Carmilla: The Series, Reviewed

If you binge Season 2 into an afternoon, you quickly get accustomed to it, but more than a few times, Elise Bauman’s hair and makeup were perfection. Not that she needs a whole lot of help looking beautiful, but she spent quite a lot of time looking just dreamy. 

I finally understood what I haven’t in a year and a half. 

Carmilla is a fully cognizant person. She is not evil because her vampirism corrupts her soul. She has lived centuries, living with and loving monsters as family, doing unspeakable acts and being allowed decades to understand their purpose, learning how people are and knowing how they will be for the rest of their lives. She cares little for casual friends because she’s lost thousands and has grown numb to their influence. She clings desperately to her passing loves because they are the only ones who can give her a brief surge of emotion. Her low moments last decades, her high moments a lifetime. 

She is not the way she is because she’s a vampire—a vampire in particular, that is. Rather she is the way she is because she’s an immortal. Hers is the one of many tales of an immortal human. 

You ever hate that you know two characters so well? 

I loved every second, every breath, every pause of Carmilla and Laura’s discussion about why their relationship imploded. I can’t remember any of the words because, damn, the meanings behind the words were so perfect. For Carmilla love is an addiction and for Laura it’s a choice, and there’s just no meeting in a middle when you love on different planes. 

Okay, so I do remember these words: “like someone cut a hole in me”. That captures so much the irrationality, the stupidity, the danger of love. But love is a fact of life, sometimes saving people, sometimes gutting them.