Silly ‘Wellington Paranormal’ is Low Budget Fun

The New Zealand mockumentary TV series, Wellington Paranormal, has been airing in that country since 2018. A spinoff of the 2014 mockumentary film, What We Do in the Shadows about the life and times of a group of modern-day vampires, the show has finally found a home on U.S. television on The CW. Although vampires might be shown on the show, they are not main focus. In fact, only two actors/characters from the original film appear in Wellington Paraormal: Officer Minogue (Mike Minogue) and Officer O’Leary (Karen O’Leary).

The low budget show (which only makes the show that much funnier) follows these two inept cops and their even more enept boss, Sergeant Maaka (Maaka Pohatu) as they go about their daily business tracking down ghouls and goblins in the capital of New Zealand.

The first episode, which airs on July 11, 2021, entitled “Demon Girl”, the pair encounter a young woman who has weird eyes, speaks in a monstrous tone and claims to be Bazu’aal of the Unholy Realm. O’Leary dutifully asks her how she spells her name. After bringing in the girl for questioning, Minogue and O’Leary are recruited to join Sergeant Maaka’s new paranormal unit. Later, when faced with the demon again, the trio look up on YouTube on how to perform an exorcism.

Wellington Paranormal was created by Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit), and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), who wrote, directed and even performed in What we Do in the Shadows. They serve as executive producers here and Clement direct four the six episodes of the show’s first short season.

While the subject matter will be upsetting for some, it should all be taken with a grain of salt. It’s all in good fun and this show is actually very funny. While a step further than say, The Munsters or The Addams Family (and I would probably shield younger viewers from watching) Wellington Paranormal is not exactly an endorsement for the occult. With that said, this show isn’t for everybody. If you are not a fan of mockumentaries like The Office or Parks and Recreation, you won’t like this. If viewing this subject matter, even as a joke, does not appeal to you, there is nothing I can say to convince you otherwise. And since I have only watched the first episode of the series, I cannot comment on the content of the remaining episodes of the show, but I found this to be laugh out loud funny.

Still, this cast is great at playing their parts with great earnestness and you could do worse. New Zealand is currently filming their fourth season of the show!