Of the Anne Rice novels I've read, and I admit did go through that phase in high school, "The Vampire Lestat" is the one that I know the best. It recenters the narrative begun in "Interview with the Vampire" on the character of Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), as he decides to embrace the modern age by flouting the vampire rules and becoming a rock star. The television series adaptation does the same thing. The title has been changed, but this is essentially the third season of AMC's "Interview With the Vampire" series, created by Rolin Jones, with all the major cast members returning. It's also not easy to follow what's going on if you haven't seen the earlier seasons.
However, "The Vampire Lestat" feels like a significant break from the narrative so far. Since we've swapped narrators from Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) to the much more chaotic Lestat, the storytelling follows suit. Most of the action takes place in the present day as Lestat and his band are on tour, with only very limited, often inaccurate flashbacks to Lestat's earlier life and history. It's evident that the budget was a limiting factor, as several of the book's most memorable events are only described rather than depicted, and the season ends right before a major cataclysm - was a planned finale cut for some reason? However, that's not really what the adaptation wants to focus on. Instead, it's giving us a good, long, look into the messy psyche of Lestat, who is constantly lying to himself, self-aggrandizing in the extreme, and courting disaster as he keeps seeking the spotlight. He and Louis have had another falling out since the release of the book Daniel (Eric Bogosian) managed to write based on his notes from last season, and Lestat is in the throes of emotional turmoil. He's hired Daniel to make a documentary about him, which means bringing him on tour to be his sarcastic confessor and interrogator. Also his mother, the vampire Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle), has resurfaced after a long absence, bringing more mess into the situation.
I really like this version of Lestat de Lioncourt, who is absolutely not the same character from the books. Anne Rice's Lestat was a bratty rebel who pushed back against the vampire establishment because he wouldn't be constrained by their rules. Sam Reid's version is a walking trainwreck, screwed up by centuries of trauma, abandonment, epic mommy issues, and unprocessed grief. Where the book Lestat was effortlessly a superstar, the screen Lestat is a mediocre musician at best, with songs composed by Daniel Hart. The tour is not going well at the start of the series, and it's a running joke that the band regularly gets terrible reviews. (Personally the music isn't really to my taste either, but it works in the context of the show, so no complaints here). What looks like rock 'n' roll impetuousness and provocation is really a combination of clumsy self-destruction or maybe very badly applied self-help. However, those moments when Reid takes the stage and starts riling up the crowd are frequently electric, and if this is all just Lestat's idea of therapy, at least it's wonderfully entertaining to watch. The dialogue remains very sharp, and Lestat's narration, full of terminally online social-media speak, is also frequently hilarious.
There's also the matter of keeping all the regulars from "Interview With the Vampire" around for the new season, so reasons are engineered for characters like Louis, Armand (Assad Zaman) and Claudia (Delainey Hayles) to keep making appearances, which I will not spoil. We spend far more time with them than we do with characters like Nicholas de Lenfent (Joseph Potter), Magnus (Damien Atkins), Marius de Romanus (Christopher Heyer Dahl), and Akasha (Sheila Atim), who all had considerably bigger parts in the book. At least all of them are here, setting up future events in what I hope will be multiple seasons to come, but several of the introductions are very rushed. The big exception is Gabriella, who has controversially been turned into a more vicious, calculating presence with her own agenda. She's not quite an antagonist this season, but has the potential to be, which is very exciting.
I'm not quite disappointed in the ending since I know that there's more coming, but it's hard to parse a season that feels so unfinished. There are several episodes that I adore in isolation, with a few specific scenes and performances that are absolutely worth taking the trouble for, but there are also many conceits and ambitious reaches here that just don't pan out. "The Vampire Lestat" is a daring, creative season of television that I'm so glad exists, but it also left me wanting far more than what I think the series is ready to provide.
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