The latest episode of FX’s comedy celebrates cinema’s history with vampires with some outrageous, deep cut cameos.
FX’s television follow-up to Taika Waititi’s What We Do in the Shadows has been killing it lately, both figuratively and literally. Not only has the series just been renewed for a second season that’s set to hit some time in 2020, but tonight’s latest episode, “The Trial,” featured a bonkers cavalcade of guest stars that was pretty damn impressive.
It was probably also the show’s best episode yet.
In “The Trial,” hot off the heels of last week’s episode, the Staten Island vampires find themselves on trial for the death of the Baron. The Vampiric Council that’s set to judge our vampire heroes is a select group that travels the globe to ensure that any vampires who have broken their kind’s sacred code can be held responsible. The episode reiterates just how important this group of vampires is and it’s in this department where What We Do in the Shadows turns to its many guest stars.
The gang initially comes in contact with a vampire played by Kristen Schaal, who’s a stickler on raven-message etiquette. One of Schaal’s first major roles was back on Jemaine Clement’s Flight of the Conchords, which makes this a nice reunion of sorts. Dave Bautista also shows up early on in heavy prosthetics as one of the prisoners of the Council.
These are fun appearances, but then Tilda freaking Swinton shows up as the head of the Vampiric Council. What’s even better is that she plays herself. Swinton is such an unusual performer that it’s easy to buy that she could actually be a vampire, but the episode goes much deeper with this premise. Basically every vampire on the Council is a celebrity who has portrayed a famous vampire in pop culture. Swinton was Eve in Only Lovers Left Alive, but she’s joined here by Evan Rachel Wood (Sophie-Anne Leclerq in True Blood), Paul Reubens (Amilyn in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Danny Trejo (Razor Charlie in From Dusk ‘Til Dawn).
Fellow famous cinematic vampires, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Robert Pattinson are apparently also part of the tribunal, but aren’t able to attend for this business. Wesley Snipes is at least able to Skype in (even though he’s only half vampire, like Blade, and therefore the lowest rung of the Council).
As if all of these unexpected appearances weren’t enough on their own, Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, and Jonathan Brugh all reprised their roles from the feature film as Viago, Vladislav, and Deacon, respectively. It’s the first time that the featured characters from the film have crossed over into the series and with a second season on the way, it hopefully won’t be the last.
The Staten Island crew do not fare well with this celebrity panel and they only narrowly escape death thanks to help from Colin. With three episodes left in the season, there’s still plenty of time for more surprise cameos and, of course, more opportunities for everyone’s undead lives to hilariously be on the line.
“What We Do in the Shadows” airs every Wednesday night on FX.
