‘Dumb vampires’ return to Staten Island on ‘What We Do in the Shadows’
Who would’ve guessed that randy vampire Laszlo Cravensworth () was so paternalistic and focused on … “Baby Colin,” the tow-headed toddler who burst out of dead Colin Robinson’s stomach?
Yep. “What We Do in the Shadows” is back, with Laszlo, Nadja (), Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) and Baby Colin (Mark Proksch, or at least his head) reunited in their ramshackle Staten Island mansion for Season 4 of the clever FX comedy —including Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (for two different episodes).
“One of the things we’ve worked on for the show and are proud of is that it’s not one of those series where you have to watch all previous seasons or even all the episodes in order to understand it,” “Shadows” executive producer/writer/showrunner Paul Simms told The Post.
“We try to start every season re-explaining what’s going on,” he said. “P.S., there’s not much to explain — it’s a bunch of dumb vampires who live in Staten Island.”
Last fall’s Season 3 finale introduced us to Baby Colin, while Nandor headed back to his homeland, expecting his familiar, Guillermo, to join him — but Guillermo was nailed into a coffin with Nadja (by Laszlo) as she headed to London to join the Vampiric Council.
The gang is now back in Staten Island. As Laszlo quotes Freud (turns out he knew him) and schools Baby Colin in the ways of the world — hoping to raise the little terror to literally not bore people to death — Nadja aspires to open a vampire nightclub with help from The Guide (, now a series regular), while Nandor uncorks a genie (Anoop Desai) who’s helping him search for a wife. (There are 37 of them from way back when — including a few men — but hey, he can’t remember them all.) Sweater-clad Guillermo, meanwhile, pledges to take better care of himself and not cater so much to his needy housemates.
“The vampire club is huge and something that we’ve been talking about since the beginning of the show,” Simms said. “Every modern vampire movie, and even some of the older ones, have some version of a vampire nightclub that’s very cool and industrial with rock music playing and people who aren’t vampires that are really cool showing up there.
“There are blood sprinklers that spray from the ceiling and we thought it would be the kind of thing that Nadja would love to do. We had a lot of fun talking about the difficulties, like, ‘OK, if you’re going to build a vampire nightclub, how are you going to put in pipes that spray blood and what are you going to tell the contractors you’re actually doing?’ It’s also fun because Nadja was turned into a vampire when she was very young and never had the chance to be in charge of anything or have a real job — so it’s fun to see her … becoming a businesswoman.”
Part of the season’s biggest challenge was the post-production process — namely how, as realistically as possible, to put Mark Proksch’s head onto the body of a toddler. “Early on we thought it would be a simple all-digital solution and we quickly learned that wasn’t true, so we used every trick in the book — including masks, wigs, digital effects,” Simms said. “There was nothing that worked consistently right for each shot. I think there were three child stand-ins and each had a different strength. We knew it was going to be difficult to figure out when we came up with the idea — and it was difficult.”
Simms said that Guillermo will undergo perhaps the bigges💛t character transformation as the season unfolds.
“I wouldn’t say he takes a turn for evil but he really starts looking out for himself, which will be satisfying for people because he’s such a sweet character and sometimes it does feel frustrating that he’s in so many co-dependent relationships,” he said. “One of the fun parts of the season is [that] we meet Guillermo’s entire family, so you can see a little more of why he is the way he is. He makes some big and drastic choices.
“With Guillermo, it’s not just about serving his master,” he said. “He and Nandor obviously have an affection for each other and neither of them would abandon the other — no matter how much they bicker or get fed up with each other.”
“What We Do in the Shadows” airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.
