4 Star

No Honour Amongst the Undead

A new series of Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire. The series is set in Rice’s (Mayfair Witches, The Vampire Chronicles) Immortal Universe (AMC), a shared setting with her other novels. This second series sees the introduction of Delainey Hayles (Holby City) as Claudia. We jump from the early 1900s to the ending of World War II, Europe. Created for the small screen by Rolin Jones (Weeds, Perry Mason (2020-23)) who tells the dark and deadly story of vampires that want to air their lives to an investigative journalist. There are plenty of sordid tales, back-biting and neck-biting, that will bring out the true story of Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson, Game of Thrones, Broadchurch), Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid, The Railway Man, ’71), Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian, Talk Radio, Uncut Gems), Armand (Assad Zaman, We Work for the Dead, Apple Tree Yard (TV Mini Series)) and the determined Claudia.

The scene across Europe has changed and Claudia leads Louis across Romania as the Nazi’s pull out and the Russians move in, but they are all food for Claudia, as she searches for old world vampires. Louis follows along, still wracked with the events of series one. They see the Russian soldiers with garlic bulbs around their necks (they aren’t garlic sellers), and on doorways along with crucifixes. Claudia’s mood picks up as she thinks they will soon meet Romanian vampires.

But things are not well in Romania, and Louis knows why, all the blood is tainted with the stench of war and the vampire they do find are not in the best of health. They witness a feral vampire sired by Daciana (Diana Gheorghian, Dark Ages, Raliul) who would rather not live in such a tainted World.

With Romania being cut up by the Russians and the war over, the pair decide to head to Paris, where they will remain for the period of the diaries. The story is told to Daniel Molloy, but this time Armand is in attendance, and he is playing a dangerous game with Louis, which causes a lot of friction in the interview. But Louis wants the facts to be right about their time in Paris with the Lestat de Lioncourt, a coven of vampires that put on shows for the humans, who are unaware they might be on the menu. Lead by Santiago (Ben Daniels, Rogue One, House of Cards (TV Series)), a vampire with a chip on his shoulder, and he thinks Louis knows more about the founders of the Théâtre, Armand and Lestat de Lioncourt.