IWTVL S3 Musings: Reviews (Backlog - Spoilers!)
I wasn't able to finish reading all the reviews before 3x1 aired (GENERAL: Pt1a | Pt1b / SPOILERS: Pt2a | Pt2b | Pt2c); so some of my response are pre-watch and some are post-watch. Reviewers I read this time are: awardswatch, comicbook, forbes, indiewire, inverse, joblo, movieweb, rogerebert, and screenrant.
The Failures & Akasha ๐
Unreliable Narrators Abound ๐งข
Daniel Molloy, may you never be reincarnated as a lotus blossom.
The flashbacks are "perhaps the only objective part of the story"
๐คจ That can't possibly be true. That literally makes no sense.
We already know that perspective/subjectivity are central to the whole premise of the show. This is LESTAT'S story, but that doesn't make what he's seeing/thinking objective truth. Just take Lioncest: I'm positive that Lestat would have a very different version of what was going on in that house than Gabrielle would, if she were to tell HER story. And don't even get anyone started on Nicki & Armand. ๐ Cuz I'm sure they'd HEAVILY disagree with Lestat on certain things about them. (I'm not even talking about Armand's fanfiction, just in general.)
The Failures are from Lestat's POV, using his voice-over, and there's Daniel's documentary following Lesatt around. But then who the heck is giving us the POV of Louis butchering Bruce? ๐ค Or the DM park bench scenes that got leaked?
So again, since I already asked this reading the other reviews: WHOSE POV are we actually seeing things through when it's NOT Lestat?
For S2 the main word reviewers used was "Petty." This time it's "Messy."
"Lestat's songs...are better than they need to be."
That's why I'm like even though I hate half his songs so far, the sheer EFFORT that AMC put into them just for a tv show is nuts. That concert was crazy.
๐ฑHe's burning himself ON PURPOSE?! ๐ฑ Is this the 3x5 song people said made them cry?!
"Such a strong focus could risk the rest of the cast becoming vestigial or oriented around him"
So even they agree Daniel does eff all, compared to Louis & Armand.
"Louis is both the answer and the question"
LDPDL, the character that you are~! ๐ฅฐ๐ค
Ok, Side B of The Failures is Louis' story, I see.
"He aches with a wound that won't heal and that he keeps pouring salt into""Twisted attempts"
The Merrick of it all, yes. Esp. since the Talamasca are even scummier on AMC than they are in the books--so if she's working in cahoots with the likes of Raglan (wtF is he doing at that Auction?!)...ICK. ๐คข And if she tries to screw him over like she did in the books heaven help us. ๐คฆโโ๏ธ
Like I keep saying, IDGAF who lied--the CORE victim in The Unholy Family is Claudia. She should've killed WAY more people. My daughter can do no wrong, even when she's wrong! ๐ค
AMC!GabriellA ๐คฆโโ๏ธ
It's like every other reviewer DRAGS GabriellA for her accent, yikes. ๐
Consistent that Gabriella directly feeds into Lestat's cycles of abuse towards Louis--we been knew, ofc.
The incest is one thing--I loved Game of Thrones. But this OOC characterization is gonna make my skin crawl, I can feel it. ๐คข
And it flies in the face of everyone talking all that garbage about how vampires are monsters and don't have morals so we shouldn't judge them based on human standards let problematic characters be problematic this isn't The Abuse Show~! BULL. CRAP.
Jeeze. Tell us how you REALLY feel, Inverse!? ๐
"With the exception of Armand. His love Lestat categorically rejects."
It's wild that several reviewers agree that Daniel had eff all to in S3--despite Ebogo saying he told Rolin to give him MORE to do. ๐คจ
"Omniscience" and omnipotency ["godlike powers"] are 2 different things....
But yes, I think I read somewhere that there are new powers in shown in S3, too, IDER?
"It does come across at times like the show is trying to have its cake and eat it too."
Trust, that's already abundantly clear, reading a dozen+ reviews. That if you love it you love it; but the second you start thinking analytically the writing flaws become more apparent. It doesn't make for a bad show by any means, it's just something to take notice of.
And that the book purists are gonna have the biggest problem, if they set their expectations too high--which is very telling (Rolin carting that beat-up copy of TVL everywhere was a whole gag):
I'm so bummed that we won't get more flashbacks a la S1 - S2. The rockstar stuff in the present was what I was looking forward to the least. I already saw QotD; I like that RockStat's music WAY more--I wanted AUVERGNE, ffs. ๐ญ
I can already tell that the non-linear storytelling and the frenetic/discombobulated pace of the first 2eps is gonna lose people, regardless of whether they're book fans or not. It's not even about attention spans or media literacy or any other condescending AF nastiness Lestans wanna make it out to be. It goes back to the expectations people have--as zany as the INTRO to book!TVL was, it's NOT non-linear or coked out. Sure, Lestat has a different voice from Louis, but it's still ANNE'S voice. People were already mad about the titles just being locations and not book quotes. So the book purists are gonna have a HARD time.
Then there's just the bar Rolin set in 1x1. That was the best tv pilot in decades, hands down. I know a lot of people thought 2x1 was too slow; but now it's flipped in 3x1 where it's too fast. So yeah, ofc 1x1 is gonna live rent free in people's minds & hearts. It is what it is. That doesn't mean 3x1 is BAD, just that 1x1 was PEAK. ๐ค๐
This MovieWeb reviewer did NOT have a good time with S3. ๐ฌ I like the way they broke it all down though (Story, Performance, Execution, Entertainment).
Don't tell that to Kim Granito & AMC's trash marketing dept. ๐๐
Thereโs also been a little bit of confusion about The Vampire Lestat. While the series is technically the 3rd season of an existing television show, itโs also being treated as an entirely separate entity. This has led to some question about where exactly the story fits in the overall Interview With the Vampire timeline and, perhaps more importantly, if newcomers to the story really need to watch S1 & S2 first.
"And whose fault is that, I wonder? Repeat the name~?!" ๐ก๐ข
But yeah, I'm seeing pretty consistent overall reviews across the board.