by Mike O’Brien, who woke up from a too-long slumber and immediately resumed planning to conquer North America. I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot more of Jerry before this is all over.

We got peak Shadows with the next two installments, the third episode in particular. Episode Two introduced an inspired new setting for the show, with Guillermo getting a job at a venture capital firm, and Nandor and Nadja deciding to work there too to help his career advance. The intersection of the vamps and modern culture has been one of the series’ best sources of humor, and this trip to the worst of corporate America was no exception. The third episode, “Sleep Hypnosis,” was a spectacular bit of farce, with the basic idea — each vampire discovers that they can hypnotize one or more of their housemates while they slumber — escalating and escalating, and going into hilariously weird places, like Colin Robinson turning Nandor into a Richard Nixon impersonator. (That was Novak himself doing the Nixon voice, in case you wondered.)

I began the Comic-Con panel by asking Simms why he would want to end the show when it’s still capable of doing work this strong. He talked about not wanting to overstay their welcome. And while I respect and usually endorse that approach, Shadows is still in such obviously strong shape that I would rather risk it entering a decline phase than say goodbye to it too soon.

Odds and/or ends

• A few pieces I was working on for this week got moved around for various reasons, so I’ve only got one new column to link to: my review of Before, the new Apple TV+ psychological thriller starring Billy Crystal. Just a misfire on almost every level. At least the review gave me an excuse to namecheck my favorite lesser-known Crystal movie, the 1986 action comedy Running Scared, where he has spectacular buddy chemistry with Gregory Hines, looks incredible, and somehow credibly delivers the line, “If you hurt that lady, you'll never be dead enough.” Currently streaming on Pluto, Tubi, and Hoopla, and a much better use of your time if you have a Crystal hankering.

• Two questions for you heading into next week’s Only Murders in the Building season finale: 1)Now that you’ve seen everything I did prior to the season, plus these two more recent episodes, do you agree with the overall thrust of my review? 2)With the killer seemingly revealed in a more concrete way than we tend to get in this show’s penultimate episodes, what are your expectations for what happens in the finale, beyond the wedding?

• I’ll save the Shrinking recaplets for another week or two, but I thought this week’s episode did a very, well, graceful job of bringing the Grace story to a close, and also sets up an interesting new story arc in portraying Alice as the member of the Laird family who is suddenly engaging in self-destructive behavior.

• Yeah, Agatha All Along is very much finding a groove right now. This week’s episode, boys and girls, is called getting your money’s worth out of hiring Patti LuPone.

Somebody Somewhere is really something

This week brings with it the final seasons of two shows I’ve really enjoyed the last few years. Lower Decks is already back on Paramount+, and Somebody Somewhere Season Three debuts Sunday on HBO and Max. I’m saving Lower Decks for when I have a bit more time, but I imagine it will be along the lines of what I wrote about in its previous season. I couldn’t resist tearing through the seven episodes of Somebody Somewhere however. (I wrote about the show back in Season One while Lyz Lenz wrote a tribute to it for Rolling Stone this week.)

My need to binge the whole thing is funny when you think about how plotless and low-key the series is. It is all vibes, and the vibes remain excellent as always, as do the performances, particularly by stars Bridget Everett and Jeff Hiller. On the one hand, it feels like the kind of series that could just run for years and years without feeling tired, because every small moment is so fully-realized. And I got very choked up at the final scene, as much for it being the end of the show as for what was happening in it. On the other hand, it feels like a miracle that something this beautiful and specific got to make three seasons that spanned the end of Peak TV and the start of whatever we end up calling this new era of contraction. Great show, 21 episodes total counting these new ones, couldn’t recommend more highly.

That’s it for this week! What did everybody else think?