A review of this week's The Vampire Lestat, "Montreal" — with spoilers — coming up just as soon as I'm in a book club with some witches...
Alan Sepinwall
There are times when I watch TV and it's impossible for me to turn off my skeptical TV critic brain. That brain is the one that, during an episode like "Montreal," periodically steps back from whatever's happening to say things like, "This show's budget is way too small to put Lestat on stage in front of a crowd of 50,000 people, so how are they going to get around that?" Or, "If the world thinks Lestat is dead, why are people excited but not necessarily shocked to see him driving around Montreal?" Or, "Wait, do I need to have seen Mayfair Witches to know who this new character is?"(*) Or, "Obviously, Louis and Lestat are going to survive being decapitated, but has the show articulated its rules about vampire healing well enough?"(**) I have seen so much television in my life, and understand so much about how the sausage gets made, that my mind often goes there before I can stop it.
(*) Turns out, no, thankfully. Just like I don't need to have watched Talamasca to appreciate Justin Kirk. (Though I still have no idea what his goals on this show are.)
(**) For what it's worth, I asked another critic, who's generally more vampire-inclined, about the beheading thing, and noted that earlier in the episode, Lestat mentioned that Antoinette cut off her finger because she mistakenly believed it would grow back. My friend explained that 1)It's different for relatively new vampires like Antoinette, and 2)No, the show does not generally do a great job explaining this stuff. So it's not just me.
And then there are times where what I'm watching is so emotionally engaging that the skeptical TV critic brain goes out for a long smoke break and just lets me immerse myself in something great. "Montreal" has a few of those astonishing moments.