A century-old vampire from New Orleans reunites with an ailing journalist to recount his life of bloodlust and his tumultuous relationship with the rakish Frenchman who turned him.
Rated 5.0 / 5 from 1 log on Katalog
I resisted watching this one, mostly because I have a long standing and particular hate for Anne Rice’s brand of melodramatic, self-serious romance pulp. With the benefit of age, I admit that a lot of it may be undeserved—and melodramatic—but that the books are nevertheless, not for me. Watching the film (the one with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, the gayest “the actor wasn’t told this was gay and still somehow gave this performance” movie since Top Gun) only confirmed it. And I was wrong. W r o n g. The show is fantastic, and it owes everything to Sam Reid, Eric Bogosian and Assad Zaman. Jacob Anderson is great too, but Sam carried the show. His brand of pathetic, hysterical melodrama is tailor made for a show like this, and he really gives it his all, chews every piece of scenery and then some—but manages to keep the occasional bit of serious acting restrained. Occasionally. More often he’s hootin’ and hollerin’, moaning and bitching, hamming it up with glee. Bogosian is a fantastic cynical elder queer, who delivers his quippy dialogue so well, he gives it legitimacy it often lacks. And Assad is just dream casting, plays maniacal, autistic neediness completely straight, while also being the most gorgeous man you’ve ever seen, typically looks like the smartest guy in any room he’s in, and manages to screw himself up every chance he gets. Is it a good show? I don’t know. Probably? Probably not? It’s an adaptation of a book series I genuinely dislike, and while it’s a faithful adaptation, it improves it on every level. The show runners and the script writers really knew how to make the best of it, what to cut and change and what to keep—And all the while keep this tone of genuinely awful people doing genuinely awful things, and being miserable and bitter about it. It’s not anyone’s idea of high art but it’s funny and makes some genuinely interesting choices, and the showrunners made it with their whole chest. It takes a bit to get into it, granted, but once it gets you, you’re gotten. Series three is out now, and it’s the best one yet. I don’t know what they did to Sam Reid to get this much chaotic bisexual queen energy out of him—I suspect hypnosis and or blackmail were involved—but I’m here for it.
