What We Do In The Shadows offers audiences three different series endings

Beware, reader! There is spoilers ahead for the series finale “What We Do in the Shadows”, bleh bleh bleh!

Like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Fargo” and “M*A*S*H,” it didn’t take long for the television series “What We Do in the Shadows” to justify its existence, emerge from the shadow of its cinematic counterpart, and become one of the best comedies on television. For six seasons, the show has followed the misadventures of a group of randy vampires and buffoons who had long abandoned their mission to conquer the new world and simply led static lives of mischief, as well as the search for their familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillén ). ) to become a vampire despite discovering that he has Van Helsing blood. In season 5, Guillermo finally became a creature of the night, only to realize it wasn’t for him and transform back into a human.

That last part is significant, because Guillermo’s vampire story in season 5 (read our review) definitely seemed like the best place to end the show thematically. Once you get beyond the main goal of the only character in the cast who actually had something to accomplish in life, where do you go? Well, the series finale “What We Do In the Shadows” looks for the obvious answer that, in all honesty, I had completely forgotten about: the end of the documentary production that has been filming the fellow vampires for years.

The series finale “What We Do in the Shadows” is not only a moving episode, but also serves as a meta-commentary on the series finale, with Guillermo going through a minor crisis upon learning that the documentary will come in an ending and doing everything possible to keep the cameras recording as long as possible. After all, as he points out, there hasn’t been a proper conclusion to his story yet. The characters on the show haven’t really learned anything, much less achieved anything worthy of a conclusion. The episode itself reinforces the idea that, yes, these are vampires with an immortal lifespan, so they have no reason to change or do much that would be a good stopping point.

However, realizing that there is no way to create a perfect ending, our favorite vampire girl Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) has a fantastic idea. The result? “What We Do in the Shadows” concludes by following the lead of the 1985 film “Clue” and giving audiences alternative endings to choose from.

It all begins with our resident energy vampire, Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), reflecting on the challenges of creating a satisfying television series finale. Only then does Nadja have the idea to hypnotize the documentary’s audience into seeing an ending that satisfies them to the fullest. It turns out that the vampires and the documentary crew can pull this off too, offering multiple (and randomly varied) endings along the way.

One of these endings takes the form of a direct parody of the infamous “Newhart” ending, with Guillermo’s former teacher, Nandor (Kayvan Novak), playing Dick Loudon to Guillermo’s Emily Hartley and waking up in bed next to his house, revealing that he dreamed the whole show. There’s also an ending that parodies the big twist of “The Usual Suspects”, as well as one that mocks the conclusion of “Rosemary’s Baby”. In fact, you can find them all on Hulu by clicking on the “Hypnosis Bonus Features” tab next to the “What We Do in the Shadows” ending.

Everything is absolutely brilliant. Season 6 alone had already given us perfect parodies of both “Apocalypse Now” and “The Warriors,” so for the finale to include not one but three More parodies of famous endings is awesome and hilarious. Except it’s not just that the parody endings are funny, or that the very idea of ​​having multiple endings works as a fantastic joke about not being able to appeal to everyone. More than that, the rest of the episode also has multiple endings to help satisfy different types of audiences.

In addition to the hypnosis endings, there is also a beautiful scene where Guillermo says goodbye to Nandor definitively and decides to walk away permanently. Except that’s not the real conclusion, because the episode then cuts to another scene in which Guillermo returns, who admits that he was simply acting for the cameras to give the documentary crew a good ending. He then proceeds to have another bonding moment with Nandor before the vampire pulls a lever on his coffin and the pair fall down an elevator shaft into Nandor’s secret superhero lair, with Nandor becoming Batman. Basically, no matter which aspect of the show you enjoyed the most, there’s something for you in the finale of “What We Do In the Shadows.”

“What We Do in the Shadows” is now streaming in its entirety on Hulu.