Elizabeth Minkel

Our August special episode is out, and you guessed it.... ✨🩸✨🩸✨

This one features @hellotailor AND @flourish (and @elizabethminkel as usual lol):

Much like the opening pages of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, the new season of the show formerly known as Interview with the Vampire immediately punches you in the face with a wild new tone—one perhaps best summarized as LESTAT. Fresh off recapping TVL for Fansplaning, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw joins Elizabeth and Flourish to discuss the season. Topics covered include that notable tone shift, audience expectations and the writers’ somewhat combative approach to storytelling, and specific elements like Gabriella’s presentation, Lestat’s music, and the Regina storyline. And, as you probably could have guessed, despite promising non-book-reader Gav not to talk too much about The Vampire Chronicles, Elizabeth and Flourish continue to do so, with a focus on the season’s unorthodox approach to adaptation.

Special episodes are available to Benefactor- and Champion-tier subscribers, or you can purchase one-off access to any individual ep. As always, our audio comes with a full human-written transcript!

‘Before the people’ , Peck Lake, Algonquin Park - Marten Visser , 2025.

Dutch , b. 1968 -

Blooming chamomile at night - Cor van Loenen

Dutch, b. 1942 -

As Lestat’s childhood flashbacks move through his adolescence to young adulthood, we’re given hint after hint that the family has fallen on hard times, mirrored by his father’s increasing infirmity, and the rest of his family succumbing to various illnesses. “We see less staff in the house,” production designer Andres Cubillan explains. “We see the food getting simpler. Even the china on the table. We go from a very sort of elaborate multi-piece setting, you know, crystal glassware, silverware, and that starts getting reduced. So you start feeling like they’re really impoverished in their sort of ridiculous aristocracy.”