What We Do in the Shadows – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Animal Control

We return to What We Do In The Shadows this week with Laszlo trying to spice up his marriage by impressing Nadja. He turns into a bat and tries hypnotising their new neighbour, Phil, much to the indifference of his wife. Unfortunately, Phil’s girlfriend shows up and knocks hin out, calling animal control in the process and causing havoc for our vampires.

Determined to bring him back before daylight, Colin, Guillermo and Nandor all work together to break Laszlo out of the animal centre. Unfortunately they free the wrong bat and realize they have to go back inside again.

Meanwhile, Nadja spends the episode hunting for Gregor (now known as Jeff in this life) but upon spending more time with him at the funfair, realizes hes not the same guy she originally felt “crazy sexual energy” with.

In a desperate bid, she hypnotises hin again only this time, successfully bringing all the memories of his past life flooding back. Before she can get a chance to revel in his newfound personality, Nadja gets a call to help the others and she leaves Jeff (or is it Gregor now?) to the police who arrive dumbfounded by his personality change.

After freeing the guys from the animal centre, Laszlo goes back and frees the animals after his promise to them, where we leave the episode as he’s chased out the building by a pack of cats.

With only 22 minutes to play with, What We Do In The Shadows makes the most of its limited run-time with an episode chock full of drama and comedy. There’s a great array of jokes here too, playing on the tropes inherent with the series, complete with fourth wall breaks and the continued mockumentary style.

Quite whether this series will keep up the same standard of comedy we’ve seen thus far is up for debate but for now, there’s enough here to make for a thoroughly enjoyable watch.