SPOILERS FOR RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE AND INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (2022)
Exactly what the title says. I didn't sleep AT ALL last night. My meds keep me up all night when I haven't taken them in a bit, but I can only blame the meds for so much. I partially purposefully stayed up a bit later to watch Bram Stoker's Dracula. A TV channel was airing it and I got excited because they NEVER play actual peak (especially gory or sexual movies)! I just couldn't pass it up. It started at 1 AM and ended around 4 AM. It was good though, I luv that movie! Enough of my vamp glaze (although I could go on but I'll save it for a shrine or something), I feel sooooo tiiiiireeeeed!!! I've been fighting the urge to nap all day just to ensure I fix my sleep schedule. Anyway, that's all the big news I guess.
Okay, now I'm going to get into the main thing I wanted to talk about: TV shows!! I've been watching a LOT of TV lately, mostly because of my situation right now I don't have anything else to do except catch up on RuPaul's Drag Race and start on some new shows that are taking fandom by storm! I think I'll start with RuPaul's Drag Race and work my way into Interview With The Vampire (2022) because I have much more thoughts on IWTV.
RPDR
Before I say anything, I just wanna say I'm starting from the VERY beginning of RPDR and this show is so old atp that every single queen I've seen so far has at least had
IWTV
Where do I even start? I have so much to say... I just picked up IWTV but I cannot put it down!! I watched the third-fifth episodes of season two last night and today and WOW! The third and fourth episodes... Average Claudia subplot lowk. She has never been happy or treated right once in her immortal life. I like Armand, don't get me wrong, but was that necessary???? Making the vampire who is self-conscious about her body stuck as 14 forever and saying "Yeah you can be in my coven and help in the theatre, but you must be infantilized every night on stage in front of hundreds of people". Armand.... Come outside I just wanna talk.... Anyway speaking of Armand he had a really depressing monologue that I quite enjoyed. His character is so weird I'm yo-yoing between loving him and hating him but I still love him?? Come to think of it that's all the characters. No one is a good person in this show who is your favorite psychological abuser. Another thing, I like Armand's coven in this version!! In the movie Armand and his coven are kinda just "evil vampire theatre company", which is about the same as in the show, but at least in the show they are fun to watch!! Santiago is a step up, now he's just a gay theatre kid (redundant but ok) and I actually find him compelling!! I also don't know what this character's name is but he stole the scene for me. He was the one vamp that taught Claudia how to use the body disposal box. He reminded me a lot of Lucius Spriggs from Our Flag Means Death but with a ?Scottish? accent. Very fun, made me laugh. I hope he gets more screen time, probably not.
Anywayyyyy let me talk about my favorite episode so far!! "Don't Be Afraid, Just Start The Tape" is sosososososo GOOD OH MY GODDDDD!!!! For me, the most interesting parts of IWTV have been the moments where characters can really interact, they can show their motives, reveal secrets, fight, make up, beg, etc. It's so soap-operatic, but not in a bad or cheesy way, just characters and the conflict between them. This was ALLLLL OVER this episode. Daniel is trying to recollect what happened in the 70's when he first interviewed Louis, but he can't remember most of it so Louis is supplementing parts. This is already hitting some sweet spots for me: 70's setting, amnesia, possibly unreliable narrator??? That's not just it though, Armand catches Louis with Daniel and Armand is super upset because he doesn't want vampire society to be known by mortals, and shit hits the fan SOOOO FAST. Louis was sucking on Daniel's blood, and he's been taking drugs for the entire time he's been there, so Louis drugs himself and he GOES OFF on Armand! He said he was boring!!! Then Armand and Louis make fun of eachothers trauma (which was a little funny just because how brutal they were) and Louis goes up to the top of the apartment building DURING THE DAY!!! He tried to kill himself but ended up just disabling himself for a while due to the injuries because Armand came and took him back inside!! At this point Daniel is OUT: he has been doing drugs, got sucked on, AND knocked into the wall when Armand came to help! After his suicide attempt, Louis tries to get on Armand's good side, which works and Armand helps Louis out. Mind you, modern-day Daniel doesn't know shit about what happened, he's learning all this from Louis. He eventually remembers that Louis and him met on a Saturday, but in another memory snippet the TV said it was Tuesday, so he must've been held captive at their apartment for at LEAST a couple days. Daniel says to Louis after this realization something along the lines of "So I was just the house pet for a couple days?" which may or may not have spurred me to open ao3 and read crazy smut at the appropriate time of noon. What REALLY got me though was Armand near the end. Armand seems to resent Daniel at first (due to the whole "boring" thing from Louis), but near the end of the episode, he becomes super nurturing and caring towards him??? I'm thinking it's just to let Daniel's guard down so he can learn from him but even then I don't know. He's so hard for me to put motives to, and I think that's by design. Anywhom, they get a super nice sweet scene at the very end where Armand comforts Daniel. By the end of this episode, I finally got why there was so many Armand/Daniel fics, and now it's gotten in my brain.