the vampire lestat is cancelled
anti-french sentiments on the rise
I missed last week’s newsletter. Sorry. In my defence, I said this would happen. Let’s just say the Deadpool one was worth two newsletters. Volume-wise, at least.
It is undoubtedly true that I have promised many friends that I will watch many TV series important to them, and it is also true that I usually fail to deliver on these promises. Honestly, my enthusiasm for TV full stop has fallen off quite a bit in the past year or so, partly due to being busier but also due to the increasing homeworkisation of modern television. It too often feels like obligation these days to keep up, and the trust-relationship you could have with a show like Succession or Better Call Saul where the baseline episode quality was still really strong feels fuzzier in a time when even The Bear can 180-turn into its own arse without warning.
Watching it is one thing, but also talking about TV feels more tortured and psychodramatic than ever: the lasting impressions of the most recent seasons of Doctor Who and House of the Dragon were largely that the fandoms needed to take a long walk outside and eat a good sandwich. Discourse has increasingly become tiresome clutter.
Anyway, this is a long-winded way of saying that this newsletter is dedicated to my friend Nadira, whose tireless and powerful campaign on behalf of Interview with the Vampire has finally paid off. I hope you are very happy with your win.
It really is a blast of cool air to have a show that just feels easy to speed through. If modern TV is laden with the Surf Dracula problem, where the cool premise of a show is delayed and delayed for the sake of ‘realistic pacing’ (HOTD’s near-endless march to war is a perfect recent example), then we here have the cure.
Interview with the Vampire gives you the interview with the vampire almost instantly in its pilot, sets up the mythos and main character arc by the end of the pilot, and spends the rest of its first season (I’m up to episode six of seven) in a restless forward momentum. Conflicts arise and naturally come to a quick boil rather than staying in a restless simmer, changes to characters’ relationships are followed through on rather than nervously forestalled - oh, and the episodes are 40 minutes and change each.
I needed this. We needed this. It’s no wonder that the show is going out on AMC, who, at their best, were the kings of unfussy and concise TV made at a sensible budget by people with a genuine respect for the medium rather than a not-so-hidden desire to be making movies instead. Thank you, Interview with the Vampire. You’ve brought my smile back.
It should actually be said, following the theme of this newsletter by bravely condemning terrible men, that the vampire Lestat is a terrible, terrible monster whose evil should be confronted. I won’t let his gaslighting and gatekeeping go unnoticed. I see you, Lestat, and you make me think less of the people of France.
What a lovely moment for one of my favourite shows - one that has also been unencumbered by prestige TV fussiness and self-importance - to be coming back. We’ll hopefully pick things up with the new season of Industry, with its synergistically perfect stunt-casting of Kit Harington, next week. I can’t wait to learn more about cocaine and IPOs, two subjects about which I am - I promise - pretty uneducated.