Fantasy Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches | AMC

[Roose Bolton]

That's a bit concerning, as to me that means they're watering down what they have already for the sake of content over quality.

I wish they were just concerned with more content. But from the sounds of it the Mayfair Witches show was given a set number of episodes (8) in its initial season by AMC and the showrunners had to try and cram a thousand page novel into that.

 

[TheFuture]

I wish they were just concerned with more content. But from the sounds of it the Mayfair Witches show was given a set number of episodes (8) in its initial season by AMC and the showrunners had to try and cram a thousand page novel into that.

I just checked the page count in comparison for IWTV....God damn. That's pretty comical now to look at the approach taken towards both books by AMC.

It just reminds me how much of an easy read IWTV is compared to the others.

 

[TheFuture]

This show kind of dipped in quality for me after the first episode, but I'm still enjoying it. However, at this point I'm definitely not expecting it to reach the same level of quality as IWAV.

I had the last 3 episodes to finish there and yeah....it's certainly a good show without smashing any boundaries. I'm saying this with much of the book still on my 'to do' so that opinion might change.

I am concerned though that between what others have said on here and the shows that have been announced, they're increasingly going to play fast and loose with the material. Feel kind of sad for Anne given the amount she poured into getting her works made for years.

Ultimately as long as the shows continue to be made with a distinct degree of care and they don't botch Season 2 of Interview, I can live with this "Elseworlds" type approach they seem to be taking the characters in.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I just checked the page count in comparison for IWTV....God damn. That's pretty comical now to look at the approach taken towards both books by AMC.

It just reminds me how much of an easy read IWTV is compared to the others.

Oh yeah, The Witching Hour is gigantic compared to both the Vampire Chronicles and it’s own sequels. The amount of world building and history Anne put into it was insane.

Personally I think it’s her opus, and she herself often said that Lasher was the most frightening character she ever created and the ending was the best she had ever written to a novel.

 

[TheFuture]

Thinking about it again, the show was much more pedestrian than Interview. I'm not sure if the book does it but the triangle between Lasher, Rowan and Crispen....I think it's bog standard storytelling that we've seen a million times before? The character Rowan seems like she deserves much more.

 

[squeekness]

Thinking about it again, the show was much more pedestrian than Interview. I'm not sure if the book does it but the triangle between Lasher, Rowan and Crispen....I think it's bog standard storytelling that we've seen a million times before? The character Rowan seems like she deserves much more.

The book was much better. They made some not so great changes for the show.

 

[Roose Bolton]

Thinking about it again, the show was much more pedestrian than Interview. I'm not sure if the book does it but the triangle between Lasher, Rowan and Crispen....I think it's bog standard storytelling that we've seen a million times before? The character Rowan seems like she deserves much more.

Oh it’s completely different. Of those three characters the only one that’s recognisably the same as the book counterpart is Lasher, but even then he’s toned down quite a bit and the novel plays up his ethereal nature as a spirit.

With Rowan, to put into perspective, she’s much more stoic and quietly confident and Rice stresses that there’s more of an androgynous aspect to her character. If you were to go for book accuracy, you wouldn’t cast Alexandra Daddario, you’d cast Emma D’arcy.

There’s this huge chunk of the novel that’s devoted to Rowan’s romance with Michael (Ciprien’s book counterpart whom they largely cut out and amalgamated with another character) and the two of them creating a life together. They get married, Rowan is expecting a child etc…Lasher kind of exists as this horrible seductive interloper whom is sort of stealing Rowan away from that life, even as she thinks she can control him. By the end of the novel Lasher has taken Michael’s wife and child from him, and it’s an absolutely horrific and tragic note to leave the book on.

The show comparatively …well, they went for something more toothless and tried to turn it into an empowering moment for Rowan.

 

[squeekness]

Oh it’s completely different. Of those three characters the only one that’s recognisably the same as the book counterpart is Lasher, but even then he’s toned down quite a bit and the novel plays up his ethereal nature as a spirit.

With Rowan, to put into perspective, she’s much more stoic and quietly confident and Rice stresses that there’s more of an androgynous aspect to her character. If you were to go for book accuracy, you wouldn’t cast Alexandra Daddario, you’d cast Emma D’arcy.

There’s this huge chunk of the novel that’s devoted to Rowan’s romance with Michael (Ciprien’s book counterpart whom they largely cut out and amalgamated with another character) and the two of them creating a life together. They get married, Rowan is expecting a child etc…Lasher kind of exists as this horrible seductive interloper whom is sort of stealing Rowan away from that life, even as she thinks she can control him. By the end of the novel Lasher has taken Michael’s wife and child from him, and it’s an absolutely horrific and tragic note to leave the book on.

The show comparatively …well, they went for something more toothless and tried to turn it into an empowering moment for Rowan.

Pretty much. I just don't get the stuff they chose to add that wasn't in the book -- the witch hunters, Cip going through Lasher's memories, transferring Rowan's legacy through the ceremony. All that time they could have spent trying to do the book properly instead.

 

[Roose Bolton]

Pretty much. I just don't get the stuff they chose to add that wasn't in the book -- the witch hunters, Cip going through Lasher's memories, transferring Rowan's legacy through the ceremony. All that time they could have spent trying to do the book properly instead.

Yeah, you would have thought if they only had 8 episodes to do that story, they’d maybe focus on the romance and the haunted house side of it.

The stuff with the Witch Hunters…it’s like they wanted to have this big moment to justify why Rowan would use Lasher, but they missed the point. There’s no outside villain, it’s just Lasher and kind of Carlotta. The conflict should be Rowan thinking she can outwit this ghost and get to have her new family with her husband, and then failing because she gets too overconfident.

 

[squeekness]

Yeah, you would have thought if they only had 8 episodes to do that story, they’d maybe focus on the romance and the haunted house side of it.

The stuff with the Witch Hunters…it’s like they wanted to have this big moment to justify why Rowan would use Lasher, but they missed the point. There’s no outside villain, it’s just Lasher and kind of Carlotta. The conflict should be Rowan thinking she can outwit this ghost and get to have her new family with her husband, and then failing because she gets too overconfident.

Exactly on that last bit. I also keep coming back to the fact that Interview the book was half the size of Witches, but they get two seasons to finish while Witches gets badly mangled. I'm still waiting for the explanation on that.

 

[Roose Bolton]

Yeah, they could have easily done the first season as Rowan, Michael learning about the Mayfair history with Lasher and how Carlotta and Cortland had been killing off anyone who came near the family and end the season with Rowan’s confrontation with Carlotta after her mother’s funeral.

Season 2 could have just been the entire back half of the novel where it’s a haunted house story.

 

[squeekness]

Yeah, they could have easily done the first season as Rowan, Michael learning about the Mayfair history with Lasher and how Carlotta and Cortland had been killing off anyone who came near the family and end the season with Rowan’s confrontation with Carlotta after her mother’s funeral.

Season 2 could have just been the entire back half of the novel where it’s a haunted house story.

Exactly. That would have been truer to the book.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Slick]

I was wondering when they would start production on season 2.

 

[Roose Bolton]

Moira and Gifford seem like radical changes from the books (though that mention of the lakehouse makes me think they’re going to keep a major scene from the second book).

Ted Levine as Oncle Julian is pretty good.

 

[squeekness]

I would never have pictured Levine as Julien ever, lol. He's too gruff and mean.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I pictured more of a stereotypical southern dandy, but Julien’s also kind of creepy towards the end of his life with his...relationships ....with his daughters and granddaughters, so I can get behind Levine playing him.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Pennywise]

 

[squeekness]

Hope the second season is closer to the books than the first one was.

 

[Kaleb]

 

[Pennywise]

'Mayfair Witches' producers tease the introduction of the Scottish Mayfairs

As 'Mayfair Witches' charms up its second season, it's also preparing to welcome Scottish members of the Mayfair clan. Executive producer Mark Johnson teases their introduction.

ew.com

 

[squeekness]

I just hope they don't keep moving away from the source material like they have been.

 

[squeekness]

Watched the season 2 opener
It was okay. I'm still struggling with how much they've from the source material though I'm stumbling along, seeing what they are trying to do. Such a shame the changes to Interview with the Vampire worked brilliantly and this series? Eh, not so much.

 

[Slick]

I thought it was a decent opener except for the music video with Lasher and that girl towards the end lol.