What We Do in the Shadows (2019) s03e01 – The Prisoner

I wasn’t apprehensive about this season of “What We Do in the Shadows,” but there are a couple changes to this season I couldn’t help but think about as this episode kicked off. First, show creator and original movie co-creator Jemaine Clement isn’t involved in a writing capacity this season, which may take a while to show itself to be a problem (or just never be one). Oh, and I think they filmed during Covid lockdown. Because there are barely any house exteriors in the episode, and when there are house exteriors, they’re super shot shots, and they appear to be CGI.

Or maybe director Kyle Newacheck just doesn’t like establishing shots.

The episode picks up almost a month after last season’s cliffhanger; the vampires, Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, and Mark Proksch, have discovered their familiar (well, Novak’s familiar), Harvey Guillén, is actually a vampire hunter. They’ve been trying to decide what to do with him since he saved them from execution at the end of last season; even though he saved them, killing vampires is a no-no, and Demetriou really wants to kill him. Novak doesn’t but isn’t really too forceful about it. Berry’s disinterested. Proksch’s got a related subplot, and, well, I wouldn’t want to spoil.

After the opening with Novak and Demetriou arguing, it quickly becomes a Guillén episode and a slightly absurd one. But he also reminds why he’s such a good protagonist for the show. He’s able to mug his way through some of the thinnest plot logic.

Luckily, the cliffhanger resolve is the B plot, with the Vampiric Council returning—in the form of guest star Kristen Schaal—to deal with the disobedient vampires. It involves a hilarious VHS joke and a cameo from one of the original film stars, though I guess it’s unclear if he’s playing the same character. It also doesn’t really matter; it’s just a nice cameo.

The best performances in the episode are Guillén, Novak, and Demetriou. Proksch’s recurring bit is fine and funny, but it’s just gross-out, albeit intentionally boring gross-out, so it doesn’t require much from him. Berry’s fine when he has material, but he’s seriously got so few lines you could also make me believe he’s green-screened into some of the scenes due to Rona.

But it’s a good opener, with a solid season set up—it’s kind of big story arc stuff, especially for this show—and by the end, I was ready to just trust in “Shadows,” which has always paid off before.

The Mandalorian (2019) s01e06 – The Prisoner

It is a dark time for “The Adventures of Baby Yoda.” Second lackluster episode in as many weeks, with the show creators really thinking anyone cares about the adventures of “Mando the Mandalorian” Pedro Pascal when he’s not being an adorable dad with Baby Yoda. This episode’s director, Rick Famuyiwa, isn’t much better than last episode’s director—and as far as the use of wipes to move between characters, in real-time, meaning a wipe every minute and a half, is the worst creative decision in “The Mandalorian” so far. Whether it’s Famuyiwa or editor Jeff Seibenick’s idea, it’s a terrible device and kills any suspense in the scenes. Though it’s unclear if there’d be suspense in the scenes given the middling Ludwig Göransson music and the ineffectual sound design.

What’s so bewildering about “Mandalorian”’s recent fails is how obvious they’ve been. This episode has Pascal teaming up with some space mercenaries to do a heist. There’s humanoid leader Bill Burr, who manages to give one of the episode’s better performances just because he’s not awkwardly bad. There’s Richard Ayoade voicing a really boring insect-headed droid (I think I had the figure). Then there’s Clancy Brown as a devil alien with horns. He’s terrible. And it seems like he’s terrible because his makeup is done in such a way he can move his facial muscles. As for other aliens Natalia Tena and Ismael Cruz Cordova, whether they’re bad because of the makeup or the performances, it doesn’t matter. Famuyiwa and company’s lack of interest in having good performances is aggravating, especially since there’s so little Baby Yoda and so many minutes (at forty-three minutes, The Prisoner is the longest episode so far).

Mark Boone Junior shows up as the heist planner. He’s okay, though completely phoning it in. They also credit him as “Mark Boone Jr.,” which isn’t his name but whatever. They don’t have to be accurate or even good. They know if you’re hooked on Baby Yoda, you’ll keep showing up.

Actually, when you think about it, they didn’t know everyone would be hooked on Baby Yoda because Jon Favreau really thought people wanted to watch him play with his classic Kenner Star Wars figures.

But it’s concerning bad Famuyiwa does with the direction. It’s a kind of intensely pedestrian and makes me want to avoid his other work. Very different from the previous directors (oh, wait, the women), whose direction encouraged interest.