The Vampire Lestat episode 1

I just watched the first episode of The Vampire Lestat (AKA Interview with The Vampire Season 3). Though it deviates from the novel quite a bit, I found myself enjoying a lot of it. First, let’s wade through the parts I don’t like.

For starters, I hate the lyrics. I hope the songs that come later in this season are better. They tried to turn “I want to stay in bed and eat black licorice” into something profound and it just doesn’t work.

I still don’t understand the point of changing the physiology of the vampires for the TV series. The vampires could not have sex at all in the novels. It’s part of what tempted Lestat in Tale of the body Thief. It’s also why Lestat compares male vampires to Osiris in The Vampire Lestat, because a particular organ does not work. The Vampires used blood as a substitute for sex, blood exchange being the replacement. It seems the vampires in the TV series are sex obsessed. And this takes away from any asexuality representation or metaphor that some of the characters originally conveyed.

Also I was very surprised at the urination scene. Yet again, this is something that does not happen in the novels. The vampires burn all the components of the blood. They are not vampire bats. And since I was friends with the woman, I want to state firmly here, that the first time I saw a vampire depicted urinating blood, and told how they don’t urinate as often as mortals, was directly from the novel Demon Under Glass by the late Deborah Warner AKA D. L. Warner, who ironically was a fan of Anne Rice.

Anne Rice’s vampires did not urinate. This is very specifically addressed in the novels. In Tale of The Body thief, Lestat has to re-adjust to human physiology and urination particualrly disgusts him. He even forgets to wipe at one point and stains his trousers.

Also I strongly feel that Gabrielle’s modern day arrival was better in the novel. I liked her arrival, rescuing both Louis and Lestat from the disaster of Lestat’s concert in the novel. I’ve pointed out to others that I dislike the change of her name from the French Gabrielle to the Italian Gabriella. Yes, Gabrielle is Italian but she married a French Maquis and like Marie Antoinette that means her non-French name gets French-ized. And Lestat would have only known the French version of her name.

Now on to what I like.


The show is surreal and enjoyable. Something about it reminds me of Velvet Goldmine roughly slammed into Interview with The Vampire.

I do like that we seem to start with after the events of The Queen of the damned and the dust is settling after Akasha’s radical feminist attempt to kill all people AMAB (assigned male at birth). It’s intriguing. Even if you read the novels there are intriguing differences. What happeend to Armand’s eye? I love to hate Armand, I don’t want him mutilated (even if he might deserve it).

The music box with Lestat’s master recordings was clever and also strangely familiar to me.

I hated Baby Jenks in The Queen of the damned novel so the change for the TV show was refreshing. I hope Lestat being high on junkie blood doesn’t get done to the point of tediousness. He feels like he needs therapy which… kind of fits him so it’s fine.

Daniel Molloy is fun in this season so far. The visuals are good. And I do admit to liking this (So far) more than what was done with Interview With The vampire in the first two seasons. So I will keep going. I hope the songs get better.

Some more thoughts on The Vampire Lestat.

The language in the episode is a bit… shall we say… cringe. It’s like the writers are old men trying very hard to sound hip by using a mixture of generation Z and Millennial slang. I still haven’t gotten used to Anne Rice vampires swearing, being crass about sex and sexuality instead of romantic and poetic, but it’s particularly jarring when Louis says things like ”Don’t be a b1tch” and Lestat says things like “The feels.”

But I can’t quite say it’s out of character that Lestat would try to be hip. We (the readers) still have the emotional scars from Blood Canticle. It’s just the language is already dated, it feels more dated than the 1985 novel that inspired this. It’s like the show is shouting “Did we mention this is set in 2025?!?”

Also the idea of Gabriell(a) texting is just plain weird to me. We’re talking about a vampire, who, in the novel wanted to wander off away from humanity and explore the jungles. I accepted her learning to drive improbably fast to rescue Louis and Lestat from the concert in the novel but where the Hell did she get a cellphone from? Jitterbug-swamp-hermit edition?

Also the whole blood farm thing doesn't sit right for me, especially since Lestat was revolted by Azim killing his followers in The queen of the damned novel.

So I was thinking about Lestat’s “look-a-like” from the AMC show that they introduced in last night’s episode and I realized just how jarring it is.

Why would Lestat bother with a mortal look-a-like when part of his scheme was he hoped that some people might figure out he was telling the truth and that he really is a vampire? The show makes him indifferent to people realizing the truth and even mocking. “Good for you. Now go make friends.”

Well, the answer seems painfully simple. Lestat’s look-a-like is going to die in Lestat’s place at some point and it’s to trick us viewers into temporarily thinking Lestat’s dead. That’s why the show opens with a post-Queen of the Damned auction scene with an Armand with an eyepatch and Lestat MIA. It’s so we, the audience briefly get tricked into thinking Lestat’s dead.

I’m way ahead of you, show...