Following the glossy, yet essentially shallow first season of Interview with the Vampire and the confusing and rather dull first season of Mayfair Witches, AMC’s “Immortal Universe”, based on the works of Anne Rice, continues to move forward with its latest entry, a second season of Interview with the Vampire which takes us through the back half of that novel and lays some groundwork for future seasons to adapt the first sequel novel, The Vampire Lestat. The first season of Interview seemed to miss most of what made Rice’s original so interesting; most of these issues are rectified here.
Firstly, the essential point – that we only have the word of Louis, the titular vampire, to go on. And what kind of journalist would the titular interviewer be, if he took the testimony of just one interviewee at face value? This time around, the writers make full use of the inherent ambiguity of the premise and even give us other characters’ recounting of events, and yes – those differing accounts frequently, well, differ.
Secondly, the first season’s vampires were curiously tame and didn’t feel at all like soulless monsters. The main character (more-or-less), Louis, is still perhaps a little more likeable than is strictly appropriate, but him aside, we get an entire theatrical troupe, literally, of vampires who are utter bastards. The most entertaining of these is their star player, played as, and played by, a plummy English Shakespearean – Ben Daniels, who’s been quite a presence in recent prestige television (The Crown, Rings of Power) after a long and storied stage career. It’s hard to say who’s having more fun, the character or the actor.
Thirdly, the character of Louis was ceaselessly dull in the first season, which stood out particularly when Sam Reid’s capricious Lestat was so entertaining. Naturally, it presents a problem when a show’s main character (more-or-less) is the least interesting thing in the show. Whether it’s better writing or Jacob Anderson is now more comfortable in the rôle – most likely, it’s both – he’s now a genuinely entertaining character to watch. The absence of Lestat is still felt, but the writers find ways of including Sam Reid anyway – think Ginger Snaps 2.
There are minor quibbles, of course – Delainey Hayles, while talented, isn’t close to being the Claudia that Bailey Bass was in the first season and, as with almost any miniseries, the story is stretched out more than it had to be. In fact, things don’t really pick up until the fifth episode out of eight; but there’s enough in the way of handsome costuming, overheated Gothic atmosphere and good-looking scenery (Prague stands in for Paris) that holding out through the first few, fairly plot-light, episodes isn’t much of a drag and, from episode five to the finale, the drama, the pace and the violence never let up. That’s another factor to recommend this season – it’s much darker than the first.
★★★★☆