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FX TV Series on funny vampires is a real entertainment bite

If you are looking for a funny series to watch during the coronavirus pandemic, try FX’s series “What We Do in the Shadows,” a hilarious comedic look at vampire life in America through the eyes of four vampires from the 19th Century (or older) who continue to be perplexed by life today. You can stream it on Hulu

By Ray Hanania

We’re all looking for something to watch on TV. Of course, there’ nothing on TV and we have to go to Cable. But cable is so divided up and segmented, the challenge of finding something depends on how much money you want to waste on entertainment.

I have Xfinity/Comcast Cable at one home and DirecTV at another. The DirecTV system is simply basic because I can use an Apple Boxes to access all of the movie channels I already subscribe to at Xfinity.

Now I am thinking of downgrading my Xfinity subscription to only subscribe to the far cheaper basic channels, and then individually subscribe to movie channel options al la carte, like HBO, Showtime, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix and more.

Scene from What We Do in the Shadows, the FX vampire comedy series streamable from Hulu.

In the meantime, I surf the systems looking for great programming and I did find one I love that is out of the ordinary and off the beaten path of favored shows promoted by the mainstream news media. It’s called “What We Do in the Shadows” and it is on the FX system streamable on Hulu.

“What we do in the Shadows” is hilarious. It’s about a group of vampires who are struggling to adjust to life in today’s modern world. The cast includes

The main vampires are Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou). Harvey Guillén plays Guillermo, who is a “familiar,” someone the vampires have enslaved as a servant who happens to be a distant relative of the famous vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing.

Mark Proksch plays a modern-day vampire White man named Colin Robinson.

The group lives in a row house on Staten Island, and they explore regular life in some of the most hilarious situations possible. The series was created by comedic performer Jemaine Clement, a New Zealand actor, voice actor, musician, comedian, singer, director and writer who with Bret McKenzie, starred in the Grammy Award-winning comedy “Flight of the Conchords.” Clement has released several albums and created comedy series for both the BBC and HBO receiving six Primetime Emmy nominations.

It’s not violent at all. Not gory at all. It’s funny. Humorous. And worth your time.

There are two seasons so far and both are phenomenal.

The theme song “You’re Dead” was originally released in 1966. The artist who released it is Norma Tanega as part of her album entitled “Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog”. Title track of album hit #22 on the charts.

What We Do in the Shadows, based on the feature film by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, returns for its second season, documenting the nightly exploits of vampire roommates Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) as they navigate the modern world of Staten Island with the help of their human familiar, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén).

Over the course of the season, the vampires will try to find their way in a world of human Super Bowl parties, internet trolls, an energy vampire who gets a promotion and becomes drunk on power and of course, all the ghosts, witches, necromancers, zombies and shadowy cloaked assassins who roam freely in the Tri-State area. Is Guillermo destined to be a vampire or a vampire hunter? Or maybe just a familiar for the rest of his life?

Click here to view a video preview of the show.

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at [email protected].

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