The Vampire Lestat, for all its pomp and savoir-faire, is glitter. It looks pretty in the moment, but it’s a headache to remove it all later.
The Vampire Lestat, the third installment of the Interview With the Vampire series, has ended. But it feels incomplete and overly bloated with sensationalism, rather than focusing on a character-driven season. Lestat takes center stage, and it’s entertaining. However, when put alongside the previous two seasons, it comes up lacking. The issue is not performances. But the writing that fell by the wayside. The Vampire Lestat, for all its pomp and savoir-faire, is glitter. It looks pretty in the moment, but it’s a headache to remove it all later.
Based on the collection of Anne Rice books, known as The Vampire Chronicles, the third season, titled The Vampire Lestat, follows the third book in the series. Created by Rolin Jones (Perry Mason, The Exorcist), this season shifts the focus from actor Jacob Anderson’s (Game of Thrones, Doctor Who) Louis de Pointe du Lac to his vampiric sire, Lestat de Lioncourt, played by Sam Reid (The Newsreader, The Hunting).
Taking place in the future, we hear Lestat’s collection of albums titled “The Failures.” Audiences get Lestat’s version of life as a middling rock star who unwittingly brings about the end times. Despite its promising first two seasons, this season reads like a pandering to a particular demographic that disregards Black characters. Even going so far as to claim you don’t need to watch the first two seasons is an offensive lie.
The Vampire Lestat Continues the Legacy of Stellar Performances
There is, truthfully, no character that drags the story down. Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid are their usual phenomenal selves. The emotional range adds a depth that’s lacking in the story itself. The now-vampire interviewer Daniel Molloy, played by Eric Bogosian (Billions, Succession), plays his role well but feels more like a petulant child than in previous seasons, even seeming off-character. Delainey Hayles (Holby City, Too Close) both as Claudia and a doppelgänger human waitress, Regina, is sensational. It’s a shame there is not more of her. Meanwhile, the confusing Armand, played by Assad Zaman (Hotel Portofino, Small Axe), becomes more of an enigma, but eats up the screen at every opportunity.
Adding to the impressive acting roster are new characters like Jennifer Ehle (Pride & Prejudice, Fifty Shades Freed) as Lestat’s mother, abuser, and sireling, Gabriella aka Sofia. A one-note character that feels like more because of what Ehle brings to the screen. The other key person, the woman progenitor of the vampires who awakens, is Akasha, played to perfection by Sheila Atim (The Woman King, Dust Bunny). It’s the one outstanding piece of writing, and it’s largely due to how Atim acts it out onscreen. She plays it like she’s puzzling through a problem and arriving at a primal conclusion.
Jumbled Storytelling That Falls Flat
Much of what happens this season would not work without the cast. After all, the writing relies on the visuals to do the work of keeping audience engagement. There are moments of show-and-tell that feel like they should’ve switched. The incest? Unnecessarily explicit. And by the end of the season, it shows that a horrific childhood moment before that abuse is the crux of Lestat’s character.
The supposed lies Louis tells Daniel for the book? We needed to see. Instead, the proof never comes, as even Lestat’s own mind shows that main events from prior seasons happened. So, aside from performances, catchy music, and Akasha’s killer self-actualizing monologue, what does the season offer beyond shocks? Cabbage?
Brutality is Okay If It’s Black People and Bodies
Even Bruce’s demise is not prolonged horror. He sits there and then burns offscreen. Even claiming that Claudia would not only call Louis a “nappy-headed slave” but say she hates him more than Bruce makes no sense whatsoever. Though there were moments in previous seasons, the way the story handled development of Louis and Claudia’s character made those seasons, as a whole, amazing.
Claudia’s depiction is horrific. Regina’s self-harm at Armand’s manipulation is awful. Louis’s head propped away from his body as Armand and Fareed livestream and study how long his head can remain separate from his body is traumatic and disgusting.
Meanwhile, audiences never see Lestat’s head tucked away in the bowling bag. Sure, there could be an argument that the point is how others, even Brown people, harm Black bodies and use them as tools, but that requires a care and nuance that is missing from this season’s writers’ room. The Vampire Lestat is fun one moment and a tragic letdown the next.
The Vampire Lestat Shows the Center Should Not Hold
One can never achieve anything truly groundbreaking that shifts the world on its axis while occupying the center; the default. You have to see outside of that lens. The Vampire Lestat has the superb performances of its previous seasons without the depth or care for its Black characters and, by extension, its Black audience that were day ones for the series. Rather than elevating the series as a whole, as the previous season had, The Vampire Lestat winds up hollow and incomplete. It’s impossible not to wonder what could have been if the series handled its characters with the care and nuance of previous seasons and had a few more episodes.
The best moments of the season center a Black character, including Louis and Lestat’s banter and arguing. Tighter writing could have fixed issues regarding Louis and Claudia’s characters this season. Instead, the season is a rushed, disjointed mess that, aside from momma trauma, has little else. Characters do things because, and that’s it. There is no buildup or insight to understand the claims against Louis or the switch in Claudia. It’s a “trust me bro” development.
A Occasionally Fun, But Flat Addition
It’s easy to feel excitement because Sheila Atim’s Akasha takes center stage next season. But given this season’s writing, there is a reason to worry. The writers may have no issue depicting Akasha’s lived experience as a woman. However, they may fall short when showing a Black woman’s lived experience. Too often, it goes the way of latching onto what they can connect with while disregarding the rest as unnecessary or a hindrance to a wider audience appeal.
They could also latch onto the idea that character development and a cohesive story are optional if the viewers get shocking scene after shocking scene. Thanks to its cast, The Vampire Lestat engages with viewers. But it lacks the breadth previously present, making it a fun downgrade, but a downgrade nonetheless.
