I've been holding out on any criticism before I’ve seen all the episodes, so here are some final thoughts I have about the season before I go and enjoy the creative side of this fandom!
Though unfortunately I think the finale was a bit anticlimactic, I do think it was a good ending for the season they've been building. Which was an introspective view on Lestat as a character, and I truly think a very well-done character study. I know not everyone would agree with me on this, but for me this also extends to most of the rest of the characters.
You can argue that this wasn’t a good book adaptation, and I think this would need a whole different discussion about what makes a good adaptation. Because yes, if you wanted a more or less 1:1 adaptation with lots of flashbacks in the style of s1 & s2, then of course you'd be disappointed (which I think is totally fair if that's what you were hoping for). However, I appreciate it so much that they decided to mix it up for s3 and instead of reciting the story we already know, decided to explore some of the more underlying themes of the book like how art can be your undoing and what it needs to accept yourself and your trauma. I enjoy that they took that risk, and I think it mostly worked out for them.
Besides, I actually don’t think they did a lot of inventing things that weren’t in the books at all. What they're doing is non-linearly adapting the meat of 13 books, and if you really look at all these new storylines, you can actually find most of them in the source material (e.g., the long table and Lestat's concert for his victims gave me massive Memnoch the Devil vibes).
Personally, I've been hoping for more elaborate flashbacks too, but I understand why they handled them the way they did, and I also don’t think we've seen everything quite yet. I expect some revisiting of Lestat's past next season. I also think it makes a lot of sense what he chose to tell us so far or what he was forced to reveal. Lestat does a lot of repressing, and he's been very particular about what he's revealing about his past this season. I do think this might change for the next one.
Now for my criticism:
Gabrielle(/a):
I actually understand why they wrote her as they did, but I think there might’ve been a better way. Despite missing her genderqueerness, I really hoped they would show more of the bond between her and Lestat and the deep understanding they have for each other.
I'm glad that how they wrote her really enabled a wonderful journey for Lestat to come to terms with her grooming and his trauma; I'm just sad that we had to pay for that with her complexity. Because I do, to an extent, understand that mixing a potential trans storyline with her predatory behavior would’ve reflected badly on the trans community, but at the same time her trauma with her gender is so deeply interlinked with how she ends up treating Lestat. I understand that we're splitting this (IF we're doing her trans journey in future seasons), but once again, we’re unfortunately losing a lot of what makes her such a compelling character along the way. I know Rolin said there will eventually be a lot of reframing her character similar to Lestat this season but unfortunately she just doesn’t feel like the Gabrielle I know and love to me, and I don’t think you can just reverse that.
Nicki/Nickistat:
Listen, I get why Lestat doesn’t talk about him more than he does in the show, but their love story in the book moved me a lot, and I'm sad that we didn’t get a lot of it in the show. I also think this is one of the times where the writer’s approach to the season unfortunately didn’t work in their favor since I think Nicki's presence over the rest of the season didn’t have as much of an impact for the audience as it could've had.
The Wolves:
I can respect that they didn’t want us to be taken out of the story by horrible cgi wolves, but I just feel like we completely brushed over this very pivotal moment for Lestat. I needed them to give me a little more than that.
Armand:
I loved seeing scheming and gremlin Armand, and I didn’t mind that they were holding out on him over the season to build up suspense, but the reveal in ep7 felt like a little bit of a let down. I actually really enjoyed the idea of him using the stopping of the great conversion as a pretext for his own selfish reasons, but it came so suddenly that it really threw me off for a good second. I absolutely love that they brought up that the loumand relationship was very much toxic on both ends, but I would’ve liked to see a little more build-up to a scene as extreme as this. My main question is, when did Armand realize that Louis hurt him in this way when he hasn’t ever on screen realized that their dynamic was harmful to him? I'm not saying he's incapable of it; I just wish we would’ve seen this revelation unfold.
Anyways, I really hope we'll finally get to see more of Armand's backstory because he's starting to feel a little irredeemable for an audience that hasn’t read the books. I think they really need to start getting into his character in season 4, but with devil‘s minion on the horizon, I do have hope for it.
Other than that, there are mostly some small issues I have with the production in general. I think some of the flashbacks looked pretty cheap, but I blame that on their limited budget. But for the love of god, I need them to get better wigs next season, and I really hope they won’t go too crazy with the cgi because that last shot didn’t look great.
I really do also hope they’ll hire black writers again for s4, especially with Akasha being adapted as a black woman. Her character’s complexity needs to be handled with a lot of care, and I’ve been anxious about how they’ll be tackling her. Especially because I think the women on this show don’t have the best writing compared to the male cast (I’m not saying it’s awful, but it’s definitely only in okay-ish territory for me and has always been).
All in all, it was certainly not the season I expected but still one I very much enjoyed! While I preferred the narrative frame and Louis' narration in iwtv, I don’t think it would’ve been the right choice to go the safe route and copy it for tvl. Personally, I think they really nailed Lestat's character and the tonal shift of the books. My main issue with the season overall might be that it feels more of a prologue to qotd than a strong story on its own, and I wished they would’ve tied up at least some of the loose threads from this season. It was definitely a bold move to not let s3 end on the concert and Akasha's kidnapping of Lestat, but I agree that it wouldn’t have been a fitting ending for the emotional journey they've crafted.
Adding 1-2 more episodes would’ve probably helped a lot with some of the pacing issues. I truly hope the industry will get over their phase of shortening seasons of tv while prolonging the production time because two years for seven episodes is insane.
I also think the strength of the show's writing has always been in the character work and not so much in the handling of the lore, but to be fair, this is a tough job when you look at the source material anyway. Going forward, I expect a duality in quality, which is good writing of the characters and weaker writing of the plot. And that'd be okay with me. I don’t read Anne Rice for her world-building either.
Shout out if you stayed through my ramblings till the end, and if you think I‘m glazing this season then so be it because I do truly think it was a very good piece of television that has its strength in complex storytelling and sparking conversations, which I think is such a wonderful thing to have in times like these.
I will now try to ignore all the doom posting and parasocial activity and hope this fandom keeps creating and sharing all this beautiful art <3
P.S.: I have absolutely no worries about devil‘s minion and think they set them up perfectly for season 4, both for the modern storyline and potential flashbacks. Past dm is real, Daniel is alive, Armand has had some revelations about what he needs in a partnership, and rn the two are in a fucked up, one-sided love, both-sided self-serving relationship that is SOOO juicy to explore. So yeah. Can’t wait (I also believe they'll definitely show us some of the left-out scenes from this season in s4)
