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There are many fascinating characters in FX’s vampire mockumentary series What We Do in the Shadows. Self-appointed vampire leader Nandor (Kayvan Novak) is a painfully lonely member of the undead, who in Season 4 has gone to such desperate lengths for love, that when he summons a genie, he uses his wishes to bring back from the dead the thirty-seven men and women he was once married to, so he can decide which was one is his true love. Laszlo (Matt Berry) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) are vampires who have been married for centuries. They’re still horny as ever for each other, but in Season 4, Nadja finds herself preoccupied with constructing a vampire nightclub because it looked so cool in the movie Blade. Until the end of Season 3, it was Nandor’s familiar, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), who had undergone the biggest transformation. He went from a vampire servant who was desperate to be bitten, to a skilled vampire hunter.
All pale in comparison to the absolute bizarreness and utter comic brilliance of Mark Proksch as Colin Robinson. He’s a vampire like you have never seen, one that is vastly different from his roommates. He doesn’t bite your neck and suck your blood. No, Colin Robinson is an energy vampire. He can walk in the daylight, and he feeds not on his victim’s blood, but their lifeforce, by boring them to near-death.
His character is a genius creation. It has made for some of the funniest moments of the series: to see how dull Colin Robinson can be. It also hits home because all of us know someone like him in real life, who is so boring it’s exhausting. We recognize the man who dresses in drab clothes and speaks in a lazy monotone while he goes into great detail about the motion smoothing setting on your television. Colin Robinson will even take his power to the internet, trolling and mansplaining in forums, frustrating those who fall into his trap and respond until he has sucked them of their energy.
Throughout the first three seasons of What We Do in the Shadows he is not taken too seriously. How can you harm a vampire who seemingly feels nothing, even if he has complained that no one really listens to him because they think every attempt at conversation is an attempt to drain them? “I wish people would understand that I don’t live to drain,” Colin Robinson says, “I drain to live.” Colin Robinson never changes during the first three seasons and that’s why he works. He is supposed to be the same: repetitive and boring. But the end of Season 3 turns Colin Robinson on his bald head by having him die. Throughout the season, Colin Robinson gets weaker. It turns out he is dying. By the finale he is no more. It was a shocking moment to have the series kill off one of its main characters. It was even more shocking when he comes back to life.
Being that this is a comedy, and it’s about vampires, it’s no surprise that Colin Robinson isn’t really dead. It’s not a cheap trick on the audience, however. There is a reason for it. Colin Robinson dies so that his character can be reborn. The final moments of Season 3 see Colin Robinson rise anew. It turns out that energy vampires have a one hundred year life cycle. His cycle has simply run out, and now he starts over. From the body of the old Colin Robinson comes a baby with the adult face of Colin Robinson CGI’d on top. It’s quite a sight, and gets the desired sidesplitting laugh it seeks. Season 3 ends with Laszlo left alone in the house, his roommates and his wife scattered around the world, while he stays to take care of baby Colin Robinson alone. It gives Laszlo some development to his own character that expands beyond his typical carefree ways.
When we meet Colin Robinson in Season 4 he’s now a toddler. He’s aging quite rapidly. He doesn’t speak but lives like a wild animal, rampaging around the house and eating Count Chocula out of a bowl like a dog. By Episode 3, Colin Robinson has morphed into a seven-year-old, still with the great physical gag of having Mark Proksch’s face digitally put on top of the child actor’s face. Colin Robinson’s not silent now, but quite the opposite. He rambles on and on incessantly to Laszlo, every sentence starting with “Guess what?” until it drives Laszlo crazy. He wants only to talk about his YouTube channel dedicated to Legos (he has two subscribers now) and his love for musical theater. Laszlo is appalled by the latter. “A gutter pantomime, performed by half-wits with painted faces, enjoyed by lower wits,” he calls it.
The two become like father and son, with Laszlo taking the young energy vampire under his wing, er, cape, in an attempt to make him less boring this time around. They do night feedings in a park. They go out together to execute an art heist, Colin Robinson walking right through the lasers that will set off an alarm even though he’s been told not to, because he’s just too excited to talk to Laszlo about everything that interests him. It’s adorable.
The best and funniest moment of the episode comes at the opening of Nadja’s new vampire nightclub. The rapping vampire who has been brought out to perform decides he wants to try standup comedy instead. The crowd turns against him. Colin Robinson saves the day and the nightclub by singing and tap dancing on the stage. The audience loves it and his love for musical theater wins in the end. We all do actually, because what’s better than watching a kid tap dance with a grown man’s head CGI’d on top of his neck?
Child Colin Robinson is completely different from the character who would go to city council meetings and drone on about zoning laws to sap attendees of their lifeforce. He’s something altogether new. The most predictable character has become the most unpredictable. It’s very intriguing. What will Colin Robinson look like next week? How will he act? How will his bond with Laszlo deepen? What is his final form? Will he become the same boring Colin Robinson as before, or something different?
It’s great to watch his character form a well-rounded and energetic personality with more mannerisms. Mark Proksch is doing great work that challenges every expectation, even though his performance is limited to only being a head with a deaged voice. He’s never been better. Neither has the development of Colin Robinson’s character. Whether he is a hormonal teenager next episode, and then the boring reincarnation of his old self after that, or whether Laszlo can direct him into being someone not so dull, it’ll be a blast to watch. The old Colin Robinson is so great, that it would be fun to see him return. With how well the new Colin Robinson has been handled, we can trust the writers and actors if they decide to keep us on our toes by changing Colin Robinson into something else, too. Either way, bring it on.
