Director: Various
First aired: 2014
Contains spoilers
I was taken with Season 1 of this show. Fearing that it could never stand up to the gothic magnificence of the film, and open minded, but still with niggling doubts, about the changes. I found a show that may have modernized the historic story (moving from the 18th century to the early twentieth century) but still true to the spirit of the books. A show that ramped up the sexuality (Rice’s vampires were not sexual, though she certainly wrote the erotic spirit) but did not lose itself within that.
I found a show where Sam Reid played a pitch perfect Lestat and Jacob Anderson offered a powerhouse and nuanced performance as Louis. It was then announced by Bailey Bass that she would not be returning as Claudia – aged considerably from the books had allowed an older actress able to play a nuanced role with interesting changes tied to her age – and would be replaced this season by Delainey Hayles. In the last season the interview got as far as the killing of Lestat and, in the modern day, interviewer Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian, Blade Trinity) discovers that servant Rashid was actually ancient vampire Armand (Assad Zaman).
This season starts off with Claudia and Louis, in Europe, searching for their vampiric roots across the continent, and ending up in Romania. The search made tougher by the fact that the second world war rages around them. If the war seems glossed over, within the space of an episode and mostly at the end of the period, then the dialogue references this and admits as much. As such, we meet them towards the end of their search, see a moment with some German soldiers and then cut to a Romania with Soviet troops there. In truth the search is longer than perhaps the books, which (from memory) is very glossed over. They find troops unearthing the dead and shooting into coffins and eventually find a revenant, and a weak female vampire (not in the book) who cannot successfully turn vampires – Louis posits it is the sadness (from the war) that has infected the blood. There is mention of Dracula and Vlad Ţepeş in passing.
Following that the full season (8 episodes, rather than the 7 of season 1, but chaptered from chapter 8 onwards) are based around the Théâtre des Vampires in Paris, and a great sequence they are. Offering much more nuance over the 7 remaining episodes and using the present to interrogate undead memory of the past. I must give out a shout at this point to Ben Daniels who steals the show as Santiago, lead actor of the troupe and conspirator.
Of course, Lestat is not there any longer, but the series manages to include him by having his memory haunt Louis to the point of hallucination, which in itself worked well too. The Théâtre itself uses more modern techniques given the time period and so, for instance, they project film to the back curtain to interact with it as actors. For readers of the books, the fate of Claudia and the Théâtre itself remains the same, but the way it gets there, and how betrayals are not discovered for seventy years is the thing the show does really well. A note on the Blu-Ray set. There is more in the way of extras this time round, something I found disappointing last time. The show itself, I think is still a strong 7.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK
 |
| Louis and Lestat |
I found a show where Sam Reid played a pitch perfect Lestat and Jacob Anderson offered a powerhouse and nuanced performance as Louis. It was then announced by Bailey Bass that she would not be returning as Claudia – aged considerably from the books had allowed an older actress able to play a nuanced role with interesting changes tied to her age – and would be replaced this season by Delainey Hayles. In the last season the interview got as far as the killing of Lestat and, in the modern day, interviewer Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian, Blade Trinity) discovers that servant Rashid was actually ancient vampire Armand (Assad Zaman).
 |
| Delainey Hayles as Claudia |
This season starts off with Claudia and Louis, in Europe, searching for their vampiric roots across the continent, and ending up in Romania. The search made tougher by the fact that the second world war rages around them. If the war seems glossed over, within the space of an episode and mostly at the end of the period, then the dialogue references this and admits as much. As such, we meet them towards the end of their search, see a moment with some German soldiers and then cut to a Romania with Soviet troops there. In truth the search is longer than perhaps the books, which (from memory) is very glossed over. They find troops unearthing the dead and shooting into coffins and eventually find a revenant, and a weak female vampire (not in the book) who cannot successfully turn vampires – Louis posits it is the sadness (from the war) that has infected the blood. There is mention of Dracula and Vlad Ţepeş in passing.
 |
| Ben Daniels as Santiago |
Following that the full season (8 episodes, rather than the 7 of season 1, but chaptered from chapter 8 onwards) are based around the Théâtre des Vampires in Paris, and a great sequence they are. Offering much more nuance over the 7 remaining episodes and using the present to interrogate undead memory of the past. I must give out a shout at this point to Ben Daniels who steals the show as Santiago, lead actor of the troupe and conspirator.
 |
| Armand and Louis |
Of course, Lestat is not there any longer, but the series manages to include him by having his memory haunt Louis to the point of hallucination, which in itself worked well too. The Théâtre itself uses more modern techniques given the time period and so, for instance, they project film to the back curtain to interact with it as actors. For readers of the books, the fate of Claudia and the Théâtre itself remains the same, but the way it gets there, and how betrayals are not discovered for seventy years is the thing the show does really well. A note on the Blu-Ray set. There is more in the way of extras this time round, something I found disappointing last time. The show itself, I think is still a strong 7.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK
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