What We Do in the Shadows: A Night Out with the Guys (5x02)

The poor Guide lol.

Cons:

I will say, the Guide isn't really my favorite part of the show, as much as I love Kristen Schaal. So when the show seems to lampshade how superfluous she feels, making jokes about how the other vampires forgot about her, didn't notice she hadn't been around, I find myself sort of agreeing with that sentiment. She's great, but she doesn't seem to add much that we don't already have with the other characters, and I don't miss her when she's gone! Sorry!

Pros:

I did enjoy Nadja's plot thread even without caring much for the Guide, specifically her discovery of Little Antipaxos! It was so fun to see her connect back with her roots, while being completely and utterly oblivious to the poor way she's treating the people around her, specifically the Guide. Her enthusiasm about her original home is infectious and delightful.

Lazlo and Nandor hanging out with Sean and his buddies made for a lot of laughs. They're playing an extended game of chicken with each other, basically, both refusing to use hypnosis to get themselves out of trouble as the evening devolves into pure chaos. Sean and his buddies harass a cop, steal his car, crash his car, shoot his gun off into the air, get arrested... and all the while, Lazlo shows how charm can work just as well as hypnosis. But in the end, once they're all locked up behind bars, Lazlo admits that he's never been very good at hypnosis, and that's why he tried to mock Nandor about using it so often. Nandor uses his powers to get them out, and then he backs Lazlo up, claiming it was his charisma that saved the day after all.

What works so well about this show is that it's 95% jokes, but then every once in a while they toss in something to make it clear that these people actually care about each other and enjoy one another's company. The fact that Lazlo admitted a weakness to Nandor, and then Nandor helped him out and also let him take the credit, shows that there's a real affinity between them. It makes all the comedy land even harder, that there's a genuine backbone to it.

And then there's Guillermo, trying to figure out why his vampire change doesn't seem to have worked out. Clearly something's going on - he's able to give himself bat ears when he attempts to transform. The Baron doesn't know what's up with all that, though they do run an experiment to see what happens when a vampire gets double-bitten by two different vampires, in order to perhaps change Guillermo further. Their test subject ends up exploding into gory mist, so it sounds like getting Nandor to bite Guillermo isn't going to be the answer to these issues either.

I loved the beat at the end where Guillermo inadvertently spills the beans and tells Lazlo he's been bitten. Lazlo is furious and says that the news will probably kill Nandor. He suggests convincing Nandor to bite him, and when Guillermo says "I don't think that will work," Lazlo replies: "You don't? Well then you're fucked." That was a big laugh but also an example of what I was talking about above. Lazlo is legitimately pissed off, and Guillermo is legitimately scared. This is a funny show with a lot of jokes, but the stakes are underpinning the shenanigans super well!

That's all for now. I'm officially so excited for the other vampires (Nandor especially, of course) to find out about Guillermo's condition. It's sure to be a lot of fun and chaotic nonsense!

7/10