Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Wellington Paranormal’ On The CW, A (Not So) New Mockumentary Spin-off Of ‘What We Do In The Shadows’

The reason why What We Do In The Shadows has been such a cult hit is that it’s about vampires acting like vain idiots. So the idea that EPs Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi could take that concept and extend it to clueless officers chasing paranormal “suspects” in a Cops-like format seemed to be something they could pull off. And pull it off they did; their Shadows spin-off Wellington Paranormal has finally made it to the states via The CW.

WELLINGTON PARANORMAL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. There’s pulsating music and the camera dashes around, like on Cops. A camera follows an officer as she notices a teenage girl standing alone. The graphic says “Cuba Street, 12:03 AM.”

The Gist: Wellington Paranormal is shot in Cops-like documentary style, following Wellington Police officers O’Leary (Karen O’Leary) and Minogue (Mike Minouge) as they investigate the surprisingly common occurrences of paranormal phenomena (or as Minogue calls it, “Phemonema”) in the capital city.

But when they encounter a teenage girl spewing vomit and calling herself “Bazu’aal of the Unholy Realm” in a guttural voice, O’Leary and Minogue are just regular patrol cops. And they somehow think this girl is just sick or maybe drunk. After she tosses Minogue about 20 feet, they take her to the station, completely ignoring the fact that she’s glowing in the back of their squad car.

When they report this arrest to Sergeant Ruawai Maaka (Maaka Pohatu), he takes them to a “secret” back room (protected by a one-digit code), which has every paranormal case in the city dating back almost 70 years. Maaka is starting to see an increase in paranormal cases, and has been thinking of starting a paranormal unit. Minogue likens him and O’Leary to Mulder and Scully because she’s analytical like Scully and he’s a dark-haired guy like Mulder.

When the girl stops being possessed just long enough to distract the cops, and she escapes, climbing up walls and doing crab walks. When Minogue and O’Leary go to the girl’s house, they see that her dad is now possessed and is calling himself Bazu’aal, too. Then the mom gets possessed and runs. When she flips over Minogue’s head, he says “you shouldn’t be running in a playground in those shoes.” The officers think there are a number of Bazu’aals out there, until Maaka tells them that Bazu’aal moves from host to host at will.

By the time Bazu’aal leaps into a dog, all bets are off. A homeless guy on Cuba Street, a public art fountain spewing molten blood and an exorcism learned via YouTube video all factor into the unit disposing of Bazu’aal. It’s then that Maaka officially forms the Wellington Paranormal unit.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Cops mixed with The X-Files and the dry humor of What We Do In The Shadows.

Our Take: Wellington Paranormal debuted in New Zealand in 2018, and has already run three seasons and a holiday special in its home country; they even created 20 COVID-19 awareness spots with the real New Zealand Police. Suffice to say, the show is a hit in New Zealand, and for good reason; it’s plenty strange and generates big laughs as well as tiny snorts of funniness along the way.

Just like in What We Do In The Shadows, the characters in Wellington Paranormal have no idea they’re being craven or stupid or oblivious. Minogue and O’Leary seem to be equally unaware that these paranormal suspects are highly dangerous; they comment on them — to the camera, each other, or Sgt. Maaka — like they’re normal perps. Of course, that’s where the funny comes from.

It’s not like Maaka is any better; he’s generally a half step ahead of Minogue and O’Leary because he “researches” (i.e. Googles things), and he doesn’t seem to have much control over the officers in his squad. The bumbling Constable Parker (Thomas Sainsbury), for instance, never seems to come to work wearing standard-issue uniform pants.

What strikes us as the best part of this show is just how purposefully low-budget it is. In the second episode, where the partners investigate a replicating alien who has left crop circles on a farm out in the country, the pods that are dropped grow into aliens that look like they were made for a bad episode of Lost In Space — the ’60s original, that is. But, through movement and sound, the aliens are comedically creepy nonetheless.

In the first season, we’ll also see a ’70s disco ghost party, zombie cops, a young woman who’s also a werewolf, and a bootleg blood operation. Along the way, they may or may not encounter characters from What We Do In The Shadows. Sounds like it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun.

Sex and Skin: None, aside from a naked farmer in episode 2. The pod-like aliens have blurred out parts, too, though we’re not sure what they are.

Parting Shot: Maaka thinks they’ve banished Bazu’aal back to hell, but Constable Parker indicates otherwise.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to the show’s visual effects team for making the paranormal look cheesy, creepy and funny all at once.

Most Pilot-y Line: Much of the dialogue is spoken fast and under the characters’ breaths. Combined with the Kiwi accent, it feels like we missed a lot of chuckleworthy asides.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If you’re missing What We Do In The Shadows, you should be satisfied with Wellington Paranormal, even if it makes its cousin show look normal by comparison.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Wellington Paranormal On CWTV.com