New Community for Readers/Writers

I've started a new DW community, ownhands, chiefly for discussion of the fiction search tool, Own Hands Story Search, which I'm developing. It's also open for discussion of reading, writing, genre fiction, publishing, etc.

I expect it will be low traffic. At a minimum, I'll post my newsletters, which won't be more than monthly.

So if you're interested in targeted search for fiction titles (especially SF&F), supporting small presses and indie writers, digital commons, etc., pop on over and join. :-)

Interview with the Vampire Season 2 Review

Season 1 of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire broke my heart. To avoid further heartbreak, I avoided commentary on the series, and I apparently did this so assiduously that I convinced the algorithm I didn’t care about it, because I had no idea season 2 had aired until months after it was finished. But I have now watched it and will share a handful of reflections.

Personal Impressions
I liked S2 a lot more than S1 for a few reasons. 1) S1 taught me that this isn’t really an adaptation of the book, so I knew what to expect. 2) It was comparatively closer to the book than S1, which made it go down easier. 3) I think it was better written; it didn’t hit the tin notes some of S1 did for me. As I said of S1, if I were going into this series with no book knowledge, I’d probably be a huge fan. It’s very good in many ways.

Spoiler-Free Review
This season covers roughly the second half of the titular novel and follows the plots points fairly closely with lots of changes in character and motivation.

The Good
* Stellar acting across the board. The recast of Claudia works pretty seamlessly (for me).

* Great production values/ambience.

* Unreliable narrators. Arguably mostly an accident in the VC books (Rice’s concepts changing over time), this series runs with issues of POV and memory to very good effect.

* Not being afraid of complexity: at times the characters, interactions, plot mechanics, and questions of what’s real run deep and nuanced without ever being confusing.

* Good reimagining of secondary characters. Daniel, Santiago, and Madeleine have little in common with their book counterparts, but the characters given their names are good original characters, more deeply drawn than their namesakes.

The Bad
Honestly, not much, but the series’ decision to ditch most of the novel’s themes requires centering secondary themes, which—in my opinion—leads to less interesting storytelling, both because motivations don’t track as well and because the substituted themes are more common in today’s popular media and, therefore, proportionally less creative and engaging: ex. focusing on dysfunctional relationships (definitely there in the book) to the exclusion of religion, parenthood, ontological questions of morality.

The Verdict
It’s good. Vampire fans should see it; most Rice fans will probably like it too. I’m a bit sad, though, that it will probably supplant the books for many and, thus, drown out a lot of the books’ most creative and original qualities.

Spoilery Thoughts( Read more... )