Sigh. I so very much wanted to love this new series in the Anne Rice-verse, just like I did with Interview with the Vampire, but Mayfair Witches just didn’t quite live up to that first series.
Again, similar to Interview with the Vampire, I have never read the source material, aka, Anne Rice’s work. Perhaps that would have gotten me more into this story, but this is what we’ve got. Rowan Fielding, a neurosurgeon, doesn’t know she’s part of a very long line of witches. Heck, she doesn’t even share the Mayfair name, but we learn that was by design when she was taken away almost as soon as she was born. Rowan only starts to think something is extra strange with her life when she starts killing people with her mind when she gets angry. Okay, scary. She thinks she’s going insane and rightly so, so she discovers just before her adoptive mother dies about her biological family, so she heads down to New Orleans for some answers.
Too bad her family are not really keen to give her many answers. Her aunt Carlotta tries everything in her power to keep her away from the family and the house that all the Mayfair women have grown up in, but with not much luck. Rowan’s biological mother, Diedre, is with her for a short time before she is killed, and that’s enough to get Rowan poking into things she’d have been better off leaving alone. One of those things is a key necklace, which, when put on, bounds that person (usually only Mayfair women) to a demonic entity named Lasher forever. His character is a super confusing one to me. It’s like he’s romantically obsessed with Dierdre and Rowan, but also resents being bound to this family. But Lasher knows that Rowan is the key to his potential freedom. And possible takeover? I wasn’t super clear on that.
Perhaps the only really likeable character in the show comes in the form of Rowan’s assigned protector, Ciprien Grieve. I’ve learned through some light Google searching that his character is a composite of two different ones from the novel, so I’d love to learn more about those original characters. Sometimes parring it down is better, but that remains to be seen. Anyways, Ciprien has the gift of being able to see the entire history of something just by touching it, so he’s usually always wearing gloves. The first time he meets with Rowan though, they join hands and I suppose it should come as no surprise that they fell in love immediately? I don’t know. I like them together, but it went from zero to a hundred in one minute on the show.
Overall, the cast here is great and the story is interesting, but the execution felt like it was lacking. There were elements that were almost too mysterious and I never felt like a lot of things got definitive answers. Also, I know it’s New Orleans and it’s the swamp and marsh land of the south, but everything just looked so drab instead of gothic. That didn’t lend to a very interesting picture. I know this series had already been renewed for a second season, so I’ll stick around. I believe at one point she maybe crosses paths and becomes Lestat’s lover, but I wonder if that will change. Just depends on how closely they follow the novels, I guess. More to come in the future!