[7.7/10] I loved about 80% of this one, and it only gets points knocked off for ending the whole thing on such a miserable note. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen an episode soar so beautifully for most of its runtime, only to crash and burn at the very end like this.
Suffice it to say, putting the vamps and Guillermo into an HGTV-style reality show is a hoot. I thought it was a little odd that they brought in such talented comedians like the Sklar brothers to do the little ads for the home-renovation show that Lazlo watched regularly. It makes sense now! And they kill it! Both of them absolutely nail the saccharine sunniness and hollow positivity of those sorts of televised cheese merchants. There’s an “I’m your server at TGI Fridays”-esque faux-enthusiasm to everything that makes for an amusing juxtaposition of the darkness and vulgarity that pervades the vamps’ abode.
I’ll confess, I haven't seen a ton of those HGTV shows, but WWDitS absolutely nails the tone and rhythms of the few I have seen. The forced taglines, the false drama of the act breaks, the silly swooping shots, and the goofy graphics are all done to perfection. You don’t have to be an expert in this sort of television to appreciate the attention to detail in the presentation and how it exposes how ridiculous this sort of thing is by merely replicating it.
But it also injects the peculiar ridiculousness of the vamps in all of this. Lazlo as a starstruck superfan tickled my ribs. Nadja being against the whole thing until it nets her a golden toilet made me chuckle. Nandor being so amazed by a “Home Is Where the Wine Is” sign is adorable. Guillermo being against the whole thing for very practical reasons of avoiding exposure, until he realizes he can spin things to improve his “hidey hole” is a great bit. And I love the humor of Nadja hypnotizing the crew, editors, and other nerds not to notice they’re vampires or that one of the hosts was murdered in the first scene.
I also enjoy the subplot about Nandor trying to build a mancave to get away from Marwa. There’s genuine insight to the idea that having someone who likes all the same things as you sounds good on paper, but that in practice, having someone who never challenges you or complements you, only matches you, would be exhausting and unsatisfying. I also appreciate him being hoisted by his own petard, where the fact that he wants a mancave where he can be away from her means she wants a mancave where she can be away from him. It’s a nice twist on the whole thing.
But god, I’ve never liked Devious Simon, or Nick Kroll’s whole shtick for that matter. I can appreciate the absurdity of turning this whole production into a shaggy dog story where it was all a ruse to get Lazlo’s witch skin hat. I have to tell you, though, I find Kroll’s overdoing it as a vampire exhausting, and the “humor” of his parade of hangers on to be dead on arrival. There’s some more funny digs at home renovation shows, about how they’re only fit for people half paying attention in hospitals and airports (which is, candidly, where I’ve seen them). But delivered in this package, the whole thing goes over about as well as a big wet fart.
Overall, I love this one as a format bender and in its ability to mesh the show’s sensibilities with the nonsense of reality television, but the limp, annoying ending brings an otherwise quality episode down considerably.
Matt Berry's pronunciation of New York City ("Ci-tayy") was art.
This season hasn’t been my favorite, but I really loved this episode. There were so many great callbacks, like Nandor looking at the bar saddle stools and saying “John would have loved those,” the hat, etc, and the parody of a typical Property Bros show was on point.
this show is quickly getting out of gas, ideas, jokes (that awful voice hypnosis?),please let it end with dignity.
'Hi, Toby! Nice to see you. hiss'
This was a hilarious episode it was such a funny concept and the reveal was actually so shocking
this is the first episode of the show that I did not enjoy, and it sounds like I am not alone. bummer!
The good: the twist is the hardest my girlfriend has ever laughed at the show.
The bad: well, they finally have started to run out of fun premises for this show. It's hard to tell what's missing but the magic really is starting to feel gone.
Not a fan of Simon the devious, but this episode has to be one of the best ever. And definitely didn’t see the twist coming AT ALL
I loved that they did something major with the flip brothers and that at the end it wasn’t actually them
But.... They didn't flip the house ☹
However.... THE CURSED HAT IS GONE !! :tada:
Unlike some, I actually thought this started really well but fell apart by the end. These shows have nothing in common but this and the Harley Quinn animated show have been two of the biggest disappointments of 2022 for me. Neither season are likely to end up in my final top 10 of 2022
Shout by The_ArgentinianBlockedParent2022-08-24T22:57:35Z
One unfunny joke extended for 30 minutes. I dreaded the first 3 minutes that the whole episode was going to be show within a show and there it was.