Interview With the Vampire Season 2 (2024)

I absolutely adored the first season of Interview With the Vampire (2022-) and recapped each episode. While I still love the series (adapted from Anne Rice’s novels), the second season doesn’t have as much historical costume content so no recaps. Well, and we tend not to recap second seasons anyway, that’s just not our thing, hah.

But it’s still mostly a frock flick, while the story is being told in the modern day, the majority of the tale is a flashback, sometimes multiple flashbacks. Season one started in the 1910s and ended in the 1930s, with Louis and Claudia killing Lestat (supposedly). Season two picks up in the 1940s, at the end of World War II, with Louis and Claudia searching for old-world vampires. In the book, this is a brief, dark sequence, but the TV show builds it out for a substantial first episode.

This also introduces a new actress playing Claudia — due to a scheduling conflict, Bailey Bass dropped out and Delainey Hayles took over. What’s more noticeable is how Claudia has gone darker than before. She’s growing up mentally and becoming more dissatisfied with her lot, more rebellious and fierce, even less of the little girl she started as. This is a bit less obvious in her costume, probably because girlish 1940s isn’t dramatically different from young woman 1940s. It’s a more subtle distinction than in the ’20s.

Claudia starts out in grim, practical clothes as she and Louis wander in war-torn Eastern Europe.

In an Emmys interview, costume designer Carol Cutshall said:

“It was such a drastic change going into season two. We went from the height of glamor, which we las saw during a Mardi Gras party, to the polar opposite in the premiere. When you look at Louis and Claudia in their shearling coats in Romania and the amount of mud and blood on them, those looks are built for surviving and searching and starting over.”

When they arrive in Paris, their clothes get less rough but still not super fancy. Claudia does get one special dress, which Cutshall discussed:

“For Claudia to have this pristine dress made for her, and because she is seeing who she is for the first time, she needs to be the freshest flower there.”

Unfortunately, the dress isn’t shown fully in this ep.

In the rest of the Paris episodes, she gets some nice, tidy ’40s daywear:

Louis dresses down in Paris, except when they attend the theater. Cutshall said about his costumes:

“The look I landed on for him was that of artists and cafe society, the French workwear with a little bit of a blue-collar look. It’s not the finery that we are used to for Louis, but his fastidiousness in how he wears it — tucked and belted — is still there.”

The more flamboyant costumes come at the Théâtre des Vampires, both onstage and off. There’s the imperious Santiago, who is stylish and a bit of a bully:

And flashy coven members like Sam, Basilic, and Planche.

Episode three flashes further back, as Armand tells his story of first starting the Paris coven in 1556 as scummy Satanic sewer dwellers.

Then, in the 1790s, Lestat arrives in Paris as an actor, being his usual OTT self, and stirring up shit for the old-school vampires. His stage outfit is terrific!

This is a classic commedia dell’arte ensemble portraying the stock character of Arlecchino (Arlequin in French or Harlequin in English). The character’s traditional costume is multi-colored patchwork with this black half-mask, and he’s a trickster figure.

Lestat’s Arlecchino suit is in a fashionable 1790s cut:

Nicky, a human musician, doesn’t last long as Lestat’s lover once the vampires meet.

Armand and Lestat hook up, Lestat busts Armand’s coven, and then they create Théâtre des Vampires. Which was mentioned in the last episode where Armand showed Louis and Claudia this portrait of their founder (oh yay, another Shitty Historical Movie Portrait!):

Back to the 1940s story that Louis is telling Daniel Molloy, there’s a scene of Louis and Armand discussing philosophy at a jazz club. None other than Jean-Paul Sartre overhears and joins the conversation. +10 for French existentialism cameo.

As the 1940s story progresses, Claudia becomes part of the Théâtre coven, and she stars in a show that completely infantilizes her. While at first she’s excited to be on stage, she quickly comes to hate the constant reminder of her little-girl body. You can’t blame her when she’s wearing this ridiculous costume!

But she does meet up with Madeline, who had made that pretty purple dress. So Claudia gets another dress from her. Madeline isn’t the child-obsessed dollmaker of the books, but she does become a companion for Claudia.

Speaking of sewing, I’m glad to see the Théâtre des Vampires has its own in-house vampiric costume maker, Hans Luchenbaum:

The season finale is coming next Sunday, so we’ll see how far the story gets and what the setup is for season three. I suppose the TV show has kind of covered the book of Interview With the Vampire, being from Louis’ point of view, but I really hope the series continues into the stories of subsequent books, even though they’re from Lestat’s point of view. I’m enjoying the version of Anne Rice’s world that they’ve created here, and I want to see more. Pity that AMC’s Mayfair Witches series is so lackluster, and I’m highly suspicious of the recently announced Talamasca series — odd that the network got the vampire one right and can’t follow up…

 

 

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