((Why is this YA? Technically it’s not. But in all my experiences most people who dove into the Anne Rice depths started reading her books in their teens. In fact both The Witching Hour and Interview with the Vampire are deeply ingrained stories particularly to the LGBT+ community.))
((Also, this will have spoilers for the show and the book.))
Casting favorite books into movies is a popular past time in author fandom communities. I remember having these threads way back in the early days of Anne Rice and LJ Smith AOL message board days. Even after multiple movies came out, in the case of Anne Rice’s vampire IP, casting and recasting is a common activity. But what about casting The Mayfair Witches? Honestly, I thought there was absolutely no way anyone would ever attempt to turn The Witching Hour into any form of visual media. Especially after the experiences of the Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned movies (which I loved both of.) No way anyone could manage to turn a twisted tale of magic and incest spanning centuries and covering hundreds of people into some kind of cohesive story. I wasn’t sure Anne Rice even really knew what story she was trying to tell in The Witching Hour.
Has the show done it? Jury’s still out. I’ve seen lots of articles slamming the series so far. I’m still only about 700 pages into my latest reread of the book, so I felt the need to check it out myself.
The good:
The visuals, particularly of old New Orleans and the First street house are stunning. I absolutely love it. The intoxicating, lurid, and downright scary feel of the setting is completely on point. Not to mention I adore the tile/opening scenes.
I do like how Deidre and Lasher are portrayed. The first episode deftly nails the feeling of isolation and helplessness I imagine Deidre (and Antha) felt as a child growing up in a giant, haunted old house that was being forced to ruin.
The aimless time jumping might be confusing to some viewers, but it is actually more direct and cohesive than the book. It immediately puts viewers in a more emotional place than the chapters of the Witching Hour that were supposed to be impartially written by the outside watchers of the Talamasca did. This is good, because honestly, even as someone who has read the book at least a dozen times, it’s hard to empathize with any of the characters, perhaps because there are so many of them, or perhaps because Rice was clearly called over and over to a certain kind of character portrayed as amazingly strong and powerful, but who in practice was more flighty and emotional.
What about Rowan? Well, mixed feelings. As lovely as Alexandra Daddario is, Rowan is described (very often) as very Nordic, blonde with gray eyes. I think changing this up to visually reflect the connection between Rowan and Deidre was a good choice, at the very least because it allows for certain visual tricks (like panning from a drugged Deidre’s eyes to Rowan’s eyes as she sails her ship). I don’t know if the show makers were expecting viewers to be primarily fans of this cult classic, or were reaching for a broader appeal to people who might not already know the tale, but immediately whisking viewers into being more “in the know” than Rowan is an engaging touch, and the same one Rice used by putting the completely, chronological timeline of the family in the middle of the book, before the character Rowan even made it to her home in New Orleans.
There are some…curious choices as well.
Close to the end of the episode I had feared they were portraying Ellie as simply some dear adoptive mother, and not a Mayfair herself. I think Rowan dealing with feeling betrayed by Ellie hiding a whole family and 300 year past from her is a big part of the character. But in the end they did chose to honor that, blunting it with the idea of a close adoption Ellie couldn’t conquer rather than Ellie desperately making Rowan swear to never go home, and Rowan choosing to break that oath.
Also curious is the fast, subsequent portrayal of Rowan killing with her telekinetic power and the effect this has on Rowan. As an author myself I feel it would have been powerful if this was more slowly revealed, rather than Rowan psychically attacking anyone who upsets her. Also, while it’s easy to understand Rowan’s attacks on Lemle and Keck, the source material also explains this has happened through out her whole life and Rowan, in fact, has some control over it. The whole scene with Dr. Keck was aggravating, flatly pushing a “Men Oppressive” narrative, which yes, was rampant in the history of Rowan Mayfair which was date in the 80s, but which one would think we could handle better now. Furthermore his tirade about Rowan thinking she is better than others and his desire to punish her for that missed a huge opportunity. While this is an accurate portrayal, Keck should have never said such things aloud, and instead the viewers could have encountered a delightful little scene where he says everything right and is thinking everything true, and Rowan clearly sees the internal thoughts. Villains rarely say they are villains outright.
The scene with Lemle was an interesting derivative from the Lemle in the book. The Lemle in the book was experimenting on aborted fetuses, which was on theme for Rice’s Catholic guilt infused writing, and also far more indicative of the questions of morality doctors in the 70s and 80s faced. Shifting it instead to “choosing who lives and dies” made for a powerful, more simplistic scene that reinforced Rowan’s character far more than her hysterical reaction to Keck did. This scene was an example of how some of the simplification choices made by the show makers improved the story rather than maintaining the sometimes ham-handed source material.
The two weirdest choices in my opinion were the entire scene where Deirdre “promises” herself to Lasher, and the decision to merge Michael Curry and Aaron Lightner into one person.
First, the scene where Lasher “reveals himself” to Deidre, while somewhat darkly romantic in the framework of her being a lonely girl with no friends, save for this supernatural creature who loved her mother, is just bizarre as he morphs into multiple people and faces as he speak. I’m not sure what–if anything– the show makers were trying to say with this, unless they were trying to tap into the scenes from the books where Marguerite performed experiments with Lasher possessing and mutating people. Even so, Lasher-from-the-book is a very self absorbed, narcissistic creature who is not, in fact “everyone”, but was trying to morph reality into better giving him what he wanted.
The second will prove to be a bigger element, since this composite character, Ciprien, not only will prove to be a reoccurring character, but he outright swears to Rowan’s adoptive mother, Ellie, that he will protect her from Lasher. The visual effect of Ciprien’s psychometry is fantastic (though I thought the witch was hanging at first glance, amusingly enough). But I really feel the idea of the Talamasca as just another antagonist, and not a “good guy” is being set up to be missed. The direct knowledge and communication between Ciprien and Ellie Mayfair is also a curious choice. Honestly the idea that this secret group of men have been stalking this family of female witches, watching their tragedies and twisting themselves morally to justify their stalking was another terrifying, but beguiling element of The Witching Hour. Aaron finally getting pulled in was a testament to how deeply seductive and compelling the story was. We (the reader/viewer) know everything Aaron does, and know we also shouldn’t get emotionally involved, and yet if you keep reading, like Aaron you can’t keep separate from the story. Starting out with Ciprien already involved, even barely, changes that and I have to yet to see how that will play out (and therefore if I like the changes).
Finally there’s the case of Rowan herself. Having just read past Rowan’s history and first encountered with the Mayfairs I’m keenly away of my feelings of what they did wrong and right so far. I’ve not been a fan of Rowan as a character since forever. Now I’m able to pick out way a little better. For all of Aaron’s portrayal of Rowan as intensely independent and powerful and utterly brilliant, the modern day scenes of Rowan show her to be a weak woman who can’t handle emotion and hides behind random encounters with men (I’m glad they show that in this episode, it’s an integral part of the character and I was afraid they’d skip it), and a cold friendless walled off life. I found myself very irritated when this powerful, brilliant surgeon whimpered and cowed to her male colleague. And when she became nearly hysterical over her suspicions that she’d caused the deaths of those she fought with. However, I feel the portrayal of Rowan does, in fact, follow Rice’s portrayal of Rowan in the third section of the book as she is slowly seduced by Lasher.
I’ve often wondered if Rice had something against genuinely strong women, because to be honest, the entire Mayfair Witches saga is about strong women being cruel, or stupid, or manipulated by strong men, or being outright evil, and weak women being victimized. The source material portrays this beautiful strong, rich, psychically powerful woman, who then chooses time after time to make stupid, sentimental, whiny, codependent choices.
One aspect they got so very correct was Rowan’s desire for home, for a family. The Witching Hour builds a chain, Antha, Deidre, then Rowan, of women who are rich, magical, entitled, but still extremely lonely and isolated from the world around them (very much in part by their money and powers, which was one of the most engaging subtexts of the book to me). Unlike the book, which meanders for hundreds of pages of Rowan and Michael’s story where they debate the possibility of psychic powers and now dated medical mores, the first episode of this series cuts straight to a woman who feels displaced and isolated and is looking for not only home, but what home even means to her. This is, to me, the most compelling part of Rowan Mayfair (why in gods’ name did they change her name??). This was, so far, the best choice they made in reinterpreting the story for a new generation.