While the show’s writers may have felt the additions were necessary to convey information the book delivers through internal monologue, the changes do a disservice to Rowan’s character by divorcing the connection between her pursuit of medicine and the guilt she feels for how she’s used her mysterious power. The show takes some significant liberties with the source material, omitting and combining characters and starting Rowan’s plot earlier. If we’re meant to feel any sympathy for Rowan’s mother, it’s erased by the fact that she spends the entire episode gaslighting Rowan about her powers and what she knows about her birth family. When her adoptive mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Rowan tries to get her into a medical trial, a mission blocked by a series of awful men whose terribleness helps Rowan discover a dangerous side to her gifts. This pilot, “The Witching Hour,” primarily introduces Rowan Fielding (Alexandra Daddario), a neurosurgeon who trusts her intuition as much as her training. Samantha Nelson gave the two-episode premiere of Interview with the Vampire a 9/10 for IGN, writing, 'the creative liberties Interview with the Vampire takes with its source material produces an adaptation that feels like a natural evolution rather than a conventional retelling.' Read the full review here. What We Said About AMC's Interview with the Vampire The Mayfair Witches pilot was always going to have some heavy expository lifting to do, but it also fails to make its characters or setting stand out. The Witching Hour, the first book in Rice’s Lives of the Mayfair Witches series, follows several protagonists through a complicated generational tale filled with languid descriptions of New Orleans and San Francisco and deep musings on the nature of power.

Interview with the Vampire has a built-in audience surrogate, making it easier for viewers to fall into the story even if they haven’t read the book or watched the film adaptation.

Part of the problem is the difference of source material. That show was one of the best debuts of 2022, but the network’s grander ambitions are off to a lackluster start with Mayfair Witches, which fails to cast a spell in its first episode. AMC acquired the rights to most of Anne Rice’s library in 2020, setting its sights on building a new television universe around the bestselling author’s works starting with her debut novel Interview with the Vampire.

The witching hour series in order