What We Do in the Shadows fans will find a lot to love in Wellington Paranormal

For those who watch the hilarious FX series What We Do in the Shadows, Wellington Paranormal will – and should – feel familiar. A spin-off of the popular vampire film on which the cable comedy was initially based, the show was originally broadcast in New Zealand in 2018 and comes to America in the wake of Shadows’ success. Is it…a bit of an odd fit for The CW, which is generally known for its superhero shows and female-focused dramas? Yes. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth your time.

However, you should also not go into show this expecting to see a What We Do in the Shadows clone. Wellington Paranormal, as a comedy, is even drier in terms of its humor and less serial when it comes to its storytelling, with little to connect the six episodes of the first season to one another. The story is centered around a pair of bland protagonists, who lack much of the spark that defines the trio of vampires at the center of Shadows.

Yet, the straightforward combination of the painfully mundane and the utterly ridiculous combines to offer some genuine humor and goofy fun. The series stars Mike Minogue and Karen O’Leary as officers Minogue and O’Leary of the Wellington police department, a pair of bumbling, ineffective officers who stumble through investigations of seemingly supernatural or otherworldly events around the city.

Added to the city’s Paranormal Unit by the charming Sergeant Ruawai Maaka (Maaka Pohatu) who is thrilled by the idea that any might take his belief in the supernatural seriously, the duo experiences everything from zombies and werewolves, to crop circles and demonic possession.

Minogue and O’Leary’s utter cluelessness is the engine that powers the series, whether they’re assuming a possessed girl is simply a case of messy public drunkenness or taking selfies with what may well be an alien in a cornfield.

The series embraces the mockumentary format with gusto, shot in the flat, wry style that was the calling card of shows like The Office. Our lead duo’s inability to see or understand what’s happening directly in front of them is a running gag throughout, and the show is often at its funniest when deploying sight gags involving something meaningful or dangerous taking place just outside Minogue and O’Leary’s field of vision, usually while they’re talking directly to the camera.

Wellington Paranormal boasts the same painfully dry aesthetic as its FX cousin, and the actors involved are positive masters of the sort of deadpan delivery that makes comedy like this work.  And each episode clocks in at a speedy 22 minutes, meaning that none overstay their welcome, or try to drag their premise out for too long.

In all honesty, Wellington Paranormal isn’t the sort of show that will stick with you – not even in the unexpected way that some episodes of Shadows do. (Bless Mark Proksch’s Colin Robinson, is what I’m saying.)  It’s a perfect piece of silly, escapist absurdism; funny, but ultimately untaxing.

Will you remember much of this show after you watch it? Probably not, outside of a few specific jokes. (Sargeant Maaka’s offhand comment that “I happen to know a lot about the walking dead…from watching ‘he Walking Dead’” is my personal favorite.) But is it a perfectly acceptable way to battle the Sunday scaries? Absolutely.

Wellington Paranormal season 1 airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. on The CW.