WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (Season 4) | WE OWN THIS CITY | SHE WILL
Pop Culture Weekly Round-Up 15/07/2022
Hello, everyone! I hope you’re all well. There is a heat wave happening in Europe right now, and I really struggled to finish the newsletter in time for the weekend. For the last week or so I haven’t been able to eat, sleep, and even breathe well. The temperatures here in Lisbon reached 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) this week. I have been surviving off ice cream, frappuccinos, and sleeping around 5 hours per night. It’s messed up. But somehow, I still managed to come up with some recommendations for you guys.
Anyway, in this week’s newsletter, I rave about one of my favorite series right now, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS. I also share some thoughts on the Arthouse Horror film SHE WILL and on the amazing miniseries, WE OWN THIS CITY. It took me a while to actually watch the miniseries because I did not get access to early screeners and I’m not a fan of weekly releases. So I had to wait for all the episodes to be made available on HBO Max to actually watch them at my own pace (one episode per day). But it was worthy. What a great series! As always there is also a playlist with five songs I listened to last week.
QUICK THOUGHTS
WE OWN THIS CITY Is David Simon and George Pelecanos from the acclaimed series THE WIRE return to the Baltimore streets. This dramatization of a real story portrays a city with unethical authority. A place where, when it comes to policing gun violence, political gain took precedence over fundamental human rights. Jon Bernthal does an amazing job playing Wayne Jenkins, an ethically dubious man. He is in charge of a team established specifically to use all available ways to keep drugs and weapons off the streets. The police from THE WIRE and WE OWN THIS CITY are remarkably different. Despite having many serious flaws, detectives McNulty and Bunk generally had good intentions. Here we are presented with the most corrupted and dirty cops that I have ever seen in a TV show. But the worst part is, that these characters are based on real officers. WE OWN THIS CITY is a depressing and sobering insight into the life of people of color in the United States. An insightful at America's worst social ills and a sad critique of those who support this dysfunctional system. This is a very difficult series to watch, especially if you are American. But also an essential one. All six episodes of WE OWN THIS CITY are available on HBO Max and I highly recommend checking them out.
SHE WILL is Charlotte Colbert’s latest film. It tells the story of Veronica Ghent (Alice Krige) an aging movie star that In order to recover from surgery, retires to the Scottish countryside with her nurse. While there, enigmatic avenging forces arise from the site where witches were burned. SHE WILL is the classic example of modern Arthouse Horror. Provocative writing, slow pacing, beautiful visuals, and a meta-story that tries but mostly fails to link it all. The movie also has a #metoo storyline that is related to current events. But sadly, it lacks a coherent narrative and occasionally falls flat. Overall, SHE WILL casts a trippy spell with beautiful visuals, a good score, and some excellent performance. The movie is more disturbing than actually frightening and I would only recommend it to people who are really into Arthouse Horror.
SHE WILL is available in theaters and on-demand today, Friday, July 15.
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (Season 4)
This hilarious series follows (mockumentary style) three vampires and an energy vampire, who literally bores his victims to death, living in a Staten Island house with their familiar/bodyguard, Guillermo.
The third season of WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS ended on an intriguing cliffhanger. However, season 4 kicks off a year after, and almost nothing from that time period is shown. So basically, you will be disappointed if you have spent a lot of time thinking about what would happen in season 4 after that finale. But in my opinion, that was for the best. In the four episodes that were provided for review, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS reinforces its strengths without fundamentally altering the show’s formula. The characters have clearly grown and changed in the year they were apart from each other, but they are still mostly the same odd gang that we love.
Some of the changes the previous year brought about are immediately apparent. For instance, my favorite thing about Season 4 is by far “Baby Colin”. The energy vampire is now reborn and growing extremely quickly. And it is hilarious that they are using Mark Proksch's face overlaid on to various kid actors. I also love how Laszlo referred to him simply as "The Boy"— He is an excellent addition to the show that more than lives up to Adult Colin. There is internal discussion among the housemates about whether the monster that crawled out of Colin Robinson's chest is actually still Colin or if he is a clean slate waiting to be turned into “the most interesting adult that has ever been” by his new guardians.
Be secure that, despite its time jump cheap trick, the series continues to be an amazing pool of creativity, clever storylines, and dark humor. And you can still expect many dick jokes, gross-out incidents, and bits about how horny Nadja and Laszlo are for one another. This season smartly capitalizes on the audience's devotion to these characters. Because despite the fact that they literally kill people and consume their blood, we like them and want the best for them.
TOP 5 SONGS
These were the 5 songs on heavy rotation in my house last week. You can listen to them on Spotify and YouTube.
I wound up watching a bit of "What We Do In the Shadows" last night. I didn't get the appeal at first, but about 5-10 minutes in, I realized I was totally into the show.