Brilliant comedy emerges from the shadows…

Wellington Paranormal is a Kiwi deadpan comedy, a spot-on police procedural spoof, New Zealand’s answer to the fantastic X-Files and every, other cop spoof show the world has been craving.

Cheer up mates, Wellington Paranormal was big with NZ viewers.

Nearly 500,000 Kiwis switched on their televisions to watch the highly anticipated, supernatural police doco Wellington Paranormal on its first night on screening.

Social media was buzzing with excitement at the new programme by the New Zealand Documentary Board (made up of three members, Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi and Paul Yates). On Twitter, the hashtag Wellington Paranormal was trending as the second most talked about subject in NZ’s Twitterverse.

So what’s it like?

Spun off from Taika Waititi’s and Jermaine Clement’s screen 2014 mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, the show follows the misadventures of coppers Minogue (Mike Minogue) and O’Leary (Karen O’Leary) as they battle the city’s forces of darkness.

The episode opens with Minogue and O’Leary bringing in a young girl who looks like she’s had a few too many: she’s vomiting buckets of boil everywhere and calling herself Bazu’aal of the Unholy Realm (“That’s a lot to come out of such a small person,” O’Leary says, in the first of many understatements). They chalk it up to drunkenness, but their commanding officer Sergeant Maaka (Maaka Pohatu) takes them aside and tells them to think again. And the pair are invited into the stations secret room–literally, a room that houses the headquarters of the Wellington Paranormal Division.

There’s been a rise in paranormal incidents around town, of which Bazu’aal’s the latest, and Sergeant Maaka brings them on as the second and third officers in the Wellington Police’s new Paranormal unit.

Establishing a link to similar cases in the 1950s and 80s, the two officers attemts to stop the demon before the central city becomes home to buckets of blood (Wellingtonians will instantly recognise the iconic landmarks that will play a pivotal role in the new series) and rivers of fire.

It’s not five seconds before they’ve botched up the unit’s first official case.

Bazu’aal breaks out of Wellington Police HQ and runs rings around them for the rest of the half hour, bouncing from body to body and taunting them about summoning hell on earth and sleeping with their mums. Maaka, Minogue and O’Leary are three steps behind almost every step of the way.

The demon’s jumped across the girl’s two parents into a scruffy terrier before they’ve worked out its powers. They’re either confused or totally out of their depth: when Minogue asks O’Leary to intimidate Bazu’aal with her ‘bad cop routine’, O’Leary gets in close to the possessed girl and deadpans “Stop that. It’s a bit scary.” Officers Minogue and O’Leary are more deadpan, marginally more observant and off to–not–a promising start.

With the whole show dedicated to one city, NZ capital city, (Wellington), you’d think the market would be small, the stories will be even smaller. But don’t fret, you won’t miss out on al the in-jokes. There’s Hataital’s unholy realm, Kilbirnie Sataanism and, in the hilarious opening episode, a potential ‘Hellmouth’ a portal “between this reality and the next”, and convergence point of mystical energies is based around Cuba Mall landmark to rival ‘Summeydale’s’ very own ‘Hellmouth.’

Then there was the capital’s iconic bucket fountain, or rather the buckets of blood, or a fountain of fire. The entrance to the realm of hell, locally considered to be a mesmerising feature prone to some unexpected splashing, has attracted some much needed attention. Even its own Twitter page is reeling from the fame.

The World Famous Bucket Fountain has never been so happy or proud as it was tonight with the premiere of #WellingtonParanormal!

THE VERDICT:

All three performers are note-perfect, though, and they carry us well through those rougher patches. Maaka, Minogue and O’Leary are played by namesakes Maaka Pohatu (Two Little Boys), Mike Minogue and Karen O’Leary (both Shadows alumni).

The show is hilariously funny, especially to Wellingtonians on a whole other level, but it should be hilarious to all Kiwis because this is exactly how we’d react to paranormal occurrences if they were real.

The pisstaking is what makes Wellington Paranormal such a low-key joy. It’s not just a goofy send-up of Ten 7-style cop docos anchored by three warm, gormless performances. It’s a deeply funny deflation of a gormless Kiwi ego that looks like indifference and sounds like a monotone. We’d be underwhelmed and not try to make a fuss about it. Taika and Clement has nailed the heart of all Kiwi’s if they were in that situation.

Laughs aside, many hopeful overseas fans are calling on the likes of Netflix to purchase a licence so they can stream the programme.

Wellington Paranormal has been picked up by Australia’s SBS Viceland and will air at the end of this month.

Responding to fans desperate to watch the show overseas, Clement said he was waiting to find out how and when Wellington Paranormal will air in the UK and US (“as well as a collection of other countries”).