it’s my opinion

NYT critic really tore into TVL 😭 thank god for this bcs all the reviews glazing the show was making me feel insane

Please watch this interview with Alan Taylor, the director of the show pilot, and now the director of TVL finale, and you'll get how it's not just the actors who seem to have a problem with Rolin Jones' vision, but also the directors.

Alan is complimentary of all the actors, but in particular Assad. He said something about the Rolin Jones Final Cut of the season finale and how it's more chaotic as opposed to his vision which was more romantic. He’s very clear that his episode was drastically changed and that he barely recognized the final product. He even seemed a bit angry at one point, and insisted that this was not the case for the show pilot where only one scene was changed a bit. He said one of his favorite scenes was a long closeup shot of Assad and that he LOVED it…but it was cut.He said that close up of Assad made him realize that he is one of the greatest actors he's ever witnessed.

Sam and Jacob for TV Insider!

Personally I am VERY critical of the season as a whole, especially episodes 6 and 7. I am critical of the writers, including Rollins who is present in this interview, and the decisions they made that led to the way this season reads overall. So I went into this video fully expecting to find people's analysis validated in the light of that. But in actuality, I'm startled by just how much I've seen taken out of context and misinterpreted.

For example: I've seen people say that Zaman putting his hands up and saying "Let's leave it at that" after the interviewer praises the season is evidence that he was uncomfortable and wanted to avoid talking any further about it; in the same moment, Delainey makes a kind of humorous expression that people have interpreted as her being unable to hide her belief that this season actually sucks, so she's laughing at the idea that it's "the best season of television" (paraphrasing the interviewer here).

But if you actually watch the video it's clear, at least to me, that the joke with Assad isn't "actually the season sucks, let's not talk about it". It's hard for me to explain in words what I think the joke ACTUALLY is, but it's something like, responding to a compliment by being like "You're praising us, we can just stop there, interview over we heard everything we needed to hear!" . You know? I promise it makes more sense in the actual video; the fact that I'm having trouble putting it into proper context is exactly why I think people need to see it for themselves! Similarly, Delainey looking at Jones when the interviewer praises their work doesn't read as her failing to contain her poker face or whatever, it just looks like she's looking to him for a reaction like "Ooh, high praise!".

There are other examples too that I'm not going to go into too deeply because it would take too long. But briefly, here's some that I've seen talked about a lot in a way that I think misrepresents what actually happens in the video. Obvious disclaimer that I'm doing some interpreting myself here, but I'm trying to stick to what is actually shown on the screen and not what I think about what's happening in anyone's heads:

Moscovitch says she doesn't know how much of Louis' 'apology' to Armand was genuine because he was under duress. I've seen people frame that as her claiming Louis is unreliable, but to me it seemed more like a genuine acknowledgment that Louis was having this apology tortured out of him. People have said that Anderson immediately defends Louis against her - but actually, the conversation continues for a while until he circles back to it and says that although Louis was under duress, he feels it was genuine. There's no indication that he's upset or angry here any more than there was any indication that Moscovitch thinks Louis is a liar.

People have claimed that Delainey "didn't want to talk about Regina", but Delainey answers multiple questions about her.

Jones talking about why Louis apologised to Armand did come off a little iffy to me, but it's because I think it was a very poor writing decision that led to the season demonizing Louis unnecessarily rather than having him 'take accountability', not because I think Jones felt xyz way or was behaving in xyz way. There's no evidence that Jones was gleefully punishing Louis on purpose. But there is evidence that for whatever reason, he and the other writers thought that Louis hadn't taken enough accountability for what he did to Claudia. Which I personally think is dogshit, but that's another conversation... Here's the full dialogue: JONES: "I think it's extraordinary, after a season, maybe me and you can say, aggressively naval-gazing, and being involved in your stuff, that these words come out of your mouth… to the least, in theory, deserving person… That you go "Wait, is there some part of me, of what I did in my life, that made this guy not only separate my head but play a long game with this person? To try to, like… I clearly must have something to do with that." And that he offers up this… Especially after the seance, and all the like, "I've got work to do", that's the beginning of real work. When we talked about this season for Louis, we were like, you did put him in a graceful place, and a place that he had moved, but we kept thinking about the dress on the wall. And we were all in the room going, "No, nope. You don't get off that easy." ANDERSON: It's like, that's Louis' way, in a small way, of like, "The fault was mine*" or like, some kind of accountability. *Context note: this is a reference to the way that (as previously discussed in the video) Lestat saying 'the fault was mine' at the very end is supposed to be him finally, truly, actually taking accountability.

The actors don't look like they're being held at gunpoint to be here. They look like they're listening to what's being said. You can't assume that they're "using PR speak to say what they really feel without saying it" - that is mind-reading. I completely understand why people want to believe this things, believe me! But you just can't know any of that, and it's not helpful to anyone to insist otherwise. Same with assuming that anyone in the room is feeling sad, angry, or resentful because they're not actively smiling and laughing at any given moment, or trying to interpret what it means when a cast member looks to another cast member, or assuming you know how they feel about Jones and Moscovitch.

Even assuming you know how Jones and Moscovitch feel about this season or why they wrote what they wrote, or how aware or ignorant they were of the racism that they ended up portraying, is folly. You do not know. You can make assumptions, but that's all you can make. Assuming that Jones personally hates Louis or Jacob Anderson because of the way Louis is written this season is, again, not something you can know, and neither is literally anything else about how these people think or feel in their own private lives or minds.

I'm not saying don't be angry. I'm not saying that anyone is excused from the impact of their writing/directing/production decisions - I've talked relentlessly about how antiblack, racist, queerphobic, and outright nonsensical and unpleasant to watch this season has been, and I do believe Jones and Moscovitch and whoever the fuck else bear responsibility for that. But I don't think it's helpful to approach this situation, especially the video we see here, with a mindset of "I know exactly how everyone involved here thinks and feels about the decisions that were made here, and I can judge them based off of that". Reserve your anger and your judgment for the things we do and CAN know (the actual outcome and impact of the season), not what you think you can interpret or intuit about a bunch of strangers in an interview.