Wellington Paranormal

This alone is a great show. But for those who enjoy the spooky and funny, this is a real hit. From a viewer to the creators, this show is an absolute blast.

Quirkily funny and entertaining. 7/10

(Review updated after Season 4).

Officers Minogue and O'Leary are two uniformed members of the Wellington, New Zealand, police. Their work is largely uneventful until they encounter a girl who seems straight out of The Exorcist. Their team-leader, Sergeant Maaka, sets up a secret team to tackle paranormal phenomena. The team is the three of them.

Quirkily funny. Created by Taika Waititi (director of What We Do In the Shadows, Hunt For The Wilderpeople, Boy and Thor: Ragnarock) and Jermaine Clement (of Flight Of The Conchords fame), this captures much of their signature understated, tongue-in-cheek humour.

Not brilliant though. What We Do In The Shadows was superb and I was expecting this to be effectively a TV series of that. However, Wellington Paranormal is less laugh-a-minute, less clever in many respects and feels a bit formulaic after a while. So, disappointing in a way, though I set the bar quite high.

After four seasons the quality is diminishing too. Season 4 is definitely weaker than previous seasons and much of the humour has been replaced with silliness. This generally involves Officer Parker who was always more irritating than amusing.

Season ratings: S1-3 7/10, S4 6/10.

Not since Police Squad which was criminally cancelled far to early have we had genuinely funny spoof police comedy like this. It's like a cross between Police Squad and spoof X Files delivered completely dead pan. Clearly those giving it low marks don't like sarcasm or dry humour - if that's not your thing then avoid but don't give it a 1 just because you don't like that kind of humour.

Wellington Paranormal is so ridiculous and fun that I couldn't stop watching it. It's created by Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows, Thor: Ragnarok, Thor: Love and Thunder, Jojo Rabbit, etc) and Jermaine Clement so if you like their kind of humor then give this show a try. While it's not quite as good as What We Do in the Shadows, it's a spin-off of that show. It's a about a police force in New Zealand that start to see paranormal events in their city and start a Paranormal division led by Sergeant Maaka and Officers Minogue and O'Leary. It is a documentary style show in the form of Cops.

I have to say that I really wasn't expecting to laugh as much as I did at this show. Wellington Paranormal is about a group of investigators in the capital of New Zealand as they track supernatural events. It's a simple show that knows how silly it is and leans in to some of their dumb jokes that makes it even fun funnier. You can tell the cast is having an absolute blast making it. The seasons only consist of 6 episodes per season and only run 20-25 min but it's perfect. It's a show that definitely pokes fun at itself and will have you laughing out loud several times per episode. This is definitely a hidden gem and I'm glad I gave it a chance.