If trying to watch a show with my mom has taught me anything, it’s that audiences can miss things easily (or interpret them very differently if we’re being grown up about it)
The Vampire Lestat is the perfect example. My mom read the books back in the 90s because she saw the movie and LOVED Brad Pitt as Louis. She has had a hard time watching AMC’s IWTV because Jacob Anderson is not Brad Pitt and she also thinks changing the race of a character destroys the book (note here for internet judgey people, my mother is not racist but is very things are a set way and that’s what you should work with. She can change her opinion but it takes a LOT of discussion and reference points).
I asked her to watch the first episode of The Vampire Lestat with me anyway because she was never happy with Tom Cruise as Lestat and I was hoping she’d enjoy it without the hurdle of a movie comparison. Good News, she said Sam Reid is Lestat. Full Stop. Bad News, she missed like everything else. She didn’t understand the plot structure, telling a story after events have happened. She didn’t understand that TVL is Lestats perspective and story. She didn’t remember the details of the books that Rolin has set as his foundations. She only made it halfway through before she was like eh. There is more but I am still reeling. I am not optimistic.
I do however, now understand how people can make some of the crazy ass takes I have seen floating around on the internet. Of this show and others.
So next time you’re absolutely appalled by someone’s take on something, remember my mother, take a breath, and maybe slow your roll.















