What We Do in the Shadows Returns, More Unhinged Than Ever

In its own cracked way, the Season 4 premiere of FX's What We Do in the Shadows is about families giving each other permission to change. That throughline runs through both episodes of the vampire mockumentary that air on July 12, with each of the show's characters deciding to live differently than before.

Nandor (Kayvan Novak) is so sick of being lonely that he takes drastic measures to get himself a wife. Meanwhile, Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) declares she's going to open a vampire nightclub (complete with blood sprinklers) so she can find a new outlet for the business savvy she's certain she possesses. Unlike previous seasons, where some of the funniest stories were about resistance to change, this year finds everyone deciding they may as well support each other.

This shift pushes the show's writers to take some wild swings, none moreso than rebooting energy vampire Colin Robinson, who died at the end of Season 3. Now he's back as a toddler, with actor Mark Proksch's face digitally attached. It's a good visual gag, and a great opportunity for Laszlo (Matt Berry), who decides to become the boy's tutor. He's determined to make this Colin Robinson as interesting as Laszlo considers himself to be, which sets up dozens of jokes about the world's horniest vampire trying to be a role model.

But the season's biggest change seems to be brewing in Guillermo (Harvey Guillén). Last season ended with Laszlo sending him to Europe in a shipping crate, and the new one begins with Nadja shipping him back to Staten Island in yet another box, only with more Oreos to snack on. When he finally breaks free, Guillermo declares that all of the vampires are dead to him, and although he's said some version of this before, there are signs he really means it this time. For one, he's got a mysterious friend (or is it a romantic partner?) who keeps calling him on the phone. If Guillermo has a life outside the mansion, who knows where he can go?

No matter where any of the characters end up, the show is going to have fun sending them there. While there are moments of real emotion in the premiere, they never get in the way of a gag. A few seconds after Laszlo says something sweet about little Colin, Nadja gets the kid confused with a feral raccoon. While Guillermo is stomping away in anger, he falls through the floor, lands in a pool of sewage water, and eventually gets his hair towel-dried by Nandor. What We Do in the Shadows excels at this escalation into lunacy, and lucky for us, that hasn't changed at all.

What We Do in the Shadows premieres its fourth season with two back-to-back episodes July 12 at 10:00 PM ET on FX.

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Mark Blankenship has been writing about arts and culture for twenty years, with bylines in The New York Times, Variety, Vulture, Fortune, and many others. You can hear him on the pop music podcast Mark and Sarah Talk About Songs.