S02.E01: Resurrection / S02.E02: Ghosts

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Nadja and Laszlo's new familiar poses problems for an increasingly anxious Guillermo, and the vampires enlist the services of a local necromancer.

and

The vampires hold a seance to deal with a ghost infestation, which leads to a larger ghost infestation.

Returning with the season premiere and a bonus episode on Wednesday, April 15, 2020!

[Mr. Sparkle]

I don't know if I could be more ready. 

[HotRats2112]

I can't wait.  Part of me wishes it was being released all at once so I could binge watch it.  But then it would be over in a matter of hours.  

[Mr. Sparkle]

On 4/5/2020 at 7:51 PM, Superclam said:

I don't know if I could be more ready. 

I'm ready-er!! I'm ready-er!! 

[LittleIggy]

Oh, man, I haven’t laughed so much in ages! I needed that. 😂

Poor Guillermo! He’s the Rodney Dangerfield of familiars. Haley Joel Osment was Topher? Wow. High five! 😆

So glad the show is back!

[jquitar]

Updog,

[Vermicious Knid]

I guess resurrection is so cheap because you only get zombies. And there aren't any community productions in the state between Staten Island and Albany, really?

[Mr. Sparkle]

Even though it's the title of the thread and it was mentioned in a comment above, I was apparently too dense to realize there were 2 episodes last night. So I was pretty thrilled! I liked the second one better. Guillermo is definitely the sleeper star of this show. 

[CletusMusashi]

I agree, both about the second ep being stronger and about Gigi becoming the star. Loved the argument about arbitrary anti-ghost skepticism. And Laszlo's "science."

Welcome back, Jesk. Bye, Jesk. Two Nadjas now?

I like when they give Colin Robinson reasons to be around. It's hard to make a character so unfunny that he's funny while still keeping him unfunny, but mission accomplished,.

I wonder if his PTSD from eating John is part of the reason Nandor won't bite Gigi. Not that familiars tend to have a good rate of promotion anyway... or.. any rate...

I'm curious about where Jen is. Did she enslave all the LARPER nerds and make herself their queen or something?

[pasdetrois]

My favorite vampires are back and firing on all cylinders. Despite their flamboyant clothes and mannerisms, I find myself watching Guillermo. He gets his revenge from their mistreatment by stealing every scene he's in.

Good to see Haley Joel Osment, who was great at Topher.

I'll "bite": did we find out what updog means?

Edited April 16, 2020 by pasdetrois

[BoffoDaWonderSheep]

1 hour ago, CletusMusashi said:

I'm curious about where Jen is. Did she enslave all the LARPER nerds and make herself their queen or something?

She's off making critically-acclaimed independent films 🙂 I think I read that Beanie Feldstein will be unavailable this season.

[Mr. Sparkle]

26 minutes ago, pasdetrois said:

'll "bite": did we find out what updog means?

What's updog? 

[BoffoDaWonderSheep]

25 minutes ago, pasdetrois said:

I'll "bite": did we find out what updog means?

It's actually "updoc," which supposedly triggers a Bugsbunnyish "What's up, doc?" response. 

[iMonrey]

I didn't get the updog thing at first. 

It's just so great to have this show back. I loved every little touch and every little line. The novelty license plate keychains were hilarious. The montage of all the familiars they lost was hilarious. Topher as a zombie was hilarious.

I've always wondered how, exactly, Colin is like or unlike the other vampires, so it was great to see them address it here by admitting even he didn't know what his deal was.

Loved it all. Will re-watch.

[Catfi9ht]

I didn't realize there were two episodes until I visited this forum then I quickly watched the second one with extra glee!

What's better than Nadja?

TWO NADJAS!!!

I agree with the folks above; the second episode was definitely stronger than the first. I love how they've decided to expand the universe this season already! Plus, Jesk!

🥰Oh man, I love this show. 🥰

 

[Blakeston]

5 hours ago, BoffoDaWonderSheep said:

It's actually "updoc," which supposedly triggers a Bugsbunnyish "What's up, doc?" response. 

He was saying "updog."

"What's up, dog?" (or "what up, dog?") is a pretty common way for men to greet one another.

(If anyone is still confused, the "joke" is that you're tricking someone into saying "what's up, dog?" without them realizing it.)

Edited April 16, 2020 by Blakeston

[peridot]

Poor Guillermo!  Not only was he losing sleep taking care of the assassins, but Topher was taking credit for his work and the vamps made a joke wishing that he was dead instead.

I loved seeing Benedict Wong as the con artist necromancer. 

The ghost episode was hilarious.  I wasn't sure if Laszlo could see Jeff's ghost, but I love that he ran back to get the warrior for assistance.  The ectoplasm from his ghost was disgusting!

What language were they using in the spell book?  Was it just made up?  I figured Nadja's ghost was speaking Greek, but was Nandor's ghost using a real language?  That doll was spooky as hell.

[BoffoDaWonderSheep]

1 hour ago, Blakeston said:

He was saying "updog."

"What's up, dog?" (or "what up, dog?") is a pretty common way for men to greet one another.

You're right, they did say "updog." (But, in Bugs' defense, I think the current "what's up, dog?" was a take on his classic question)   🐰😀

[iMonrey]

Quote

What language were they using in the spell book?  Was it just made up?  I figured Nadja's ghost was speaking Greek, but was Nandor's ghost using a real language?

I'm still trying to figure out where Nandor's native homeland is. It sounds like he's saying something like "Alcanada" but I've searched in vain for anything sounding remotely like it.

I don't know that I agree the second episode was stronger, although the special effects were certainly impressive. That ghostly effect can't be cheap. But I'm trying to get some friends into this show and if you hadn't seen Season 1 yet I think the second episode with Jeff would have been harder to follow. (No explanation for why she kept calling him "Jesk," for example.) The first episode was a little easier to follow if you were seeing the show for the first time.

[Catfi9ht]

41 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I'm still trying to figure out where Nandor's native homeland is. It sounds like he's saying something like "Alcanada" but I've searched in vain for anything sounding remotely like it.

Fan wikis to the rescue! Al Quolanudar

https://whatwedointheshadows.fandom.com/wiki/Nandor

After looking further, it's probably originally from Nandor's bio on FX's website: https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/what-we-do-in-the-shadows/cast-crew/kayvan-novak-nandor

Edited April 16, 2020 by Catfi9ht
added fx URL

[AdorkableWitch]

I was kind of hoping we'd see a running gag of familiars this season a la Murphy Brown secretaries.

[LittleIggy]

4 hours ago, BoffoDaWonderSheep said:

It's actually "updoc," which supposedly triggers a Bugsbunnyish "What's up, doc?" response. 

No it isn’t. 

[tennisgurl]

This season, its the adventures of Guillermo the Vampire Slayer! 

I am so happy to have this show back, its an absolute delight. And we get two for the price of one! Loved seeing Benedict Wong as the scatting necromancer and his name license plate key-chains, and Haley Joel Osment and his high fives, I am forever obsessed with how this show uses its guest stars. 

The ghost stuff was hilarious as well, with all the vampires contemplating their existence and their ghost selves, and how not even Colin Robinson knows exactly what his deal is. So now will we have two Nadjas for awhile?!? 

"So much toxic masculinity in the Ottoman Empire." 

“I work for you, a vampire, I've seen werewolves, necromancers, zombies, and several babadooks, but ghosts is where we draw the line?" 

Edited April 16, 2020 by tennisgurl

[TexasGal]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

 

I work for you, a vampire, I've seen werewolves, necromancers, zombies, and several babadooks, but ghosts is where we draw the line?" 

“One babadook.”  “Several.”  “Don’t exaggerate.”

I love Guillermo being stealth snarky.  “Carc-ass” “Cadaver” “Body”

Scatting necromancer.  Hilarious!!

[Lantern7]

Well, that was fun. It's a shame I can't see this "live"; usually, I'm coming off watching the DVR of The Challenge, so I'll have to DVR this while I'm doing that.

Stuff We Learned: Apparently, vampires are capable of having ghosts. Is this taken from the Buffy franchise, only you get a putz vampire instead of one that's pure evil? What else . . . Babadooks exist, so do necromancers and zombies, and it's possible to temporarily change a vampire's complexion if you run their mist through an air purifier. Thanks, Nando! Oh, and Colin might not be THE WORST, but he is probably the worst. Does that make sense?

And Gizmo is still the whipping boy of the house. At least he has another life option, what with the slaying of homicidal vampires. Gotta love how Topher just nonchalantly lets two of them into the house. And even after death, Topher was a giant pain in the ass. One question: if you have a sweatshop full of zombies, can you call it a "sweatshop" if they don't actually sweat?

[sistermagpie]

8 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I didn't get the updog thing at first. 

Luckily he repeated it over and over until everybody got it.

 

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I don't know that I agree the second episode was stronger, although the special effects were certainly impressive. That ghostly effect can't be cheap. But I'm trying to get some friends into this show and if you hadn't seen Season 1 yet I think the second episode with Jeff would have been harder to follow. (No explanation for why she kept calling him "Jesk," for example.) The first episode was a little easier to follow if you were seeing the show for the first time.

I tarted laughing during the first ep and never stopped. I was sad to lose Topher at first because HJL was a perfect fit.

Always happy to sir Guillermo featured. They know what they're doing making him basically the protagonist. Especially when he's passive-aggressive.

There were so many great moments (the license plates, omg) but if I had to pick one it would have to be the line that keeps popping into my head and making me laugh 24 hours later: "Hey, a high school production of Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town' with a Q&A afterwards? Don't mind if I do!"

[CletusMusashi]

So what are the odds on whether or not Laszlo decides to pleasure himself with Nadja's new doll. And if so, what are the odds of Little Nadja staying quiet during it?

You know, actually Little Nadja is in an interesting position to learn lots of things. I don't think Gigi is going to hold back on his assassin-slaying in front of a supposedly inanimate object, for example. I could even see a situation where he catches her walking around or something and they both sort of blackmail each other into staying quiet.

You know, it's funny, but long, long ago, I was channel-surfing around and came to something that had a ventriloquist dummy in it. Which of course meant that people were going to start getting murdered soon, so I kept watching. Not only had I guessed correctly and it was indeed something in the horror genre that I was watching, but it was also funny as hell. And that is the story of how I discovered "The Puppet Show," the first-season episode that originally got me hooked on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." So, to this day, I have a soft spot for evil dummies, evil Krusty the Klowns, anything of that nature.

So, this song is dedicated to Little Nadja:

 

[AuntiePam]

Like others, my favorite bit was the license plate names, and how pleased they were to have them as partial payment for the necro's mistake.  They are so out of the loop in so many ways, it makes me feel better that I'm dumb about so much pop culture stuff.  At least they have an excuse.

Hope to see more of Ghost Nadja. 

[oldCJ]

I am hoping ghost nadja in a doll ends up with ghost gregor in a doll. Very Chuckie in Child’s Play vibes. 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

Guillermo needs to drink more water and to stop eating his own poop.

Edited April 17, 2020 by ItCouldBeWorse

[iMonrey]

Quote

Fan wikis to the rescue! Al Quolanudar

Thanks. So, it's fictional.

I just hope that FX isn't going to air 2 episodes back to back every week. That would sort of suggest they're burning off the episodes. Hopefully they only did that for premier week. I want to believe this show is popular enough to keep going for a long time and not something FX is losing interest in.

[Bruinsfan]

Vampires + animated dolls/puppets are always comedy gold. See the "Smile Time" episode of Angel or "The Vampiric Puppet Lamentation" from The Middleman.

[Ruprecht]

12 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Guillermo needs to drink more water and to stop eating his own poop.

I preferred the first episode on the strength of this gag alone. I'm still giggling. 

I also loved that Colin got a license and the first thing he did was block traffic so he could feed. 

[CletusMusashi]

Going to work today, I saw a UPS truck. And immediately thought "What's ups, dogs?" I'm not saying it was a good joke. I mean, hell, I'm the one who thought it, and even I don't think it's funny. In other words, I'm sure Colin Robinson would approve.

[voiceover]

As the daughter of a native speaker, I know an embarrassingly little amount of Farsi.  So I was thrilled to hear it in the convo between Nandor & his ghost (a word that basically translates as "Yeah, ok")(I told you: embarrassingly little amount).

One of the many reasons Nandor is my favorite, and I was so glad he got to take "Steve" home.

[7isBlue]

On 4/16/2020 at 5:33 PM, Lantern7 said:

And Gizmo is still the whipping boy of the house. At least he has another life option, what with the slaying of homicidal vampires. Gotta love how Topher just nonchalantly lets two of them into the house.

Did we see what happened to those two vampire assassins? Also - Wouldn’t Nandor let Gizmo off the hook since he’s killing vampires to protect him? 

[CletusMusashi]

"No, Guillermo! Is 'vampires only' war!"

[MisterGlass]

I loved the first episode more on the strength of Haley Joel Osment and Benedict Wong.  I could not stop laughing from the necromany on.  I hope they find a way for both of them to come back later because this was too, too funny!

I do love the Guillermo is embracing his vampire killer instincts against his master's enemies.  He is my favorite.  And he got Topher's mini-fridge!

I am glad that they found a way for Jeff to recur again, but creepy dolls creep me out, and I'm not psyched about ghost Nadja's host.

I missed these morons!

[Orbert]

I realize that Guillermo being the whipping-boy is part of the entire premise for the show, but it's reached the point where I get genuinely pissed at Nandor for badly he treats Guillermo.  When the others were also piling on him, it was even worse.  To me, it's just not funny at all.  I mean, I get it; he's their familiar, their slave.  But it's basically bullying, and when the idiot Topher came along and stole all the credit, and then when the others literally couldn't see anything wrong with him after he was clearly a zombie, it just didn't work for me.  Guillermo looked so crushed when he told them honestly that he wished they knew how hard he worked for them, and just wanted some appreciation.

Okay, I'm sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.  There were plenty of other, funny moments, and yeah, I laughed out loud multiple times.  But I really wanted Guillermo to just stake Nandor a few times.  It seems to be building toward a payoff, the fact that he's a slayer.  I hope we get there soon.

[LittleIggy]

On 4/18/2020 at 7:04 AM, 7isBlue said:

Did we see what happened to those two vampire assassins? Also - Wouldn’t Nandor let Gizmo off the hook since he’s killing vampires to protect him? 

Guillermo said that he had to keep those killings a secret because Nandor would kill him for being a vampire slayer! Go figure!

[Orbert]

Yeah, Guillermo's in a tough spot.  He has to protect his master, but can't tell him that he's doing it.

On the other hand, it's good that we're seeing some follow-up to "our" vampires defying the will of the council.

Guillermo needs to find another gig.

[sistermagpie]

18 hours ago, Orbert said:

I realize that Guillermo being the whipping-boy is part of the entire premise for the show, but it's reached the point where I get genuinely pissed at Nandor for badly he treats Guillermo.  When the others were also piling on him, it was even worse.  To me, it's just not funny at all.  I mean, I get it; he's their familiar, their slave.  But it's basically bullying, and when the idiot Topher came along and stole all the credit, and then when the others literally couldn't see anything wrong with him after he was clearly a zombie, it just didn't work for me.  Guillermo looked so crushed when he told them honestly that he wished they knew how hard he worked for them, and just wanted some appreciation.

I loved Guillermo himself coming to a similar conclusion. That moment when he says he saw a sign that Nandor really appreciates him and if he stops...well...

[Gobi]

For me, the treatment of Guillermo works as comedy because the vampires aren’t mean, they’re just clueless. They have no idea how their actions affect him, and wouldn’t believe it if it was explained to them.

[Orbert]

47 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

I loved Guillermo himself coming to a similar conclusion. That moment when he says he saw a sign that Nandor really appreciates him and if he stops...well...

I didn't quite follow what he was saying there.  Nandor had just "accidentally" saved his life by throwing Topher out of the way and then chastising Guillermo for being in the pond in the first place (clueless, as Gobi points out).  Guillermo said something about how this was proof that Nandor really did care about him, which shows some cluelessness on his part as well I suppose.

What did he say beyond that?  If he stops...?

[sistermagpie]

6 minutes ago, Orbert said:

I didn't quite follow what he was saying there.  Nandor had just "accidentally" saved his life by throwing Topher out of the way and then chastising Guillermo for being in the pond in the first place (clueless, as Gobi points out).  Guillermo said something about how this was proof that Nandor really did care about him, which shows some cluelessness on his part as well I suppose.

What did he say beyond that?  If he stops...?

He says that Nandor proved him to him that really does care about him and appreciate all he does for him by protecting him. Which might have been been wishful thinking on his part.

But then he says, "And if one day he doesn't...well..."

And then he gets a drink out of the minifridge which now has wooden stakes in it. Iow, if one day he doesn't believe Nandor cares about him...he is a vampire killer with a mini fridge full of stakes.

[Orbert]

Thank you.  Definitely some wishful thinking on his part.

I remember now thinking that he was opening the fridge to show us something (like the stakes) but he was "just grabbing a drink".  Ha ha, a bit of fun misdirection.

Or foreshadowing disguised as fun misdirection.

Edited April 20, 2020 by Orbert

[Vermicious Knid]

Eventual final episode of the show, Guillermo stakes them all. While still wearing his grandpa sweater vests.

[Red Bridey]

On 4/16/2020 at 10:13 PM, CletusMusashi said:

So what are the odds on whether or not Laszlo decides to pleasure himself with Nadja's new doll. And if so, what are the odds of Little Nadja staying quiet during it?

You know, actually Little Nadja is in an interesting position to learn lots of things. I don't think Gigi is going to hold back on his assassin-slaying in front of a supposedly inanimate object, for example. I could even see a situation where he catches her walking around or something and they both sort of blackmail each other into staying quiet.

You know, it's funny, but long, long ago, I was channel-surfing around and came to something that had a ventriloquist dummy in it. Which of course meant that people were going to start getting murdered soon, so I kept watching. Not only had I guessed correctly and it was indeed something in the horror genre that I was watching, but it was also funny as hell. And that is the story of how I discovered "The Puppet Show," the first-season episode that originally got me hooked on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." So, to this day, I have a soft spot for evil dummies, evil Krusty the Klowns, anything of that nature.

So, this song is dedicated to Little Nadja:

 

Me too! That was MY first Buffy episode and I randomly hit on it while channel-surfing, and, like Buffy, puppets give me the "wiggins" to this day. I thought Principal Snyder had to be a demon of some kind, but I was wrong. On topic, loved seeing Guillermo slaying. And I heart Jesk.

[Orbert]

I thought for a moment that Nadja would hook Ghost Jesk up with Ghost Nadja.  Ghost Nadja seemed to be looking for some action, and wouldn't it work better anyway, ghost on ghost?  I don't know how these things work.  But it would've solved both of their problems, right?

[HotRats2112]

On 4/16/2020 at 1:54 PM, peridot said:

I loved seeing Benedict Wong as the con artist necromancer. 

I also loved that. He is so amazingly funny.  Also (insert funny Dr Strange/MCU referential joke that I can't think of right now).

I'm very much in favor of seeing more British comedy actors.  Like Richard Ayoade.  He's friends with Jemaine.  

So happy this show is back.  

Edited April 21, 2020 by HotRats2112
put the Y in the wrong place