Everybody keeps telling me that I really, really need to get into AMC’s adaptation of Interview With The Vampire. They say it’s exceptional television. Beautiful to look at, well-paced, well-written. Then I keep on thinking about it for a fleeting moment before firing up an old Chuck Norris movie. This is because I am a) time poor and b) what I believe TikTok would call “a basic bitch”. It might be time for me to get moving, though, as The Vampire Lestat is close, and the reviews are off the charts.
This is the third season of the Anne Rice adaptations, and it is some of the strongest-reviewed television of the 2020s. Rotten Tomatoes has it at a perfect 100%, with Metacritic holding at 90/100.
Damn.
Adapting Rice’s second book, this series will focus mainly on Sam Reid’s Lestat as he becomes a rock star, with unintended consequences. Here is what the summary pages have to say:
“Interview had a sense of humor about its high drama, but this season sometimes plays like a full-on comedy… This marvelously fun shift in tone more than justifies the title change. Yet as the season progresses, the new episodes feel increasingly in sync with Interview and… becomes, like its predecessor, an empathetic portrait of an immortal monster with human psychology.”
Judy Berman, TIME
“This is a striking and nervy piece of work that goes there over and over again. Jones has proven that he could steer this show through the novels’ more unhinged deviations and make it gripping.”
Kayleigh Donaldson, The Wrap
“The Vampire Lestat is unlike anything else on TV right now… [it] is not a simple watch, if that’s what you’re looking for – instead, it’s a revelatory meditation on some of the most intense possible themes, dressed up in sultry crooning, sweat, and glitter with an edge sharp enough to slice right into you. [It] may not offer a conventional season of TV, but it challenges you to keep up.”
Rotem Rusak, Nerdist
“Blowing up the narrative in the absolute best way possible… Pivoting sharply in tone, visual style, and content as it recenters its story around the titular Lestat de Lioncourt… [it[ allows for a near-perfect blend of the franchise’s signature bombastic camp and quiet, unexpected emotional depth.”
Lacy Baugher, Den of Geek
“Forego all your expectations of tonal continuity. The show is utterly unparalleled, for lack of a better term, sui generis, and strong enough to be in a class of its own. The only thing the show has in common with its predecessor is that the titular vampire is narrating his life story, although through and for different media.”
Federica Bocco, Winter is Coming
“Fans might be tuning in to see a sexy Lestat strut as a rock star, argue with his on-again-off-again exes, and be a Brat Prince in full. Jones will deliver there, those with a sleazy layer of grit that keeps the show from losing its edge. Then, he’ll go harder and deeper, unearthing subplots savage, sumptuous, and absolutely addictive… Nothing from the books prepared me for what Jones does here.”
Kristy Puchko, Mashable
“The Vampire Lestat is everything you could want and then some. It’s a moving meditation on fame, fandom, and legacy that pushes its characters and relationships to their most satisfying places yet… It’s all too appropriate that a season that functions as a sweeping ode to failure is genuinely one of the year’s most perfect pieces of television, horror or otherwise.”
Daniel Kurland, Bloody Disgusting
“The Vampire Lestat remains one of the best shows on television thanks to its firmly established tone and purpose. Here is a show equally capable of heartbreak as it is at over-the-top gore… It’s the perfect blend of crazy thrills and moving depths, the kind of adaptation that takes its source and its genre seriously by reminding you that as messed up as all these characters are, they’re a blast to watch.”
Devan Suber, Awards Watch
The Vampire Lestat lands on AMC on Sunday, June 7th.
