Paranormal Activity

What We Do in the Shadows has been one of my true entertainment revelations in recent years. The television series is hilariously funny, every minute of every episode -- a fact which especially delighted me, since I felt the movie on which it's based was basically "fine." But creators Taiki Waititi and Jemaine Clement aren't done making fake documentaries with supernatural trappings. Their latest TV series is Wellington Paranormal.

Wellington Paranormal is essentially What We Do in the Shadows meets The X-Files. A pair of cops in Wellington, New Zealand become part of a paranormal investigations unit in their department, and each week lead a documentary crew on their supernatural adventures. The series debuted in New Zealand in 2018, but has only recently made its way to U.S. audiences (with a handful of its episodes held for the future).

Mockumentary sitcoms are a well-worn trope at this point. At the same time, visual effects have advanced to a point where truly convincing imagery can be pulled off even in shots using a handheld camera. So it really isn't the alchemy of "fake documentary" and "supernatural adventures" that is the main stunner in Wellington Paranormal. There are good gags built around these things in just about every episode, but I actually don't think it's the most distinct thing about the show. That, I think, would be the characters.

Pretty much every sitcom has "the dumb character," the implausibly-but-hilariously stupid/naive character who serves as the vehicle for clever wordplay and misunderstandings. There are three main characters on Wellington Paranormal: Officers Minogue and O'Leary, and their boss Sergeant Maaka. On any other television series, any one of these people would be "the dumb character." On this show, it's a race to the bottom with O'Leary being sort of "sitcom normal stupid," Maaka being perhaps twice as dumb as that, and Minogue being at least twice as dumb as that. It's an entire show of Homer Simpsons, Joey Tribbianis, Woody Boyds.

This unusual recipe for a show turns out to be pretty funny a lot of the time. But I'd say it's not nearly as funny as What We Do in the Shadows. Yes, that's a high bar, so arguably not a fair basis for comparison. Perhaps a better way to say it is that I'm not sure that each of the characters on Wellington Paranormal has a distinct enough voice. They're called "situation comedies," but often the real laughs come from the characters being in the situations. Wellington Paranormal, however, is often more about the situations. Which are very often funny. But I don't feel like any of the characters really crackles like any one of the core cast on What We Do in the Shadows.

All that said -- I definitely enjoyed watching Wellington Paranormal. I'd recommend it, and I will certainly be watching again when the next crop of episodes is brought to America. But I also can't make the recommendation as simple as "if you like What We Do in the Shadows, you'll like Wellington Paranormal." I think that's setting the expectations too high. I'd call Wellington Paranormal a B. If you like What We Do in the Shadows... well... maybe give it a try.