Thinking through what we've seen so far in TVL in anticipation of the finale, my big complaint is that hardly anything has happened.
IWTV set up questions AND ANSWERED THEM!!!
S1: How did Louis become a vampire? Answered in the first episode, with a more metaphorical answer provided by the end of the season (anger and internalized shame from trying to live in a racist and homophobic world).
S2: Are there other vampires (and do they all suck)? Answered in the first episode. with a more metaphorical answer provided by the end of the season (yes, because cycles of trauma are hard to break and love, while necessary, isn't enough).
The season finales set up new questions, but they answered ones that had already been set up (what's up with Real Rashid, what happened to Claudia, what is Armand hiding, who are the Talamasca?)
The question at the opening of this season was how the characters can move forward after the things they've done to each other and suffered themselves? Everyone is at a crossroads. Daniel's been made a vampire and abandoned. Louis is freshly divorced, hated by other vampires, and briefly united with Lestat. Armand is alone after violating his decision to never create another vampire, forced out of his cycle of following the person who ended his last situation/relationship into his next one. We know less about Lestat -- as far as we're concerned, he's been sad in a dilapidated house until he was reunited with Louis, but does that spur him forward?
And the answer is ..... Lestat's a rock star! Also, incest! And that's it for most of the season, seances and AA aside. It's just a cycle of Lestat being stuck, evolving musically, and realizing he has Gabriella trauma.
I don't hate that the season initially has everyone fall back on old coping mechanisms that we've already seen (i.e., journalism and drugs, ritual and public self-flagellation, Claudia and capitalism, and Gabriella and performance). BUT that should have been where is started, not where we still were through episode 5. This season feels like it should end with The Concert, launching us into QoTD, where, notably, characters are working together and need to have progressed from where we are now. Imagine if we got to see that happen onscreen... (LET ME SEE ARMAND REALIZE HE CARES ENOUGH ABOUT DANIEL TO ACT FOR ONCE) I wish episode 6 was earlier in the season and we didn't have the auction as a framing device, leaving what is currently Lestat's narration of the recent past as a non-narrated present. I'd like to see more of Lestat's past -- I do like the way he finds himself forced to confront his memories more honestly as the season progresses -- and more interactions with other characters.
I also don't know where this season is going thematically. If the finale focuses on the QoTD hints that have been dropped, I don't know how you get the characters there. Not enough growth has been set up for their collective retreat to Night Island to feel earned. On the other hand, not enough dysfunction has been set up for Night Island to feel like a wakeup call. On the other other hand, if the finale focuses on the character relationships, then I have no idea what the end of the last episode was about and it just feels petty with the whole vampire apocalypse slow rolling in the background. I am very much hoping to make an "I was so wrong" post on Sunday, but I am finding that I'm not sure I still trust the writers to pull this off. This season has hinted at too much while doing to little.
