Hacker Cinema
What We Do in the Shadows
2019 · TV series · 6 seasons
Created by Jemaine Clement
A documentary-style look into the daily (or rather, nightly) lives of a group of vampires in Staten Island who have “lived” together for hundreds and hundreds of years.
5 positive5 neutralfrom 10 commenters
Where to watch
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11 comments on Hacker News
#2 is the reason I keep paying for Claude Code Pro.
For 20 a month I can get my stupid tool and utility ideas from "it would be cool if I could..." to actual "works well enough for me" -tools in an evening - while I watch my shows at the same time.
After a day at work I don't have the energy to start digging through, say, OpenWeather's latest 3.0 API and its nuances and how I can refactor my old code to use the new API.
Claude did it in maybe one episode of What We Do in the Shadows :D I have a hook that makes my computer beep when Claude is done or pauses for a question, so I can get back, check what it did and poke it forward.
Or, the energy vampires from the What We Do in the Shadows TV series:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_We_Do_in_the_Shadows_(TV_series)
(Ctrl-F) "Colin Robinson"
I watched a few episodes from the revival, got confused, then watched a bit of the original but didn’t like it. But I’ll give it another shot.
I will also check out The Rehearsal - looks interesting.
I don’t know how I forgot What We Do in the Shadows - the best comedy airing right now imo.
If we take the metaphorical view of vampires as those that feast on the blood of the young to extend their own lives then as a planet (or at least in the West) we have never been more infested - how many people are dying young, through overdose or suicidal hopeless, or otherwise having their life force drained through sky high rents and stagnant wages so that boomers can carry on living the high life? How many young people killed themselves during pandemic lockdowns, lockdowns that were in place mainly to save boomer lives? There’s also the related zombie concept - how many dead, uncompetitive and mismanaged companies, banks and pension funds are we keeping alive through government bailouts, which are again, essentially draining the life force of the living to feed the dead?
I also like “What We Do In The Shadows” (tv show version) extension of the metaphor to the “energy vampire”, which is essentially a criticism of bloated bureaucracy which is another one of the modern monsters draining the life out of us all.
I don’t think these terms were ever meant to be taken literally by those who created them but as platonic ideals to describe personalities and systems, but the education level and lifestyles of the time were so barbaric, primitive and rooted in physicality that the majority struggled to comprehend them as such.
he was also an executive consultant on the tv show version of What We Do In The Shadows, which for a few years was the best comedy show on tv imo. The Jesse Armstrong, Armando Ianucci, Chris Morris, Charlie Brooker Channel Four-some has a lot to answer for (although most of Ianucci's work is BBC produced). I think the only other writing comedian of that generation I respect as much is Sacha Baron Cohen, although his work is slightly different
Arrested Development up to Season 3 (the rest doesn’t exist). In my opinion, it is the most rewardingly rewatchable comedy show of all time. Extremely dense packing of humor that takes multiple passes to fully appreciate.
Curb Your Enthusiasm, as others have mentioned. It has an improvised feel to it (intentionally!) which makes it quite unique.
What We Do in the Shadows is more modern but also a brilliant comedy.
The Office is amazing too, though it’s not for everyone and has its downs.
The recent episode _What we do in the Shadows_ : “Go Flip Yourself” has the gang watching a version of property brothers while their house is falling apart around them. I thought it was part of the subtext, at least… unproductive watching others do what you need to do.
I’ve experienced this firsthand when asking my partner if maybe we can think about picking up… so yeah, the TV remote was picked up so Marie Condo [sp?] videos could light up the TV… and instead of just picking up, it’s a watch party of someone else picking up :(
I hate productivity-tube for this!
/end rant
If you haven't already, check out "What We Do in the Shadows"... first the movie and then the TV series
"superbowl" was also featured in an episode of "What we do in the shadows": https://whatwedointheshadows.fandom.com/wiki/Brain_Scramblies
Well played!
In the TV show "What we do in the shadows" this is called an energy vampire. (you suck out other energy) Also a great show.
Off the top of my head: Succession, VEEP, Barry, Big Little Lies, Sharp Objects, True Detective (seasons 1 & 3), Chernobyl.
Big Little Lies was probably the worst of that bunch, and is still lightyears ahead of any recent Netflix drama.
On Prime, The Man in the High Castle is a guilty pleasure despite its flaws. The bizarre spy drama Patriot is absolutely excellent.
I like that with Prime, I can subscribe to HBO within the app, and also buy seasons of some cable shows, like FX’s Legion, Fargo, What We Do in the Shadows.
I prefer that experience much more than Netflix. With Netflix, the original content has to be so good that it offsets the lack of being able to purchase non-Netflix content, and frankly Netflix originals have just not been good enough to cut it for a while.