Spoilers for Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches Ep. 1 “The Witching Hour”
Author Anne Rice became a household name with her successful book series The Vampire Chronicles. In 1994, a movie was made from the first book, Interview with the Vampire, which has recently finished an eight-episode season one TV series on AMC. Now Rice’s other book series about a family of witches has also been adapted for television. The first episode of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, titled “The Witching Hour,“ was just enough to pique my interest surrounding this rather lurid, dark, and secretive family.
The show centers around Rowan Fielding (Alexandra Daddario), a brilliant neurosurgeon with no knowledge of the family she is a part of. She was raised by Ellie (Erica Gimpel), who made a deal never to reveal to Rowan her true family name to protect both the family and Rowan herself. However, as certain powers manifest themselves, so do things Rowan thought were left in the past. The death of a loved one does not help, spiraling her towards destiny and a family that she knows nothing about.
While Rowan is the centerpiece of Mayfair Witches, at this point, she is just another face of the show’s true focus, the Mayfair family. In this first episode, we are introduced to some characters from the past, family members aplenty, and players in the here and now. One character, in particular, Lasher (Jack Huston), has deep ties to the Mayfair family. While his origins are only touched on here, anyone who has read the books knows how important he will be to this series and the Mayfair family.
At the beginning of the episode, we meet a catatonic Deirdre Mayfair (Rowan’s mother, played by Annabeth Gish) and later a younger Deirdre (Cameron Inman), as we learn more about the family through many jumps from past to present and vice versa. Rounding out some of the main players are Ciprien (Tongayi Chirisa), who looks to be a protector assigned to Rowan by an unknown group, and Cortland Mayfair (Harry Hamlin), who plays a key role in shaping the Mayfair past and future.
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While “The Witching Hour” weaves its way through the timeline, it relies heavily on atmosphere, a sense of foreboding, and dread to make the narrative work. The past almost oozes that southern sense of eerie shadows and dark secrets, while the present day is wrapped around Rowan, her confusion, and her seemingly endless searching for something she can’t identify. The brilliant neurosurgeon is, more often than not, a smoke screen, covering up her inability to feel comfortable or shake the sense that something is just not right. Alexandra Daddario does a solid job as Rowan, making us feel her confusion as the past of her yet-unknown family swirls around her, giving her the sense of being caught in the eye of a hurricane.
The Mayfairs have a dark and seedy past, nothing unusual for a powerful family, but being a family of witches makes every secret that much worse. It’s difficult to portray in a series premiere, and while the show did a good job, I wonder how much of the audience will be caught up in the intrigue, not knowing the depth of the darkness if they haven’t read the books.
For instance, the romanticism of the vampires in Rice’s other book collection helps to go hand in hand with some of the darkness and brutality of that world. In the world of witches, however, it’s much less romantic and much more a tapestry of secrets, shadows, and generations trying to hide the truth, usually for individual self-interest. This might be a tall task to portray over Mayfair Witches’ short, eight-episode season.
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However, “The Witching Hour” weaves an interesting tale, with a mix of the past and present, to give the viewer a sense that they are about to be immersed into a world of witches, the likes they have not seen before. The Mayfair family’s dark and disturbing past, colliding with Rowan and her emerging powers, is an intriguing and compelling storyline that I hope can continue to emerge.
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches premieres on January 8th on AMC and AMC+.
