‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Is Still the Silliest Show on TV

The first episode of What We Do in the Shadows second season starts with a problem anyone can understand. The ever loyal Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) feels neglected after a new guy shows up and keeps getting praised for Guillermo’s tireless work. Only the work we’re talking about is cleaning up after a houseful of vampires as a mistreated familiar and that new person to be jealous of is a zombie played by Hayley Joel Osment.

That’s what the best moments of What We Do in the Shadows, both the movie and the TV series, have always done so well, effortlessly blending the mundanities of life with vampire lore. And that’s what Season 2 does even better than the previous installment (at least based on the four episodes screened for critics). Ten episodes after meeting Nandor, Nadja, and Laszlo it seems like creator Jemaine Clement completely knows what to do with them. And he’s having a ton of fun.

What We Do in the Shadows swaps last season’s world-building for more repetition, to the series’ benefit. There are fewer explanatory scenes about cursed hats and angry Barons. Instead, more time is spent leaning into these vampires’ natural ridiculousness. Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) is still a sneering, sarcastic know-it-all who is disgusted by her two roommates. Nandor (Kayvan Novak) is still a cowardly warrior who loves bossing around his familiar. And Laszlo is still Matt Berry, but more sexual. Perhaps it’s a symptom of merely seeing these characters again, but this time around TV’s funniest vampires seem more lived in than desperate to leave an impression. Finally, these three feel exactly like the monsters trapped in arrested development that they are.

Though our trio has blissfully remained the same, the world around them hasn’t. Right away Season 2 makes it clear that there has been fallout from last year’s disastrous meeting with the Vampiric Council. Also, Guillermo’s (Guillén) late-in-the-season revelation that he’s actually a descendant of legendary vampire hunter Van Helsing makes an impact; not that his master notices.

Speaking of, this installment of What We Do in the Shadows indisputably belongs to Guillén. The wide-eyed trust he once held for his vampire friends last season has been replaced by a growing sense of bitterness. Anyone who has spent half an hour trying to convince themselves that they don’t hate their job will easily relate to Guillermo’s strained smiles, eye twitches, and questioning noises from the background. Just as Nandor, Nadja, and Laszlo need Guillermo to function, What We Do in the Shadows needs Guillén to stand in as the disbelieving audience in the midst of all this dark insanity.

This new season is exactly what you want from What We Do in the Shadows, but even better. And during a time when there’s so much uncertainty, isn’t that all we want?

The first two episodes of Season 2 of What We Do in the Shadows premieres on FX Wednesday, April 15 at 10/9c p.m. New episodes will premiere on FX weekly on Wednesdays before being added to FX on Hulu Thursdays.

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