Prior to FX’s adaptation of What We Do in the Shadows, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi spun off their 2014 vampire comedy with Wellington Paranormal, which first aired in New Zealand in 2018 and recently wrapped its third season. The mockumentary comedy horror series follows two earnest, oblivious police officers, O’Leary (Karen O’Leary) and Kyle Minogue (Mike Minogue), who investigate supernatural phenomena in the titular New Zealand capital. Three years on, the series remains eminently watchable thanks to its considerable B-movie charm and its leads’ oddball chemistry.
The opening scene of the first season, which will make its U.S. premiere on the CW and HBO Max, establishes both the show’s zany DIY aesthetic and the captivating absurdity of its protagonists. Out on nighttime patrol, O’Leary spots a solitary teenager (Erika Camacho) who, when she turns her head, reveals a sickly green complexion and glowing eyes. When the girl spews a torrent of bile, a sequence of rapid cuts amusingly highlights the simplicity of the repeated practical effect. And when the demon possessing the teen identifies itself as “Bazu’aal of the Unholy Realm,” Minogue asks: “Is that the Unholy Realm in Hataitai?” He gently puts a hand on her shoulder and she picks him up and tosses him through the air.
If Minogue’s the bumbling but kindhearted dolt, O’Leary serves as the straight man, at least in relative terms. They’re both rather incurious and lack common sense, but that doesn’t stop their commanding officer, ardent cryptozoologist and fellow eccentric Sergeant Maaka (Maaka Pohatu), from inducting them into the department’s Paranormal Unit.
Wellington Paranormal evokes, in no small measure, Fox’s long-running docu-reality series Cops, which was cancelled in the U.S. last year amid growing anti-police sentiment, and this show’s reflections on policing are limited to sporadic and toothless jokes that may have seemed pointed in 2018 but feel banal now. A handful of already archaic gags, including a comedy bit about the dab, are groan-inducing, and the What We Do in the Shadows series casts a sizable shadow over Wellington Paranormal, as that series more sharply incorporates confessionals and the cameraperson as a character to generate both intimacy and humor.
But the waggish, winking zaniness of Wellington Paranormal allows it to transcend its outdated elements. In the second episode, “Cop Circles,” O’Leary and Minogue visit a country farm to check out strange occurrences. The crop circles they discover there remind Minogue of the cover art for Led Zeppelin’s Remasters, prompting a wacky, meandering conversation about the band’s 1990 compilation. The episode’s beasts, meanwhile, are proud rejoinders to the overuse of CGI in modern mainstream horror; the rubbery aliens look and move like mutated clones of Gumby. Right until fear gets the best of them, O’Leary and Minogue greet the creatures like they do each other: with hilarious, near-unfazeable nonchalance, as though their hyperbolic politeness prevents them from revealing that they’re terrified.
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