What We Do In The Basement

In 2019, a television show shot in mockumentary style followed the exploits of four vampires living on Staten Island. I am referring, of course, to Taika Waititi’s What We Do in the Shadows, a TV spinoff from Waititi’s 2014 film with the same title. I remember hearing about it, briefly. I thought it sounded like my kind of show, but then I forgot about it again until the middle of 2020 when I saw the show referenced in a video essay about vampires in movies and television.

The timing could not have been better, because I was turned on to the show just as the second season was released for streaming. I bought the whole series and sat down to watch. I knew I would love it, and I knew I would watch the whole thing.

So here’s the brain teaser: how did I know that I was going to love it before watching a single episode? Is it because of my love of vampire shows? Not really, I did watch Buffy, years ago, but that gets complicated. Let us not speak of Buffy right now. And it’s not because I saw the original film. I should have seen it, and I don’t know how I missed it. I did catch up after the series, and it, too, was excellent.

I won’t drag this out: the answer is Matt Berry. This is my confession: I have a big man-crush on Matt Berry. Sometimes, in my head, in Matt Berry’s deep velvety accent, I’ll say to myself, “I’ve never wanted to be with a fellow, but if I was ever going to try, it would be with Matt Berry.”

Now that I think about it, that would be an awfully peculiar thing for him to say, given that he is Matt Berry. But I can still hear it, in my imagination, quite vividly.

Truthfully, I can say there is no one bad in the show. All the actors are spectacular, and the show, itself, is just exactly my cup of tea. My only complaint about the show is there isn’t enough of it for me to watch.

I’m definitely not the only fan, either. The show has garnered 46 nominations for awards from the Primetime Emmy’s to the Hollywood Critic’s association. While the show had the misfortune of being up against the phenomenal breakout of Schitz Creek in 2020, they still managed to capture a couple of the prizes, including best cable series from those Hollywood Critics I mentioned.

If you feel the same way as I do about the show, it’s because the whole thing is excellent, funny, absurd, and incredibly imaginative. But, let’s be honest, it’s also because of Matt Berry. So, if you love What We Do in the Shadows, you’re going to love The IT Crowd ( read I. T. )

The IT crowd is a BBC sitcom which ran from 2006-2010. It’s about the IT department of a large fictional company, Central London’s Reynholm Industries, which is marginalized and relegated to the darkest corner of the basement. This department consists of two men representing two variations on the nerd trope ( a year before Big Bang Theory ) and their newly hired manager -- a woman who acts as the face of the department but has no knowledge of computers or technology at all. All three are portrayed as misfits in their own unique ways, and the basement has a few more surprises, as well.

Matt Berry didn’t come along until the second series, and he’s not in every episode, but when he’s there, he’s brilliant. Like Lazlo Cravensworth, Berry’s Douglas Reyholm, heir to Reyholm Industries, is outrageously inappropriate with his sexual antics, which, along with his pathological indifference to the welfare of other people, largely defines his character. It's not too great of a stretch to imagine Reyholm as Lazlo on a little vacation, masquerading, badly, as a regular Human guy for a year or two.

Aside from Matt Berry, there’s superficially nothing to link the two series. But I feel that there is a sensibility that they each share. The humour is dryly absurd, with many of the jokes leaning on everyone accepting that absurdity without reaction. The use of recurring gags and outrageously pathetic personalities are more shared themes.

I hope the IT Crowd is an amazing discovery for you, but it might not be a surprise. The IT Crowd is trending on Netflix, so I’m probably not the first person searching high and low for more Matt Berry.

If you want to dig really deep, though. If you want to take a walk into an even weirder and wilder world, then you need to go back two more years to 2004 and Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place. I’ll leave you with a link to one of my favorite YouTubers to set you on the path. If you prefer, you can jump right into the show. Or, you can honestly skip the bulk of the show and start searching YouTube for the DVD extras: a series of mockumentary retrospective interviews with the cast, in character as the actors playing the fictional show featured in the show.

Confused? Patrick H. Willems will explain it better than I can.