Despite the vampire comedy ending before the 2025 TV schedule kicked off, rewatching What We Do in the Shadows’ six-season run (with a Hulu subscription) is still one of the funniest TV experiences one can have this or any other year. No one would (or should) argue that Matt Berry’s exquisite performance as pomposity personified, Laszlo Cravensworth, is a mountainous part of the appe-e-e-e-eal. The actor seemingly had a blast with the role, and I love that his favorite Laszlo element matches up squarely with mine.
What We Do In The Shadows' Matt Berry Reveals The Fan Response He Gets Most, And It Seems Like It'd Be Both Hilarious And Unsettling
Of all the hilarious details I’d nominate as WWDITS’ series highlights, from Guillermo’s attempts at romance to Baby Colin Robinson to the almost surprisingly magnificent series finale, I honestly don’t know that I’d put anything higher than Berry’s hysterical persona flip in Season 2 when he became real human bartender Jackie Daytona.
When asked by AwardsRadar about his favorite moment in the show, the IT Crowd vet pointed to the power of Jackie’s signature toothpick, saying:
I think it’s possibly the toothpick. Mainly because that’s such a dumb joke, and the arrogance in which that was the attempt to sell that to anybody that would sort of listen to him, that sums him up.
Couldn't agree more, Matt Berry. Couldn't agree more.
Introduced in Season 2's sixth episode "On the Run," Jackie Daytona was conjured into existence after the vengeful and money-owed Jim the Vampire arrived in Staten Island looking for Laszlo, who fled the state, murdered a bar owner and took over running the dude's establishment with crowd-pleasing aplomb. Everybody had a reason to celebrate when Jackie Daytona was around, especially the girls' volleyball team.
Okay maybe not Jim the Vampire, who was portrayed by one of the show's many brilliant guest stars, Mark Hamill. But everybody else loved him, and there's not a jury out there who would willingly say it was because he used hypnosis to win them over. Probably.
Check out Jackie D. in action, making more sense in this persona than most of his time as Laszlo proper. Or at least he sells it that well.
By the time What We Do in the Shadows' final season came around, Matt Berry talked about it being the right time to end it, while series co-creator Taika Waititi also shared the opinion that the comedy series had gone on too long for a project that was an offshoot of the 2014 film of the same name.
How can that be, though, when I'd readily take this series' return over most of the current TV lineup? Maybe I'm just hypnotized by Jackie Daytona's cool regular human bartender swagger.
Berry, who made vocal waves at the tail end of A Minecraft Movie, will also be heard in the upcoming sci-fi feature Rogue Trooper, and also lent his dulcet tones to the deceased Sherlock Holmes in CBS' Watson. I'm hoping he'll return to the world of Fallout in Season 2 as well.
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