I wanted to watch Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire hoping to enjoy, (finally), an adaptation that does justice to Anne's great novel. Instead I got a vampire show that borrows from her novel.
First, the positive, Sam Reid, Bailey Bass, and Jacob Anderson are good, the show has good production values, and direction is solid from episodes 4 trough episode 7.
However, all the main characters are miscast as Lestat, Claudia and Louis; in this aspect the TV show mirrors the 1994, and 2002 films. Both projects failed with the age of the characters, but the TV show unnecessarily also changes race, (Louis, Claudia), for the sake of inclusion.
Also, a complete change of time-period, events, characters, sexuality elements, and dialogue that never occurred in the original source. Which, to be fair, is not new in these kind of vehicles - see, CW's The Vampire Diaries.
To make it very clear, this TV show uses Anne Rice's brand as a hook not as an homage. This product is a different creature made by different creators who didn't bother to try to faithfully adapt the main story. They didn't set themselves to honor Anne's tale, instead they went and built on top of her best work, and the result is a lesser product.
No doubt, Anne and her son Christopher probably got paid handsomely.
Is it a bad show? No, it's not. In fact it is a good vampire show.
However, that's the real shame - why would anyone just want to make a good show? Why don't just be faithful to the source and aim for greatness instead?
I guess is a good thing Anne didn't got to watch it.
With another title and different character names this show; in my book, is an easy 8 - however, the mislead brings a bitter taste, and for that I can't force myself to give more than a 6.
Just a missed opportunity.
First, the positive, Sam Reid, Bailey Bass, and Jacob Anderson are good, the show has good production values, and direction is solid from episodes 4 trough episode 7.
However, all the main characters are miscast as Lestat, Claudia and Louis; in this aspect the TV show mirrors the 1994, and 2002 films. Both projects failed with the age of the characters, but the TV show unnecessarily also changes race, (Louis, Claudia), for the sake of inclusion.
Also, a complete change of time-period, events, characters, sexuality elements, and dialogue that never occurred in the original source. Which, to be fair, is not new in these kind of vehicles - see, CW's The Vampire Diaries.
To make it very clear, this TV show uses Anne Rice's brand as a hook not as an homage. This product is a different creature made by different creators who didn't bother to try to faithfully adapt the main story. They didn't set themselves to honor Anne's tale, instead they went and built on top of her best work, and the result is a lesser product.
No doubt, Anne and her son Christopher probably got paid handsomely.
Is it a bad show? No, it's not. In fact it is a good vampire show.
However, that's the real shame - why would anyone just want to make a good show? Why don't just be faithful to the source and aim for greatness instead?
I guess is a good thing Anne didn't got to watch it.
With another title and different character names this show; in my book, is an easy 8 - however, the mislead brings a bitter taste, and for that I can't force myself to give more than a 6.
Just a missed opportunity.