Spoilers for ‘Interview With the Vampire’ Season 2, Episodes 1-3
The combination of death, destruction, and revelations witnessed to wrap up season one left this Anne Rice show with a lot to live up to. Interview With the Vampire season 2 has seen a shift in locations and shuffling of actors in key characters as well. However, after three episodes, it’s safe to say the talent in front of and behind the camera has built on season one’s success and brought the viewer along on an adventure full of mayhem, dark humor, and really, a sensual and bloody good time.
We pick things up in Europe during World War II, where Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) and Claudia (Delainey Hayles) have fled, leaving New Orleans and a dead Lestat (Sam Reid) behind. Or so they think, seeing as Louis could not bring himself to burn Lestat’s body. In fact, Louis has dragged the ghost of Lestat with him, as the guilt of what he has done manifests itself in hallucinatory images of Lestat. He is always there, always taunting him. They seek other older, wiser vampires, or at least that is Claudia’s obsession, tracking down all the clues and rumors they can to help in their search.
They find what they are looking for, sort of, in Paris at the aptly named Theatre des Vampires. Vampires pretending to be vampires, a strange kind of coven led by the 500-year-old Armand (Assad Zaman). Here, Claudia finds what she is looking for, and Louis finds a new romantic interest in Armand. It seems like a perfect fit, yet a peek behind the curtains reveals some alarming bits of truth, none more shocking than seeing a picture of Lestat on the wall. Turns out, Armand not only knows Lestat, but they were romantically involved back in the day, making Louis and Claudia struggle to keep what they did secret through a complicated web of lies and half-truths.
RELATED: Check Out Our ‘Interview With the Vampire’ Coverage Here!
This adds someone even more to the flashbacks, and flashforwards, especially the interview that is currently going on. When we ended season one, the true nature of Louis and Armand’s relationship was revealed, but the smart, if not abrasive and full of doubts journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) pokes holes in the image that Louis and Armand are trying to present, that being a love affair for the ages. Even the beautiful setting of their luxurious apartment in Dubai can’t completely hide the cracks in their story, and that’s a good thing. Underneath the surface lies some very interesting hidden truths and traumas that both Louis and Armand have avoided facing for a long time.
The recasting of Claudia was something that could have dragged the show’s other storylines down tremendously, but thankfully, Delainey Hayles was up to the task. In season one, original Claudia actress Bailey Bass was a new definition of a teenager out of control. Channeling all that natural teenage aggression into a marriage with her new vampire powers made Bass a joy to watch. In season two, however, something more was needed from Claudia than simple aggression and rage. Hayles does well to use her years of immortality to curtail some of the rage while, at the same time, never leaving it totally behind.
Not having Sam Reid constantly hamming it up as Lestat in his glorious, seductive ways was hard to get used to, but at least he’s still here. The ghost image of Lestat, at least through the first three episodes, helps to build on the character of Louis even more.
While the Theatre des Vampires is obviously a key point to this overall story, enough cannot be said about the dynamic that exists in the interview part of the show, especially now between Molloy, Armand, and Louis. As Armand, Assad Zaman adds an intensity to the mix, and his one-on-ones with Molloy are an engaging battle of wills. It’s a bizarre game of cat and mouse between these three, the journalist poking, prodding, searching for the angles and the two vampires, dodging, pushing back, and yet opening up some of their past they would have probably preferred to keep hidden. It’s strange but highly engaging and plays on the strengths, weaknesses, and fears of each of these individuals.
RELATED: ‘Shaun of the Dead’ at 20: The Greatest Horror-Comedy Ever Made
One of the things that makes Molloy such a good journalist is that he never takes things at face value. He is always skeptical and loves to dig deeper to find out more. When he is approached while eating by a stranger, who seems to know things he shouldn’t, Molloy is appropriately unimpressed. The stranger, however, is a huge part of Anne Rice’s universe, belonging to the secret society of supernatural investigators called The Talamasca. Fans of Rice’s books and her other show, Mayfair Witches, will be all too familiar with this group and the important part they will play moving forward.
The first three episodes of Interview With the Vampire season 2 have a lot going on, taking care to balance campy, dark humor with equal parts eroticism and bloody mayhem. With such a vast amount of material to draw on and so many characters, deaths, and surprises to unleash on the small screen, the future of this show/universe has some very intriguing potential.
