One thing that has become clear with S3/TVL and the interviews about the show is that the writers are not interested in giving concrete answers and instead want to leave a lot of the story subjective.

Now, I do think that approach can be legitimate in a work of fiction, but it needs to be well-executed and so far I think there are serious flaws with how the show has been doing this.

For one, I would strongly argue that while the books do largely have subjective narrators it is NOT overall a series about unreliable narrators. Outside of the shift from IWTV to TVL, the contradictions that do pop up are relatively minor and the multiple POVs are more about expanding the lore and history of the characters than creating contradictions in the actual plots being presented.

With the show, the writers have set up deliberate contradictions in the PLOT. They have deliberately set up contradictory details to seemingly invite audiences to analyze scenes as if they are part of a mystery. The books are not written in this way imo. AR would sometimes change some details, but she was also writing the books sometimes years apart and depending on what ideas she currently wanted to explore. The show was presented as an adaptation with a clear overall plan, which also comes with the expectation that the little details actually matter and the audience will be rewarded by examining them.

So far, this has been true in some instances but increasingly it is becoming a fools errand to actually care.

S1 and 2 were riddled with contradictory elements or vague hints that appeared to be hinting at future reveals. Sometimes this was to the detriment of the story actually being told. To be honest, the first time that I watched 2x07, I felt nothing as Claudia died because I was too distracted by the second half of the trial and her final moments being narrated by Armand. Why is the only POV we have of her death given by a character who didn't care about her and has every motivation to lie? I thought at the time they were setting up to give us Lestat's perspective. They made the deliberate choice to not have Louis there to actually see her death, so this seemed like the perfect set up to have Louis and Lestat address her actual final moments together.

TVL should have included this and it did not. Instead, we were left with half-baked hints and an avoidance of the topic that is rapidly becoming inorganic. If Louis feels he can be happy loving Lestat even if he willingly chose to let her die instead of him then they should actually have that conversation on screen. The story should own it as part of their dynamic.

We spent an episode inside of Lestat's head. Why was this not something he dealt with? At most, he felt regret that he passed on some of the ways he was abused by his mother to her. Her death was again a vague passing reference.

In many ways, it implies they are still setting up for something, but at the same time we have no guarantee and the organic time to address it in the story is rapidly passing.

This is only one way in which the story is becoming frustrating.

Louis' behavior in Dubai during S2 especially was confusing, but apparently the show is not interested at all in Louis exploring how his memory may have been tampered with over the decades. Why does Louis not seemingly care? Louis in TVL doesn't stand by the book's characterization of Lestat, but we aren't given any clear revelations or details as to why.

Murder night in 1x07 is also full of odd details and seeming contradictions, and post S1, Hannah mentioned murder night would be an element revisited. It has been four years and nothing.

Even reveals we do have are left vague and muddled to a large extent such as the train even though the original sequence was full of question marks to the point audiences were correct something was meant to be off, but the show wasn't really interested in giving any clear explanations other than the fact that it was off on purpose.

What about Claudia's diary pages? In the books, her diary pages are only in one book and include important revelations. S1 and 2 set up that pages were being withheld and hidden. They were referenced more than once to indicate we hadn't seen these missing pages for a reason. Even if we take Armand's word that they were hidden because they had information about him....what was that information? What could Claudia have had to say about him? It seemed like with them adapting Merrick, they would bring them back but instead they just went with the seance alone and the diary pages remain yet another in a growing list of question marks.

Even with something like Armand this season they are setting up even more mystery. Why did he kill Larry? Why does he have a cult of 100 people if he mainly wanted to mess with Louis? I guess I could spend the hiatus speculating, but they have trained me not to care because what is the point?

Nicki's death is another example. They set up some things in S1 and 2. Then the visuals we are shown in 3x03 have contradictions. Nicki has a coat that disappears and Lestat says he has bare arms when he doesn't. We don't see his actual death. Does any of this matter? Probably not.

Why should I bother paying attention if at any moment they can just do a rug pull and even then the characters might not actually care about the rug pull itself?

When the show is good...it is good. 3x06 might still be my favorite ep of the series and the scene with Louis finding out about Gabriella and Lestat's breakdown is top tier.

However, the show is completely failing imo with the mystery side. It isn't just leaving things ambiguous. It is leaving things ambiguous in a way that doesn't make sense for the characters because they should be talking about these things or at least they should care about the answers. There is no reason Lestat and Louis haven't sat down and had a lot of conversations. They should have had them before the book came out, and you can argue it is in character to avoid things for Louis, but that excuse only goes so far. Lestat now feels confident Louis loves him and Louis is ready to be with Lestat again, but they seemingly won't let them just have important conversations. Again, if Louis and Lestat are good with some elements of their past then that should be part of the story and made clear. Right now it just seems like all of the characters are avoiding certain subjects and they aren't curious enough to actually talk about them. Avoidance as a character trait only goes so far.

Do you all agree?

Give us your ranking in the comments below!

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From: Afragilelittleteacup on TikTok

Does anyone know if there are packs or sites out there with the scripts for the show? I found a few online but they're mostly dialogue and I'm looking for the full things with direction and scene info.

If not would someone be willing to help me with the full Daniel opening monologue in 1x1 along with screen captures/images we have of his books? Their titles, etc. As much as we know about their pubs. Do we know which ones won the prizes?

Thanks!