rhodrymavelyne

At last, I saw the second seasons for Interview with the Vampire and The Mayfair Witches, after a very long hesitation.

Why the hesistation? Interview with the Vampire remains one of my favorite books ever. The entire Vampire Chronicles is one of my favorite series. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel as a fan about the changes the television series was making as they advanced.

Parts of Chronicles of the Mayfair Witches I loved. Other parts were traumatically nightmarish. I wasn’t sure which parts would become part of the TV series and which would be dropped.

Daring to see both TV series, I found I enjoyed them a lot.

Armand felt far more toxic than he did in the books. All right, he was pretty bad, yet seductively, deliciously bad, until he reached Queen of the Damned, where he became hilariously adorable as Daniel’s sugar daddy. I recall Anne Rice saying in an interview that she intended for Armand to have a larger part in her third book, but he wasn’t evil enough.

I wonder if the makers of Interview with the Vampire didn’t decide to go for that evil. At the same time, Armand of the TV series was charming, cultured, seductive, and ruthless; qualities he possessed in the books.

I wonder if Armand didn’t love both Louis and Daniel deeply, even if he was also capable of sacrificing both of them?

Rowan and Lasher were far less toxic in the TV series than they were in the books. Letting the nonconsensual aspects of their relationship go made for a more complex and loving bond, which still managed to be disturbing. The Taltos remained innocent and destructive, yet less willfully so.

The Mayfairs were the truly wicked ones. The most wicked of them all was Julien Mayfair.

Gone was Lasher’s lover, the moments of romance between Julien and his familiar. All that was left was the pretense; the ruthless protégé of Marguerite Mayfair, a role Julien didn’t care to dwell upon when telling his story to Michael Curry in the books.

Julien became far more of a villain than Lasher. This startled me, yet why wasn’t he capable of such a role? The books indicated he was, for all his charm.
Julien boasted in the book Lasher of his immunity to Lasher’s charm, due to his masculinity. The softness of femininity conveyed a vulnerability to the Mayfair familar, one which could be used to overpower and kill the women.

This bothered me when I read the book, even though I enjoyed the parts with Julien and Lasher.

There is a certain logic in taking this assertion of male immunity to Lasher, showing how cold and ruthless it could be. It lead a man to be capable of brutal murder of his own flesh and blood, of innocents in order to achieve his goal.

This happened in the book. It also happened in the series.

Both Lestat and Julien became quite brutal in the TV series, yet I feel that both were capable of such brutality in the books, even if they may not have expressed them in the same ways. They could be both cruel and tender to their loved ones.

I wonder if Julien and Lestat will end up warring over Rowan as they did in the book? It would be interesting, if they also fought over Louis.

I could imagine Julien Mayfair as being a patron of a mortal Louis de Pointe du Lac’s establishment in the red light district. There may always have been an attraction between them, even though Louis didn’t acknowledge it, let alone act upon it.

Lestat and Julien was far too alike in the many ways. They loved the same women. Perhaps they’d love the same men as well? (They did both love Quinn Blackwood in the books, although I have no idea if that character will make an appearance in any of the TV series.)

One of the things I missed in The Mayfair Witches was the male intimacy from the books. I loved how the bond developed between Michael Curry and Aaron Lightner, Michael Curry and Julien Mayfair, and even between Julien Mayfair and Lasher.

Every character who overshadowed Rowan Mayfair was removed from the narrative; Michael Curry, Aaron Lightner, and even Mona Mayfair. She was able to take center stage in a way she didn’t in the books, for all she was a very strong character.

There’s an opportunity for feminine intimacy in the TV series; an intimacy I enjoyed when it flourished in the books between Rowan and Mona, Mona and Mary Jane, Rowan and Dolly Jean. I see some of that same intimacy between Rowan and Dolly Jean in the TV series, along with potential for it to blossom between Rowan and Jojo, Rowan and Moira.

I loved the character of Jojo, a trans woman as one of the Mayfair witches, Cortland’s favorite, and Rowan’s confidante.

I enjoyed how Moira did the opposite of Mona, starting out as a jealous rival, only to become more of an ally, as opposed to the intimacy which blossomed magically between Rowan and Mona in the book Taltos, only to turn into jealous adversity in The Blood Canticle. I’m hoping Rowan and Moira’s relationship becomes a more intimate one.

I wish both TV series could have done more pick-ups of exquisite detail, like the ones both Hannibal and American Gods displayed. Such moments are a chance to capture with the camera a sense of Anne Rice’s flowery prose. There was one scene with a statue in Paris with that lingering detail. I wish there had been more.

Overall, I really enjoyed both of the second seasons, the television drama made of the books. I enjoyed how the intimacy rekindled between Louis and Daniel at the end of the interview, after realizing how Armand played with both of their lives. I enjoyed the linking of the two worlds, noting how much more sinister the Talamasca is in both.

I wonder how those worlds will collide. I wonder if the Talamasca makes both collide.

I hope The Mayfair Witches contines. I hope The Vampire Lestat will have it debut on television.

For Christmas, I gave myself the gift of watching the Interview with the Vampire series on AMC+.

I hope it comes out on DVD. Streaming isn’t enough for a story, a fandom, a world I’ve been obsessed with for much of my life. I really hope to add this series to the ones I own on disc, the ones I can go back to. This particular version of this particular story opens up so many possibilites.

Jacob Anderson as Louis reminded me very much of how I pictured Merrick Mayfair. I know The Mayfair Witches is being aired, too. Is there any chance this Louis and his siblings might be related to them? Did Paul de Pointe du Lac (someone I was delighted to see in all his mad mysticism) get his visions from the Mayfairs? I doubt Paul was talking to Lasher when he appeared to speak to thin air, but maybe he saw Memnoch? Or was Paul one of the Parents’s dupes?

Discovering Louis ran a whorehouse in Storyville made me think of Julien Mayfair. Did Julien ever visit Louis’s whorehouse? Would one of Louis's houses be the place where Mary Beth and Daniel McIntyre met in this particular universe? Did Julien ever take Stella and Lionel there? Did Julien ever hit on Louis if he visited? (I could see a scene very similar to the one where Eric on True Blood comes to Pamela’s whorehouse, a scene where Julien tells Louis it is him, not his girls he has come to see.) I love the idea of Julien visiting one of Louis’s whorehouses, flirting with the owner, attracting Lestat’s jealous eye. Just a little prelude to their later conflicts over Mona and Rowan. Not to mention I doubt Lasher would like any of this. Maybe everyone’s temper would be too dangerous for such a meeting, but under the right circumstances, I would love for Anne Rice’s vampire and warlock to size each other. There is something about these two flamboyant and seductive men used to getting everyone and everything they want beginning their rivalry a little early in this TV mini-series over Louis which I find irresistible.

Maybe Julien Mayfair once offered Louis a job, but Louis refused wanting to be his own man. Julien might have respected Louis for his intelligence and enterprise. Like Lestat, he might have admired Louis for it. Lasher wouldn’t let Julien stray too close to the supernatural monsters, but there might have been moments. Especially if Louis and his relations were relatives.

The appearance of Armand still has me swooning and cheering. The way he showed up raises all sort of possibilities and questions. Armand has his own dysfunctional bond of affection for Lestat. Perhaps this brought Louis and Armand closer to each other. Lestat and Armand being rivals for Louis’s affection was something I really enjoyed in the books. I’m delighted to see this stirring in the TV series.

I am sad to see Armand no longer played the role of Daniel Molloy’s sugar daddy in the 1980s. Or did he? Could it have happened, but Daniel forgot about it?

In a curious way both Lestat and Armand are being true to whom they were in the book Interview with the Vampire in spite of their roles in other Vampire Chronicles. Lestat was the abusive, yet obsessed lover (yes, there is a touch of his own chronicles in this) while Armand is both protective and possessive of Louis, quietly trying to give him everything he wants. This brings me back to the first book. I’m curious about the journey Armand takes with Louis, what role he’ll play in Louis’s past. I’m hoping he’ll still be involved with the Theater of the Vampires. Will Armand play a role in the tragedy of Claudia? A part in the books which felt as much like revenge for attempting to kill Lestat as much as jealousy over Louis. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out in the TV series.

I hope it plays out. I hope there will be a Season 2 to Interview with the Vampire. I’m glad I caught Season 1 while it was on the air. I didn’t want to make the same mistake with this I did with the Hannibal TV series, only realizing how much I loved it when it was far too late to support its ratings. 2022 was a difficult year financially and time is always precious, but I’m glad I squeezed in those seven episodes of Season 1. I’m eagerly awaiting Season 2!