An Extended Look at Season 2 | Interview with the Vampire

“Some people freak out about the age difference…they think, ‘What’s this 70 year old man doing with a guy seven times his age?’ You know, I don’t care!”

"I'm happy it was you. You with me at the end"

This may have an updated version in the future but for now it's done. So I hope everyone enjoys

Lestat + nicknames for Claudia.

THE CLOTHES OKAY. It’s something that comes up a lot during the episode and I may be reading too much into it but the scene with the skirt. Hahaha funny they are arguing about her clothes. Claudia has little to no agency in her own wardrobe. And let’s assume she does get a saying on how she dresses, why would she need to steal clothes from a prey? And even after doing so, she looks like she fell in her mother’s closet, so it doesn’t matter if they let her pick her own dresses or not, she’s still confined to kid’s clothes.

As I previously stated, I loved 01x05. It was fantastic. It was real. It brought my emotions to the forefront, and I don't get to experience that with much of anything, these days. But, this little misfit family... I feel for all three of these characters, in my own way. (They're fictional, so, yes, I can do that, thanks). Possibly because I have been in each of their positions, in one form or another, throughout my life.

I'm going to get mighty personal with this one, so be warned.

01x05 hit home for me, in a big way. This is a legitimate breakdown of a forced family unit, and that's something I personally feel for. Children have been the Bad Marriage Band-Aid for generations, and I am grateful to the writers for acknowledging it. (Some of us get a little tired of seeing cookie-cutter families, when ours look more like the aftermath of an oven fire, y'know what I mean?). We're getting to see it from all three sides, too, which I find absolutely refreshing. One parent thinks the child will settle the relationship. The other goes along with it, and ends up so blinded by jealousy, there is no middle ground left.

Claudia, though. This girl... She has my heart. Claudia is not to blame for what she was brought into, the absolutely fucked-up relationship that her guardians share. Is she a little shit? Yes. Is she hard-headed? Yes. Unstable, in terms of coming into her own? Yes. But, she is not the cause of her parents' issues. That's a hard thing to overcome as a child brought up under such circumstances, especially when the household arguments are about you. Because, sure, they may be about you, but you did not cause them. Claudia isn't the origin of Louis and Lestat's tensions. She is the excuse to pick a semi-fresh fight. She is the mirror held up in front of the two of them to show them that, "Hey, this isn't right." The product of their unstable union. The best and worst of one another in one person. (Speaking of her vampiric years, not her humanity). That isn't to say that there isn't genuine concern for her, particularly on the part of Louis. Claudia just got caught up in a toxic situation, and it's no wonder she took the hell off. I'm not surprised which parent's side she took, either. (Then again, are any of us?).

Louis and Lestat are... Well, I feel less for the two of them. Some years ago, I was in a relationship with similar features, so I think what I am experiencing is that mirror (minus the children). I will first say that nothing - nothing - excuses abuse. I've seen it. I've experienced it. Hell, I'm guilty of it. I also acknowledge that abuse takes many forms. I see it in Lestat's constant manipulations. I see it in Louis' repeated threats to leave. Louis withholding intimacies (not just sexual). Lestat playing his little one-sided What's Good for the Goose game, in terms of monogamy. They both know what they are doing to one another, they know the reactions they will trigger, yet they keep doing it. It's an ugly, ugly cycle, and it won't end until one of them cuts the damned cord. Breaks the chain. (I don't exactly advocate that they do so through violence, but). Walking away isn't easy, fuck knows it isn't. There's truth to the notion that things need to hit rock bottom before they can get better.

No one is asking to be abused. That isn't what I'm getting at. My point is that these two are so completely caught up in trying to hurt one another, blame one another, and sabotage the other from the inside out, they ignore what it is doing to their charge. They know she can hear them fighting, and they carry on. Falling victim to The Pattern is part of the cycle, and it is likely to be passed on to Claudia. This whole situation is toxic. This is abuse. This is co-dependent. Everybody sucks, here. (Sorry, I had to). And, by golly, I will be here for it until the bitter end.

Y'know. God-willing.

P.S. I'll happily clarify anything that sounds shitty, if need be. I'm rattling this off at work, between what I should be doing, so. Y'know.

“I hate you.”

“As you should.”

ARE YOU SERIOUS??? I HAVE WRITTEN THEM SAYING THAT ALMOST VERBATIM IN A FANFICTION. OOC MY ASS.

anyway I feel like this is not the general viewer consensus but anyone else tearing their hair out and crying with joy when witnessing the 'love of my life' line and Louis and Armand holding hands and interlinking fingers right there on the screen?! no, just me then? as an Armand stan I am felled, I am down, I am steamrollered, you got me rolin jones

Dumping an extremely long writeup of my thoughts about the IWTV series here. In case anyone does read it, tw for domestic abuse and rape, because it seems that’s the story we got 💀

The show overall

I absolutely loved the inclusive representation and how naturally the story supported the changes. I’ve distanced myself a bit from the books and film because I’m increasingly uncomfortable with their problematic elements, so it was great to experience the story without those. I loved how gay it was, at last!!! The use of Covid in the new framing story feels very 2021 lol but I think it’s an interesting idea, and the Dubai flat is soooo Armand (/neg).

That being said, if I had to look at the show objectively I would say it’s not very good. I don’t know enough about tv production to say what the issue was, but both the writing and direction felt awkward to me. The climax was too drawn out, and ending the show by revealing Armand’s identity will surely be underwhelming to anyone who hasn’t read the book or seen the film. I really disliked how desaturated and brownish the colour palette was, and I don’t think the mood matched the books. It wasn’t very gothic, but instead had a sort of sterility that reminded me of what I’ve seen of Hannibal. And finally, a lot of things seemed very silly to me. The way they hissed at each other was straight out of What We Do In The Shadows, and wasn’t that mind-reading scene, where everyone is thinking about food/sex, from Twilight??

Maybe this is overly pessimistic, but I have a feeling the show won’t be renewed for series 3. I really would love a decent adaptation of books 2 and 3, but maybe it is for the best, as the books get increasingly sillier, and because of the way Lestat was characterised so far💀

The characters

Jacob is so perfect as Louis. It’s refreshing to see Louis as he originally was, before he was flanderised in later books, and while I don’t think Brad Pitt is as bad as most people do, Jacob fits the character exactly and brings so much energy to the role.

I’m sooo obsessed with Bailey as Claudia, she was so much fun! I was never a huge Claudia fan before, but I love how her personality was portrayed in this, and how prominent of a role she was given, I cared about her so much. And Bailey masters that very creepy wide-eyed stare. I’m glad we got an adult actress as Claudia because of the intensity of the story (even though I did have to suspend my disbelief a bit when the show focused on how Claudia will look so young and 14 forever when she could easily pass as a grown up)

However, I HATED the rape plot. It served little purpose and could be replaced with some other plot point, and it’s such an upsetting, lazy trope to have a female character raped (especially a girl of colour). And I was excited to have an early fang gang cameo before that happened 😭

I’m a bit meh on Eric and how Daniel is written in general. I just think he’s too much of an asshole, and Eric delivers his lines in such a mean way. There’s definitely shades of Daniel’s personality there, and I COULD see Daniel growing up to be like that — I just think he’s a good guy, nicer than we’re shown here. And I really didn’t like the brief appearance of young Daniel, I don’t think he had the right energy at all.

And the new framing story means almost certainly no devil’s minion, but I doubt the show will make it that far anyway.

He was barely in it but I’m already obsessed with Assad’s Armand, his demeanor is perfect, and he really looks like an Armand! So excited to see more of him in series 2.

The minor characters were good, I especially liked having a bit of Louis sister’s arc in there!

I saved Lestat for last because I have a lot to say 💀. I thought Sam did a great job all things considered, so I don’t blame him, just the writing. Even before episode 5 i didn’t love this depiction of the character. There were some things I did like — he was fun, annoying, and impetuous, as Lestat should be. But I didn’t get the sense that he loved humanity, which is one of Lestat’s most important characteristics. Of course that wasn’t in book 1, but the framing story is supposed to be a revision of the original interview anyway. He enjoyed partying with people, but never seemed to care about any mortals. They could have given screentime to that, instead of the abuse. Or maybe they decided to base his characterisation on later series Lestat who does seem to abuse the people he loves /j

Initially, I didn’t know why they made him so abusive. From my perspective, the hard part of adapting IWTV is balancing Lestat’s abusiveness in that book with who he becomes in later books, blending the character attributes, so the audience will like him later on. So WHY would they make him MORE abusive??

I do wonder if it’s because they made Louis/Lestat an explicit romance. It’s a lot harder to believe that Louis would be complicit in Lestat’s death when he’s happily in love with him than when it was Brad Pitt acting numb and miserable. I wonder if they added this graphic and violent abuse to convince the audience, as well as Louis and Claudia, to hate Lestat in the span of one episode. And if so, that’s so lazy! They could have focused more on Lestat’s psychological control, convincing the others that they’re helpless without him, or Louis’s self-loathing about being a vampire and his resentment of Lestat.

And to be honest, while the beating scene was awful, I was more upset by the traincar scene with Claudia. I just watched The Shining last weekend and Lestat bursting into the train with the severed head of the conductor was so Jack Torrence. And if I didn’t misunderstand, i think he threatened to rape Claudia, and told her that if she let that happen, it would upset Louis. Please correct me if I’m wrong! Because that is horrendous.

i don’t think there’s any coming back from this for the character. In the series, the characters are willing to forgive anything over time because they’re all immortal, but I can’t see the audience forgiving. So if they do make it past series 2, it will be interesting to see what they do. (And maybe it’s for the best if not, not only because of Lestat, but also because I’d rather not see any screen time dedicated to Marius lol)

roses are red, summers are hot

ME: OMG, dude. I just realized...

@waxjism: Yeah?

ME: Next year... there’s gonna be tons of takes... about how problematic Daniel/Armand is! 😆

@waxjism: Why are you looking forward to this?!

ME: It’s gonna be funny! I’m looking forward to making fun of them!!

Why was Armand so slutty in that episode he has his full collarbones out

Ok, ~*theories*~ on the modern framing of IWTV AMC (disclaimer: it’s been over a decade since I last read the QotD and I gave up on the series as a whole after TotBT except for skimming for relevant Loustat bits). SPOILERS OBVS:

1. The Dubai tower is this universe’s version of Armand’s Night Island. The whole business with Akasha has happened fairly recently (although differently because even in his drug haze Daniel would recognize a rock star styling himself as The Vampire Lestat) and all the vamps are hanging out recovering from the trauma. Louis summoned Daniel to the island to tell him about it and future seasons will involve Daniel interviewing the surviving vampires like Marius, Armand, Pandora, and of course Lestat. 

2. Similar to the above, except we’re smack dab in the middle of the events of QotD, the Dubai tower belongs to Maharet, and this is the whole conference where they try to figure out wtf to do about it. Lestat is MIA.

3. Whatever the situation is, Lestat and Louis have reconciled by this point. Season 1 ends with Lestat’s “death” in New Orleans while Claudia and Louis flee to Europe. (maybe in the past this was as far as Louis got with Daniel in the 70s). Daniel asks what happens next, only for surprise!Lestat to show up and say it will make more sense if he tells his own story as well. Season 2 is Daniel interviewing them both, Lestat telling him about meeting Armand in the the 18th century cut with Louis describing meeting him in the 20th.

Rashmand is such a little weirdo, a manipulator. And he looks so good while doing it 🫶 the fluffy hair the big pretty unsettling eyes. ‘Protecting Louis from himself 😌’ HE IS DEEPLY UNWELL I LOVE HIM

I knew there was a reason I was particularly fond of his scenes, that was my best boy calling to my heart.

Okay, so, I've seen all the funny shit about Lestat and, "Of course he is! He's a Scorpio!" And, yeah, I get that. 100%.

But, here's my stupid ass, just coming to the realization that Louis is a Libra. As a fellow Libra, myself...

Well. That explains a whole fucking lot. Especially the co-dependency. Egads.