Wellington Paranormal

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'm not a Kiwi so the accent took some time to get use too but nevertheless really funny and watch out for the newspaper headlines at the beginning of every episode, they change each episode & are brilliant 😂

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.

In 2011 there was a shortlived mockumentary called "Death Vally", probably made by MTV, and probably cancelled because it was too grown up, too political incorrect, too violent. I liked it very much because of the firtst two qualities. "Wellington" clearly has a similiar concept, but is not violent. On the contrary, the two main characters don't have guns but have to share one taser, though they are Police Officers in New Zealand's capital, which gives the show its name. During the first 4 episodes, there are no shots fired, no guns are waved, and nobody is beaten to death or mauled. I appreciate that. As a mixture of many paranormal shows and comedy there are thematically mostly connections to the "X-files" (as announced in the signation music), and paranormal investigation shows, combined with a bit of Stan and Ollie, or Mr.Bean, if you want. The humor is very dry, everybody takes himself or herself very serious., and jokes are always floating by in dialoguwe, so you can easily pick up one from the stream. The main actors (they have partially the same names as their characters) are very talented and sympathetical, Production values, script, direction and cut are all very professional, despite one may think that there can not very much budget in it. You never miss anything, and sets are meticulously prepared. For the humor, it is mentioned here that it's especially or even only working for New Zealand, but I can assure you, that's not the case. I had enough laughs and smiles to enjoy these episodes, and I am from the opposite side of the planet, and clearly not a native speaker. But I had to use english subtitles because of the fast dialoges, and sometimes i had to rewatch a scene. However, for this very nice and carefully composed new series, I give 8 stas.