1x04 Manhattan Night Club

[7.4/10] This was the funniest episode of the show so far until Nick Kroll showed up and, true to his vampiric form, sucked all of the life out of it. His over-the-top shtick is a poor fit for a heightened but largely naturalistic presentation like this show uses, and his clearly improvised descriptions and reactions to the various members of his crew was overlong and unfunny. I really hope he doesn't become a recurring part of the show.

But other than that, this one was great! I loved the running gags about Lazlo’s cursed hat and Nadja’s objections to it, especially when Lazlo gets his cape caught in the cab door. By the same token, I really enjoyed the gag about the crew insisting on wearing capes to this club to be cool, only for the show to reveal that it’s not a hip thing in the vampire community; our heroes’ fashion sense was just crystallized in the 1970s.

That fits with an amusing strain of humor that Simon the Devious is a hip Manhattanite vampire, but our usual crew are considered lame Staten Island vamps. Their efforts to be cool and sense of being out of place makes for some nice humor.

The character stuff works too. Guillermo’s interactions with the others in the familiar room was a big laugh given the awkward but sweet social interaction vibe of the whole thing. Guillermo getting mad at Nandor almost letting a vampire eat him, and his desire to fly like one made for some amusing moments. And Colin Robinson wearing a pancho around the club and cramping Nandor’s style had me in stitches.

Overall, this was a very funny episode with some nice character bits and goofy humor (especially the cursed hat) until Nick Kroll showed up and nearly killed it. Thankfully it picked up in humor after that at the end.