What We Do In The Shadows worked with HGTV to get its Property Brothers parody right

“Our show was already documentary style, so the parallels are there in terms of the handheld look,” Gorskaya says. “But it was helpful to have conversations about how to make it look and feel different from a regular Shadows episode.”

While the genre is, let’s be honest, pretty easy to parody–does anyone actually like shiplap?–Go Flip Yourself got an extra layer of authenticity thanks to some outside help. One of the biggest laughs of the episode comes from 3-D renderings promising a drastic overhaul of the bloodsuckers’ home, with Bran describing, “And boom, we knock out all the walls, make an open concept first floor. It’s gonna create a much better flow, and, most importantly, it’s gonna bring in tons of natural light.” The graphic depicting the vampires and Guillermo in their sunny new living room came courtesy of the real Property Brothers production team. That’s not the only familiar flourish that HGTV viewers will recognize: the episode’s narration was done by Love It Or List It’s Tina Morasco.

“We wanted to sell it as much as a real reality-TV episode as we possibly could and to use people who work in those fields to help us,” Gorskaya says.

Head over to Vulture for the full behind-the-scenes report. Season four of What We Do In The Shadows is airing now on FX and streaming on Hulu.

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