By Makayla Flenoury
The “Interview with the Vampire” story continued in the new show “The Vampire Lestat,” as a huge fan, I was super exicted to see how “The Vampire Lestat” explored profound themes and how the story changes through Lestat’s perspective.
The show premiered on AMC+ on June 7 and aired weekly, with the final episode on July 19. While “The Vampire Lestat” and “Interview with the Vampire” are separate shows, “The Vampire Lestat” is really like season 3. It is not a show you can watch without watching “Interview with the Vampire” first. You will be missing A LOT of context.
Unfortunately, I cannot provide that for you unless you’d like a ten-page-long review (even though I would LOVE to talk about it).
“The Vampire Lestat” is a change of pace from the first show. “Interview with the Vampire” is set in the 1970s and told from Louis de Pointe du Lac’s (Jacob Anderson) perspective. “The Vampire Lestat” is set in 2025 and told from Lestat de Lioncourt’s (Sam Reid) perspective. They have very contrasting narration styles. It was quite jarring, actually.
There are multiple, interconnecting storylines present throughout the show, so it’s hard to summarize exactly what is going on.
We learn more about Lestat’s backstory, introducing us to his vampire mother, Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle). She is his biological mother, whom Lestat turned (but also groomed him… we’ll get to that). We watch Lestat and Louis’s romance blossom again, and a new blossoming romance between Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) and Armand (Assad Zaman).
Then there’s Louis’s story and his everlasting grief from Claudia’s (Delainey Hayles) death. He meets a girl who looks exactly like her, Regina (also Delainey Hayles). He starts paying her to pretend to be Claudia. Armand is attempting redemption, but when that fails, he turns to revenge against Lestat and Louis. Other storylines include, Lestat’s rock star journey. The ghost of Claudia’s burning rage and agonizing afterlife.
That still doesn’t cover it, but it’s the important parts.
The foundation of what makes “Interview with the Vampire” great is the incredibly heartbreaking story, well-developed characters, and its layers of heavy themes throughout the story.
In the previous show, the focus was on systemic oppression, toxic codependency, and the unreliability of memory. “The Vampire Lestat” shifts focus to trauma, identity, unhealthy coping and, of course, toxic codependency.
There was some debate online about whether “The Vampire Lestat” fit within the “Interview with the Vampire” universe. Of course it does. The shows are set in contrasting decades. Lestat does not share the same flowery and poetic narration as Louis. He’s chaotic and brazen. The cohesive nature of “Interview with the Vampire” does not follow Lestat anywhere.
On top of that, everyone in the show is an unreliable narrator. Their completely different narration styles add to the fact that we don’t know the true story. We even get Claudia’s version of events, and it is drastically different from everything the audience believed – to the point where the viewers don’t believe her.
“The Vampire Lestat” is a great continuation of the “Interview with the Vampire” story. It held the same essence of what makes their story great. I think the viewers were expecting the same poetic narration and the same historical feel. The point of the show was for them to be different, as Louis and Lestat are. “Interview with a Vampire” excelled in hard-hitting twists, while “The Vampire Lestat” excelled with dramatic storylines and diving deeper into the characters.
I do prefer “Interview with the Vampire”, though I still think “The Vampire Lestat” is fantastic, so I would give it 4/5 stars.