Platform: Amazon: the film for $3.99+ and the TV show’s first season for $14.99.
Seasons available: One
Why we love it: “It’s a modern-day vampire mockumentary that’ll be a welcome addition to the binge rotation of anyone who has a dark sense of humor. (But it isn’t scary!!!). In my humble opinion, a well-done mockumentary is one of the best things you’ll ever watch. Um, have you seen the likes of This is Spinal Tap or Best in Show? (Seriously, if you love Schitt’s Creek, puh-leez watch Best in Show for more Catharine O’Hara action.) So when my brother told me that there’s a mockumentary about vampire roommates in current-day New Zealand, I *had* to watch. And it’s amazing! What We Do in the Shadows is one of my all-time faves. It slaps every. Single. Time. But when I heard they were making a TV show I thought ‘ehhhh.’ Welp, I’ve never been more wrong about anything in my life. The TV show is almost *too* good. Like, I maybe don’t trust that it’s so good! And though the first season has been airing on TV, I’ve been traveling a lot lately and bingeing it while I can. The film was set in New Zealand but the TV show has four vamps living as roommates in modern-day Staten Island, where a boat dropped them off with kinda-sorta orders to turn Americans into vampires. And they haven’t. The roommates include Nandor, a Vlad Dracula–lookalike that tries and fails to rule the household in a variety of silly scenarios; Laszlo and Nadja, a couple who are eternally bound (or ARE they?!) after she turned him into a vamp a few centuries ago; and then there’s Colin, a day-walking energy vampire who’s the WORST, being an energy vampire and all. Oh, and they also live with Guillermo, Nandor’s familiar who’s been there for YEARS and Nandor isn’t the nicest to…but he also isn’t the worst! But why is it so good?! The same folks are behind it as the original film (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waitit). You’ll find some 1-on-1 camera confessionals like you would in any self-respecting reality show and, trust me, I am well versed in all reality TV so it holds up in that regard. It also does a fantastic job marrying comedy and vampire tropes together, like situations where one vamp turns into a bat, gets picked up by animal control, and then everyone else has to help him escape. And I’ll never get over Nandor calling crepe paper ‘creepy paper’ while shopping in the craft aisle and spreading glitter all over his skin like in Twilight when a vamp bigwig is coming for a visit. Plus, Nadja’s reactions to everything slays me. I should’ve known it would be amazing when Matt Berry (the horrible creepy boss from IT Crowd) was cast as Laszlo. But I won’t waste your time *explaining* why I love that you could use watching the premiere. Seriously, watch it, make everyone that enters your home watch it (as I have), bring it up in unrelated conversations (as I also have), and then thank me eternally. But what if you hate scary things?! NBD, as some of my biggest scaredy cat friends also love it.” —Elizabeth Lilly