This week I'm looking at five key aspects to the writing in FX vampire comedy WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS.
In grad school one of my profs used to remind us, In a script you can only have one strange thing. The rest pretty much has to be normal. So for instance if your main character is super wacky, you probably don't want to also put them in a super wacky environment, as well. It's like a hat on a hat, or wearing a striped tie with a plaid shirt. It's just too much to take in.
In WHAT WE DO..., the supernatural is clearly the strange thing. As I talked about yesterday, a big part of what makes the show work is the fact that it has set that idea in a otherwise very normal world. The context makes the vampires (and other supernatural creatures)' silliness stand out all the more. Bright colors stand out so much more against a bland background.
But the other side of the coin is that the show also really invests in exploring its "one strange thing". In a sense the game of the series is "If this is true, what else is?" That is, if our point of entry into the vampire world is characters that are so clearly silly, what must it be like to be a vampire? What's the ridiculous equivalent of each of the things we know about vampires?
And so we get ideas like Laszlo having to say "bat" in order to turn into one, or the fact that the vampires all hiss at times in this ridiculously over the top way; or that when they use the word "God" their tongues burst into flame; or that their attraction to blood is so strong that when Guillermo's friend gets a nose bleed, Nandor simply cannot control his attraction; or the reveal that many vampires are actually famous people.
The writers also push beyond vampires to the broader supernatural world. Werewolves are incredibly dumb. The vampires don't believe in ghosts. Witches are obsessed with sperm to stay young. Trolls hate the term "trolling". Again, it all proceeds from those initial character sketches.
In improv they talk sometimes about exploring the space or the game. Rather than overcommitting to some single gag, as you often see on SNL, for example, give yourself the chance to really consider the possibilities of the world you're in. That's where the long term of the story (and the comedy) is going to be found.
Now You Try!
If you know WHAT WE DO, brainstorm at least twenty parts of the supernatural world or vampire life that the show could play with. See if you can come up with a WWD equivalent for half of them. Like for instance, what does an exorcism look like in this context? What if the only way to exorcise a demon is to make out with them, and they're just the worst kisser ever?
If you don't know WHAT WE DO and you're working on your own thing, what is the strange element of your show? Try to think of 20 things that could come from that initial idea, twenty ways to explore that space.
