‘Interview with the Vampire’ is the best recently released gay-themed series

When Anne Rice wrote the classic ‘Interview with the Vampire’, published in 1976, she did not plan to establish any homosexual subtext under the friendship and dependency relationship between its protagonists, the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt and the mortal Louis de Pointe du Lac. However, the author found among her readers a large number of gay fans who did give that interpretation to the work. She, surprised at first, He later embraced this way of seeing his book, understanding the reasons that linked his text with the LGTBQ+ communitysuch as the importance of identity, marginalization, nightlife or forbidden sexuality, elements present in its history that could be extrapolated to other contemporary realities.

That is why it makes all the sense in the world that, even if it was not intentional, that gay subtext of the original work would come to the fore in its most recent adaptation, the AMC+ series that premiered a few months ago and which we can shamelessly crown as the best recent gay-themed series. And not only for the fact of making explicit what was always hidden, but for the quality of its proposal in general, with an exquisite setting, magnetic interpretations and an intelligent script both in the advancement of the plot and in its proposal of topics to be discussed. , as well as in the readaptation of history to give it a new entity. For the most purists of ultra-faithful adaptations, it may not be a tasteful dish, but good series lovers, this series is essential.

Even the modifications of the original plot are designed so that whoever knows the starting text understands the winks and the reasons for the changes. For example, if in Anne Rice’s novel Louis told his story to a young interviewer in the seventies, now we are witnessing a new meeting between the two, with the older journalist and Louis wanting to tell, this time, his whole story and true. Thus, like the book, the series starts from that interview that gives it its title and where the now vampire, Tired of his existence, he recalls his past and the good and bad things he has experienced, his crimes and his romances.. And, of course, to understand her story, her relationship with Lestat, the vampire who turned her, is key.

Nor is the choice of Jacob Anderson (whom you will put a face like Gray Worm from ‘Game of Thrones’) as Louis in trivial. Indeed, the character has changed color, but it has been consciously: in this fiction, Louis is a businessman from New Orleans at the beginning of the 20th century, a city hostile to black people, especially against those who try to hold power and gain a foothold among the elites. Even more so if it is suspected that he may be homosexual. So, the change of context cannot be accused of forced inclusion, quite the contrary; gives a layer to the series to develop the theme of racism which was already present in Rice’s work.

Along with Anderson we find an absolutely hypnotic and seductive Sam Reid (‘The Newsreader’) in his role as a vampire who makes a poor man fall into his web. An explosive chemistry arises between the two in both the sex scenes and the jealousy scenes. and other impulses that move them to hate and love each other. What they offer far exceeds (and I’m sorry because this is going to hurt) what we saw between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in the ‘Interview with the Vampire’ in 1994, a tape that seen now falls quite short. Seeing now this television version, with the bond between the two protagonists crystallized as a love relationship without ifs and buts, it is hard to believe that these vampires have not been openly homosexual all their lives. Anne Rice understood this and joked that Louis and Lestat were the first gay couple to adopt, just as she always wanted her novel to be adapted into a series again. She did not get to see it finished, but his son Christopher is there to protect his legacy, being one of the executive producers of the series with, among others, Alan Taylor (‘Game of Thrones’), who directs several episodes. .

‘Interview with the Vampire’ is an explosion of sex and gore and everything that could be asked of an adaptation of a mythical work: respectful as well as courageous, well produced and with ideas to expand its universe.

I was born on Wisteria Lane, I was a roommate with Hannah Horvath, and ‘Chicago’ drove me crazy because Roxie Hart is me. I have a sharp tongue, but, as Lola Flores said, “they had to give me a grant for happiness.”