Streaming services are so stuffed with TV shows that it can get overwhelming. Inevitably, you’ll miss some hidden gems, especially if they’re not on a mainstream platform. Now, in a unique deal, a collection of shows that would otherwise be difficult to access will be added to one of the biggest streamers, including the best vampire show of 2022. But it’s only sticking around for two months, so get ready to binge.
Interview With the Vampire had been available on the relatively obscure AMC+, but thanks to a partnership with Max, it will now be available to Max users during September and October. This provides a huge new audience for the show and good advertising for AMC+, while still giving Max new content. In fact, Vulture reports that no money changed hands in the deal, because it’s considered mutually beneficial.
The deal includes other spooky shows appropriate for fall, like Fear the Walking Dead. Interview With the Vampire is an odd standout given that the original movie adaptation, starring a vampiric Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, is streaming on Paramount+. But the AMC+ remake treats the source material as a first draft to tweak as it sees fit.
For starters, the series reinvents its characters. Louis Pont de Lac, previously a plantation owner, is now a wealthy Black man played by Game of Thrones’ Jacob Anderson who owns brothels in early 20th century New Orleans.
In another notable change, Interview With the Vampire declares that subtext is for cowards. In the movie, the relationship between Louis and Lestat, the vampire who turns him, had homoerotic undertones. Even if those themes were pretty obvious, you still had to read between the lines. The TV show, however, has no qualms about upping the intensity of their relationship, even showing an HBO-caliber love scene in the first episode.
AMC may be adding a slew of new content to Max, but if you only have time to watch one series, make it Interview With the Vampire. It’s fun, inventive, and progressive without being revisionist. Most importantly, it’s a true-blue vampire story down to the fangs and the coffins.
