Created by Rolin Jones
1.02 “...After the Phantoms of Your Former Self”
Written by Jonathan Ceniceroz & Dave Harris
Directed by Alan Taylor
Starring Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, Bailey Bass, and Eric Bogosian
New episodes airing Sundays on AMC & streaming on AMC+

by Emily Maesar, Associate Editor, TVJawn

(The following is part of a larger interview about the entire first season of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire series, airing on Sundays in October and November of 2022. You can decide if that first part is true or not, though.)

MovieJawn: And the second episode? How did it stand up to the pilot?

Emily Maesar: It got better. It’s a hard feat, you know. A pilot shouldn’t be your strongest episode in a series, but it often is. Is the second episode going to be the show’s sophomore slump… or their comeback of the year, you know? And for AMC’s Interview with the Vampire, the show is seemingly firing on all cylinders. It’s a really remarkable thing, honestly.

Like, the idea of a pilot is that it’s supposed to be like a pilot ship. That’s the apocryphal story of why it’s called that. The rest of the show is the bigger ship, and it should fall in line with the pilot but be grander. But pilots can often fall into the sophomore slump for TV writers, because they’ve spent so long thinking about the pilot and making it just right so they can pitch it and sell it, that often the second episode falls short. I think it might be less common on the same scale with the shorter series, but it was always really normal on longer, broadcast series.

MJ: Do you think Interview with the Vampire ever could have fallen into that, though? Its season order is so short and it’s not on broadcast.

EM: I mean, it was always a possibility. But no, I actually don’t think so. I had a feeling that if they stuck the landing on the pilot, then we could trust them with the rest of the season’s quality across the board. Partially, I had faith because it’s a story that’s been around for almost 50 years. And maybe I’ll always be sad that Bryan Fuller’s adaptation of it didn’t go, but as long as the show was queer there was a glimmer of hope.

MJ: I know you said that Anne Rice vampires are generally queer by nature, but what does the series really gain by bringing that queerness into the light… so to speak.

EM: (laughs) So to speak. I mean, other than the deeply remarkable feeling of being seen that queer media gives us, I think it’s also important that Interview with a Vampire is unapologetically queer, not afraid to say the specific labels, and that it’s already been renewed for a second season.

MJ: Okay, so we’re getting at least one more season. But what’s working right now?

EM: Obviously the queer stuff, but who’s surprised by that. But I think the conversation about race, which is really clear and laid out here, works remarkably well. However, I’m also white, so don’t take my word for it. Black writers like Stephanie Holland at The Root and Candice Frederick at HuffPost have a lot of things to say about how the series weaves Black identity into the previously very white narrative. I’ve really enjoyed their perspective and I really hope the show continues to do right by both their Black characters and Black audience.

MJ: Obviously there’s been a slight uptick in vampire media.

EM: Yeah, vampires are hot again. To my great joy!

MJ: (laughs) Yes, I think to all of our joy. But, with two episodes under its belt, where does this adaptation of Interview with the Vampire sit when compared to shows like Castlevania or What We Do in the Shadows?

EM: I think squarely in the center? But perhaps leaning more towards Castlevania. It’s serious, for sure, but it’s kind of stupidly funny, too. Like. I’m sorry. The amount of times Daniel asks Louis if he ate the baby? It’s comedy genius, but it’s also heavy and sad and you don’t actually know the answer until he says it. In the way that is reminiscent of, if I may bring back up my favorite person again, Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal. In fact, it’s this weird oroborus where I can only see the similarities between the Will/Hannibal and the Louis/Lestat dynamics. It’s clear that Fuller was a huge Anne Rice fan. (A thing I generally know from listening to him talk about his upbringing, but that I also think is pretty clear.)

So, it makes sense that this imagined time between Will and Hannibal that exists in the margins of a few sentences in Thomas Harris’s Red Dragon would bring him to the same absolutely messy, queer, and hungry for blood men, who basically adopt a daughter together. There’s a direct parallel there, so it’s sad that his version of the show fell through. But even this present version feels reflexive of Hannibal, with the opera scene. “Eat the rude” and all that jazz. Although, to be fair, Lestat is a much more cruel serial killer than Hannibal ever is. Which… is certainly interesting!

MJ: And what of Louis and Lestat’s relationship, given that observation?

EM: You know, I think Jacob Anderson, who plays Louis, said something really interesting about the two characters and their relationship: “They actually kind of don't like each other, they're just very in love.” It’s something I think is true across the different versions, too. Not to mention how well that really just exacerbated the toxic relationship of it all.

I saw someone ask if the story ends happily—a young fan, I assume, who hadn’t really encountered the source material in what must have been their less than 25 years consuming media. And the answer is yes, but also no. Or, rather, it’s that they don’t die at the end. Louis, we know, because he’s the one telling the story. And Lestat because… well? He’s Anne’s best boy, and he’s the piece through which all the vampires, the witches, and the devils commune. He is, ultimately, the vampire we are chronicling.

Besides, their relationship is so completely toxic that to dream of Louis and Lestat being together for all time? That seems like a nightmare. Lestat is in love so long as he wants to be infatuated, but he doesn’t care about Louis. He doesn’t care about how he almost ate his nephew. He gives him the money to buy a business, but only because they had a fight. He knows what strings to play, but Louis hasn’t been in this kind of relationship before—especially not with an immortal being who has been around enough to learn all the tricks. They were doomed to end in tragedy, even if they make it out alive.

MJ: And what of Claudia? She’ll get introduced soon, but do you think her fate will be as terribly tragic? She’s the only one who doesn’t make it out alive, after all.

EM: I think it has to be? It is her birth as a vampire, and then her ultimate death, that really rips Louis and Lestat apart. But god, I hope we get a long time with her. Bailey Bass seems like she’s going to be so completely lovely and enchanting. I’m curious if we’ll see her in the next episode, since the first season is so short. I will curse the show, though, if she doesn’t make it past season one.