#And I'm not too knowledgable on very old shid-

[clownsuu]

I imagined the Mob AU happening around the 50's at first, but I see some PCs and cellphones in other posts, so... Around when does the AU happens?

I was thinking about it for a while, however the mob au I think would be more in a "modern" timeline than a normal ol mafia timeline

[kutputli]

Episode 3 -

Oh my heart. I was going to just watch this for Armand you guys. Like, ironic watching. But Louis going to just going to piece me to the bone there. ( For people smugly gloating about how they have been raving about the show for eons yes sure ok, but also - this is more gore than I'm confortable with. I've been using the subtitles to keep my eyes from fully watching things, so if people are on the fence about it, might be helpful to provide gore trigger warnings.)

It's a bit hard to liveblog such lovely meaty episodes because I feel like going back to review everything that happened so I can go scene by scene. And its already 1 am. I'm vastly enjoying every Dubai interaction, but I wish I knew how I would feel about it if I wasn't spoiled to the gills with knowledge of where these people will end. Louis chides 'ruh-sheed' (so weird, like, living in Dubai with an almost entirely South Asian serving staff, to not pronounce it Raa-shid?) and Rashid does a pert little moue. He definitely comes across with a weird little vibe that is very different from the human staff. And canny old Daniel picked up on it in the very first episode with his ' so is he just a secretary or are you also fucking him' needling.

I do not think that those voice recordings are erased, especially because Daniel digitised them at home before he flew to Dubai.

But moving back to New Orleans.

I'm copying what I said in another reblog of this to quark -

I think I find Lestat's reaction weird because by now I too find Louis very attractive, but its his kindness and gentleness that engages me. Him with Lily moved me to so much affection. Whereas Lestat got turned on when he saw Louis snapping under stress and getting mad at his brother. That moment is not how Louis would want to be defined as, and it is not a characteristic enough moment to be representative of him. One could say that Louis was decieved, but I would rather say that he saw something desirable without bothering to find out if it was real. Oh, the angry Black man being physically violent to another Black man was what attracted you Lestat? Really? And you expect us to praise your discerning eye and sophisticated loins?

(The perceptive reader here will observe that I enter this viewing with a lot of preexisting animus towards Lestat. This is not a feature that will be changing in any way.)

And this episode cements this. Underlines it brutally. Lestat fell in lust with an entirely constructed image of Black masculinity, and at every fucking turn, Louis chooses gentleness. (aaaaaaa my heaaaaart)

I see you shoutout to Moonlight, but also - what a fundamental misunderstanding of even Louis' sexual desires, for Lestat to think he is attracted to loud, rough white soldiers, when what Louis was desiring was Black, familiar tenderness. That encounter was so gentle, so consensual, Louis even letting his friend know that he had a partner, that this was a negotiated infidelity. And then in some ways the even larger betreyal of not seeing what the Azalea and the business meant to Louis, how he is constantly thinking in terms of a community, how he keeps again and again aligning himself with using power for reform. (One could argue that one of the many betreyals that Armand did to Louis was to keep him numb in rarified Dubai when he could have channeled his grief in organising. Unless Louis is out there funding Hamas and Greta Thunberg... but even then, he clearly thrives in hands-on community work.)

Truly Lestat is the perfect modern white liberal, who never sees race, and only individualises every love, and therefore is incapable of achieving any soul-deep connection with a person of colour.

(You guys, this is why I didn't want to invest in this show. I have no desire for season 3 redemption of the brat prince.)

Does the show have Black writers? I'd love to read meta about how Black USAmericans feel about its portrayal of the time and place. It feels well done to me, and authentic without being trauma porn, but obviously I'm not the best judge.

Louis even places the gift boxes down so gently. Oh babe. It hurts my heart.

I have been bullied, outright bullied, I say, into finally watching Interview with the Vampire. Apparently Delhi boy Arun is the way to persuade me over my gore squick.

So three years late and several hours after the train has passed - my episode by episode live-blog. (These will probably be shallow reactions because I know all the meaty meta and analysis has already been written. I remember reading it back when I was an innocent parasocial of your gifsets.) Also, I am coming into this with a series of biases; I've been completely spoiled by way of seeing gifs, reading meta and going through the book summaries. This is also not my genre; I don't enjoy gothic or horror, I was never into the vampire mystique, and I learned vampire lore via Buffy and Angel fandoms back when. So I am predisposed to watch this for the specific angle of how to intersect with my friends' interest in the characters. Disclaimers out of the way...

Season 1 Episode 1 - Mmmm, I see what people say about the art direction. This is a very very beautiful show. Very deliberately staged historicity, very artfully selected colour palattes and design. I imagine watching it on a big TV would be rewarding (I'm on a laptop.) But actually, more than the quality of the design, I think what I am enjoying is the quality of the actors. Because I have been forewarned, I realise all the cast is serious scenery chewing theatre rats. But the energy they bring to their scene work is palpable even through the screen.

Louis for instance, is oddly not beautiful. I can think of several other actors who would look far more physically arresting. To be frank, I don't see what Lestat saw in him, that moment did not have an impact on me. But what Louis is, because of Jacob, is intensely watchable. He brings such commitment to the character that my admiration for the actor translates into sympathy for the character. And of course, the Theatre Voice. Absolutely A+ choice to choose Shakespeare trained actors to deliver what I imagine must be quotes from Anne Rice's original florid prose?

It's a dangerous risk to use that sort of of heightened textual narration, which can work on a page, to sit against the visuals we are already seeing. I remember how Good Omens season 1 did so much quoting from the book to disasterously flat effect. But it works here, and that is, I think, because Jacob delivers the lines with so much integrity to bringing us back to the Dubai penthouse as we watch the New Orleans scenes.

I really enjoyed Daniel Molloy, who I remember finding rather delightful in the gifs even before we all knew his importance and where he was headed. I love grumpy irascible characters and he's lovely at being surly and sardonic. And physically deteriorating and mundane and ordinary, which makes him such a good foil to -

my precious little murderboy Armand! I really do want to watch things unspoiled, so I carry some regret about going into this so very equipped with hindsight. But I did giggle as the very first vampiric contact we see is a cup of tea being placed by Unnamed Brown Guy hand in front of Daniel. That's the love of your life, dude! Give or take a few divorces and deaths. I was watching Assad very closely to see what choices he was making - if there were any clues to pick up on. He was pretty stoic during the hand burning.

But that silent service thing going on - that's definitely something that packs more of a punch if you imagine him learning that from childhood as a human. I've got all kinds of headcanons going on for him, which I've been discussing with @quark4561 and I think his backstory can be a heartbreaking foil to Louis's, in terms of service, and sex work, and segregation.

Speaking of race, I know much of the fandom adores Lestat, but I thought the great thing about casting Sam Reid, is that he isn't the kind of drop dead gorgeous version that Tom Cruise might have been (never seen the film) and so he comes across right from the very beginning as ordinary except for the priviledge of his power. We know already that his power is vampirism, but because of the casting choices, it also becomes the power of whiteness. Lestat isn't some idealised homosexual awakening for Louis, or at least, that wasn't the way I read it. Lestat uses money, whiteness, physical force and vampirical power to get to Louis, and that sets their relationship on a dark, abusive path from the get-go.

In contrast to this was Louis's relationship to Lily. I loved her and the gentleness of their bond. The needless cruelty of Lestat killing her (thankfully offstage, I do not need to see Black women murdered any more), hammers in that this is a person who is selfish and cruel (beyond the ordinary carnivorous murders that one expects of the vampiric genre).

I'm not sure I understood why Louis's brother killed himself. Were we supposed to believe Lestat fucked with his mind? Were the voices he heard a sign of suicidal delusions?

But seeing both of them hoofing together - and I am so glad we didn't see Lestat lurking about then, it was a Black wedding and needed to be closed to the community - was so moving. It made me feel Louis' love for Paul more than his monologue narration. I'm not Black or USAmerican, but I did feel that the Black experience of these characters was respected and integrated into the storytelling choices, from writing to casting to design to cinematography, in a way that really worked for me.

I'm looking forward to spending time with Louis and his assistant, and the grumpy old fart interviewing them.