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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
75
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Season 3 Review:
Coming off an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2020, What We Do in the Shadows continues to alternate between deadpan, dark, physical, and scatological humor, sometimes within a single scene, with ease and effectiveness. It also remains delightfully weird, acted by pros with impeccable timing, and Goth-gorgeous in every detail, including production designs that demand viewers hit pause in order to absorb everything in the frame.
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RogerEbert.comAug 30, 2021
Season 3 Review:
The program is as funny as ever, even reflecting some uncertainty about where to go and what to do next in its narrative. ... The writing on “What We Do in the Shadows” remains some of the sharpest on television, balancing physical humor with hysterical plot twists. ... It’s fresh and yet consistent, which is common in the best comedies—we laugh because the jokes fit the characters and yet we still can’t see the punchlines coming.
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TV Guide MagazineAug 27, 2021
Season 3 Review:
These mirthful monsters' misadventures could make you die laughing. ... A direct assault on our jugular of joy. [30 Aug - 12 Sep 2021, p.15]
ColliderAug 23, 2021
Season 3 Review:
Season 3 continues to be hilarious and advance character development, but does all of this while unifying this group even tighter as a tremendous ensemble. By bringing new power and new responsibilities to these characters, What We Do in the Shadows brings new blood and an exciting future to one of television’s great comedies.
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Season 6 Review:
If we’d come to the start of this season expecting some world-changing, life rearranging shake-ups to serve as the prelude for an epic finale, we might be a little miffed; approaching it as one last blessed run of one of TV’s best comedies, though, and it’s clear the show knows exactly what it needs to deliver for this final stretch.
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ColliderJul 6, 2023
Season 5 Review:
Five seasons in, and it still feels like we've only scratched the surface of its biggest potential. From leaning into energy vampire mythology to posing the larger question of what it is that really makes someone a vampire, the show is delving into some truly exciting places while never losing sight of its identity.
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IndieWireApr 15, 2020
RogerEbert.comJul 10, 2023
Season 5 Review:
The reason this series remains so compelling, despite its increasing longevity, is the characters at its center, and Season 5 deftly explores emotionally rich ideas of family, loyalty, and belonging, even as it cracks vulgar sex jokes and douses the scenery in the arterial spray.
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The Daily BeastJul 12, 2022
Season 4 Review:
Remains as sharp and witty as ever in its fourth season. Even as it charts new ground, FX’s hit continues to be TV’s most absurdly entertaining half-hour comedy. ... Spontaneity is ultimately alive and well in this fourth season, whose only minor shortcoming is the loss of old-school Colin Robinson’s monotonous drollness.
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Season 1 Review:
The cast sells every moment beautifully. ... This comedy draws you into its thrall from the very first episode. From there it pulsates with such an oddball sweetness that every new episode invites the unsuspecting viewer further into its moth-eaten gothic shenanigans.
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Season 1 Review:
A spoof that works for people who love vampire films and people who don’t. Even the obvious and sophomoric stuff is served up with a wicked twist. Humor and horror tend to be flip sides of the same coin (metaphoric means of dealing with painful subjects), and you find them twisting around each other in ferociously funny ways throughout these episodes.
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TV Guide MagazineMar 14, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Shadows' succulent mashup of the macabre and mundane remains wonderfully fresh. [18-31 Mar 2019, p.12]
Season 5 Review:
Five seasons in, it’s remarkable how much What We Do in the Shadows has maintained its breathless comic energy, even as the machinations of its plot keep its characters in somewhat of a static loop. But that same stagnation keeps our lovable band of vamps striving for new experiences.
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The PlaylistJul 6, 2023
Season 5 Review:
Of course, anyone who didn’t find “What We Do in the Shadows” funny for its first four seasons is unlikely to be turned by the fifth, but that really shouldn’t be how a show is judged at this point in its legacy. FX executives don’t need to worry about converting new comedy fans into creatures of the night as much as holding onto the ones who already believe. Based on the quality of the first four episodes of the new season, they can sleep well at night.
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Season 6 Review:
If anything feels a little unfocused it’s ultimately where Guillermo goes now that he’s rejected living a vampire existence. The outside job episode is a hoot because his clinging friends have issues letting him go, but how he remains as vital in their orbit remains to be seen. Lazlo and Colin’s arc, the return of a very funny Jerry and the tipping up of other full circle moments starts this last hurrah on a high note.
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Season 2 Review:
Even if the world weren't ground to a standstill with millions of people locked in their houses, "Shadows" is far and away one of the funnier comedies on television because of its dead-center skewering of the mystique surrounding vampires. No second of each episode's agile twenty-something minutes is wasted.
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Season 2 Review:
Season two builds on its predecessor — and goes where few vampire tales have gone before — by having Guillermo explore, however reluctantly, his inborn knack for Buffy-esque carnage. ... Season two also expands the What We Do in the Shadows world in a sillier, if just as genre-savvy, way.
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RogerEbert.comApr 13, 2020
Season 2 Review:
All the pieces are familiar, but all that smooshing makes it all seem new, even when it’s also comfortingly familiar. And luckily for, you know, everyone dealing with everything, the second season offers even more of that familiar novelty. That’s the short version of this review. If you liked the first season, you’ll like this one too, and perhaps even more so.
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The GuardianDec 3, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Shadows thrives on characters and droll dialogue more than story. In fact, what gives the show an edge over the movie is the addition of an instantly familiar new species: an “energy vampire” who drains his victims of life force without so much as breaking their skin.
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Season 1 Review:
It seems to me that What We Do in the Shadows has more up its sleeve than just re-creating the vibe of the original. I’m eager to see the show find yet more creative ways to expand upon its central conceit: that even in the antiseptic, brightly-lit modern world, monsters are all around us.
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RogerEbert.comMar 26, 2019
Season 1 Review:
A smart, funny sitcom that I could easily see running for years. It fits perfectly into FX’s off-kilter sense of humor, and actually gets a little funnier with each episode. If you liked the movie, be patient with the series. It took me a little while to warm up to these awkward bloodsuckers, but they eventually won me over.
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ColliderMar 9, 2019
Season 1 Review:
What We Do in the Shadows has all the right pieces to become another mockumentary great. It nails the tone of the film, mining incredible comedy from the meeting of the supernatural and the banal, delivering one quotable one-liner after the next, and genuinely surprising with its darker gags.
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The PlaylistJul 8, 2022
Season 4 Review:
It’s a tough balance in a comedy when the characters become so entrenched that it can start to feel like they’re spinning their wheels, even if we love them. “Shadows” isn’t quite there yet, but one can sense it on the edges of these episodes, hopefully, pushed away by the rest of the season. Of course, the cast and writers are smart enough to do exactly that. And there’s evidence of their wit in all four of these chapters.
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Season 2 Review:
As was the case with the first season, Shadows can be hit or miss with its humor. None of the four installments FX gave critics to review are quite at the level of last season’s “The Trial” (which featured cameos from former screen vampires Wesley Snipes, Tilda Swinton, Evan Rachel Wood, Paul Reubens, and Danny Trejo). But the laughs come often enough, and are always big enough, to make the comedy a very welcome escape.
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RogerEbert.comOct 18, 2024
Season 6 Review:
The main aspect of “What We Do in the Shadows” that allowed it to become one of the most beloved comedies of the last decade was the way in which its cast blend and bounce off of each other. They’re divided here–though they still share the screen quite often–in a way that makes this final season feel stunted rather than bittersweet.
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