Idiot Boxing: What We Do in the Shadows, season 2 (2020)

The crew celebrates Nandor's 800-somethingth birthday in
typically foolhardy fashion.

No Spoilers, so read away!

A still funny but slightly lesser sophomore season from the brainchild of Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi.

The show still focuses on a quartet of vampires living in Staten Island, New York. Three of them embody the classic vision of vampires, hailing from the Europe of centuries past and exhibiting an unfailing sense of superiority, despite the fact that they are often hopelessly out of touch with modern times. They are also looked down upon by nearly every other vampire in the vast underworld community of nightwalkers. The fourth - the energy vampire Colin Robinson - may be more in tune with modern times, but is so horribly boring that he's equally derided by his vampiric peers. The big twist at the end of the first season was actually about Guillermo, the semi-pathetic familiar to the especially dim-witted, 800-year old vampire Nandor. Guillermo, long awaiting his master to fulfill his dream and turn him into a vampire, learns that he is a descendent of the renowned vampire-slayer Abraham Van Helsing. This syncs up with the fact that Guillermo had accidentally slain several vampires through the course of the first season, including the powerful and feared (but also completely deranged) "Baron."

This second season follows a similar rhythm to the first. Each mockumentary-style episode is mostly stand-alone, with the overarching story continuing to be Guillermo's attempts to reconcile his still-present desire to become a vampire with the fact that he is a world-class vampire killer. This is a skill that he finds himself using more than he would like, as many other vampire clans are constantly sending assassins after Nandor and the other vampires in their home, due to the belief that it was they, not Guillermo, who killed The Baron. Mostly, though, each episode has its own self-contained focus.

Laszlo squares off against a dangerous rival in a sleepy town
pub in Pennsylvania, where he's been hiding out in the episode
"On the Run." This was my favorite episode of this season.

I thought this season was still quite funny, though not as consistent as the first season. Of the ten episodes, there were a few that I found were noticeably less funny than most entries into this still-young series. Oddly, it was the first three episodes - "Resurrection," "Ghosts," and "Brain Scramblies" - in which I found more gags that were only so-so, mixed in with some really good moments. Once it got to the middle part of the season, things picked up noticeably. "Colin's Promotion" was a good one, in which Colin Robinson works his way up the chain of command at work and sees his energy-siphoning powers grow immensely strong. And "Witches" was a solid entry with plenty of sexual humor - something that is always Laszlo's strong point. My personal favorite, though, was "On the Run," in which Laszlo flees Staten Island, fearing for his (after?)life. The always-over puffed up vampire takes refuge in a small Pennsylvania town, and there are a ton of hilarious moments as he "blends in" with the locals.

Season two also had a bit of a "reveal" at the end of it, which I won't spoil for anyone, and a third season has been confirmed. However, I seem to recall reading that show co-creators Jemaine Clement or Taika Waititi may step away from the show going forward. If that is, indeed, the case, then I hope whoever picks up the reins can keep the show going strong. It's really one of the best comedies that I know of on TV right now, and one could see it remaining so for several more seasons.