Nadja and Laszlo’s new familiar poses problems for Guillermo, and the vampires enlist the services of a local necromancer. And the vampires hold a seance to deal with a ghost infestation, which leads to a larger outbreak.

The half-hour comedy show based on Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s 2014 mockumentary feature returns with a bang, and it’s as hilarious as ever. There’s a confidence to all of the performances, the maximum comedic value driven from the ‘fish out of water’ situation and the constant subversion of genre tropes.

The vampires recall what they did in the summer, though it’s Nandor’s familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) who has had the toughest time, secretly killing vampire assassins who have been trying to wipe out his housemates. Guillen is excellent as the ridiculously loyal manservant, tested even further when new familiar Topher (The Sixth Sense’s Haley Joel Osment) is adored by all, while he’s consigned to scraping dog excrement from their capes.

There’s further guest star support from Doctor Strange’s Benedict Wong as Wallace, a necromancer, who brings back Topher after he is ‘accidentally’ killed, but as is always the way, he comes back differently. In second episode Ghosts, a seance unwittingly releases a horde of phantoms who haunt the vampires with protestations of unfinished business, from former selves, to Colin’s grandmother, to Nandor’s horse, John.

Verdict: A very welcome return – each 25 minutes packs in more invention than the average feature. The quality, if anything, is up on the first year. This is a show that knows what it’s doing, and then some. 9/10

Nick Joy