History Series / WellingtonParanormal

** A [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurangaituku Kurangaituku]]

* ContinuityNod: One of the opening newspaper gags in "Fear Factory" reads "INTERNET TROLL TURNS OUT TO BE ACTUAL TROLL". This exact scenario happens in ''Series/WhatWeDoInTheShadows2019'' in the season 2 episode "[[Recap/WhatWeDoInTheShadowsS2E7TheReturn The Return]]".

* CruelTwistEnding: "Bird Woman" ends with O'Leary managing to resolve the situation peacefully, saving the bird expert Beverly from being eaten and relocating the Kurangaituku and her babies to a wildlife sanctuary. [[spoiler:Then, Beverly is EatenAlive by the Kurangaituku and vomited up to feed her babies anyway, which O'Leary and Minogue fail to notice]].

* CouchGag: The opening credits sequence includes images of newspaper headlines, such as "Vampire gains access via Zoom invite", which vary with each episode.

* AmbiguouslyGay: In "Mobots", [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents O'Leary's mother]] mentions that her daughter has never had a boyfriend, but that the girls from her softball team were always at the house when she was a teenager. She seems completely oblivious to the stereotypical associations, while O'Leary is just wincing with embarrassment throughout the entire scene.

* NotSoAboveItAll: Sergeant Maaka doesn't joke around on the clock, but does dress up a small dog as a cop at work in "The She Wolf of Kurimarama Street" episode.

* In any given episode, you can almost count on one of the partners (most often Minogue) getting hit by their Taser.

* OnceAnEpisode: One of the partners is almost certain to get hit with their own Taser.

* WhoYouGonnaCall: The end of "Demon Girl" has Sergeant Maaka convinced that the New Zealand Police needs a special unit to investigate supernatural crimes. It's not followed up on. Instead, Minogue and O'Leary are the usual officers tasked to investigate such crimes.

* ChekhovsGun: Minogue and O'Leary are called out on reports of something that sounds like ghosts but turns out to be a plastic bag in the "A Normal Night" episode. At the end of the episode, the plastic bag has a face and attacks Maaka in his office.

** Ghosts trapping the living at their party
** Ghost cosplayers

* NotUsingTheZWord: Maaka tells O'Leary not to call the zombies zombies in front of Officer Parker. O'Leary resorts to "very unwell people".

* TheGhost: Minogue's brother and housemate Adam, who's mentioned just about every other episode but never appears onscreen.

* LockedIntoStrangeness: Maaka says that his hair turned white after seeing a ghost in the "Things That Do The Bump In The Night" episode. O'Leary points that hair is pitch-black but still insists that they are there and some of his pubes turned white then unzip his pants to show them.

* TheMasquerade: Sergeant Maaka insists on only speaking of the paranormal in the "The She Wolf of Kurimarama Street" episode, shushing Minogue for saying "werewolf" in the briefing room and telling O'Leary not to say "zombies" in front of young Officer Parker in the "Zombie Cops" episode.

* NoNameGiven: O'Leary's first name is never revealed; Minogue's (Kyle) is only used once, as [[AlmostFamousName the punchline to a joke]] in the first season finale; and Maaka's (Ruawai) is revealed [[AllThereInTheScript on the back of the DVD]].

* {{Pixellation}}: Two taniwha are sighted splashing about in Wellington Harbour. Unfortunately we don't get to see much of them because of what they're doing out there.
* PokeThePoodle: Upon discovering that the zombie cops from the "Zombie Cops" episode follow orders given over radio, the Paranormal Unit and Officer Parker radio them orders to perform various dance moves.

** In "Te Maero", Anton is a park ranger helping investigate the disappearances of hikers. Minogue vaguely recognises him as being a werewolf from a documentary he saw once.

* {{Santabomination}}: In hiring a store Santa for his mall, a slightly dyslexic shopping centre manager transposes a couple of letters.

** Taniwha seems to have [[spoiler:cocooned all the fishermen and the beach bum in seaweed and plastered to the side of a cave a-la Aliens]].

** Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade is invoked in 'Taniwha' when the unit is holding an impromptu beach memorial for Parker, who wanders up wondering what's going on.

* [[UnnamedParent Unnamed Grandparent]]: When Minogue falls for a PhonyPsychic's vague 'messages' from someone's family member whose name has a G, he thinks it's his grandfather, whose name is apparently Granddad. And still alive.
* UnresolvedSexualTension: Invoked by Minoque in comparing him and O'Leary to Mulder and Scully, but going by his partner's [[FlatWhat expression,]] it exists only in Minoque's head.

* WomenAreWiser: Present but {{Downplayed}}. O'Leary tends to be a bit more level-headed than Minogue and even Sargeant Maaka at times, but not really by all that much.