Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Anne Rice

  • ‘Mayfair Witches’ Introduces a Major Player in Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe

    Episode 1 of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches sets the stage for what promises to be a first season full of surprises as Alexandra Daddario‘s Rowan Fielding starts to uncover her true identity and the legacy that accompanies it. The road to those revelations began in “The Witching Hour” when Rowan’s adoptive mother, Elena Fielding, called into the New Orleans office of an as-yet-unnamed organization to speak to the agent assigned to Rowan’s file. Though it’s not quite on the same level, the unnamed agency has a little bit of the same feel as the central agency in charge of bounties in the John Wick franchise and it’s clear that whatever this agency is, it’s been established for some time. As it turns out, there is an agent assigned to Rowan, an “empathic investigator” by the name of Ciprien Grieve, and as the rest of the episode goes on to detail, he knows quite a bit about Rowan and the Mayfair family. While the episode itself is short on details about who Grieve is and the nameless organization by whom he is employed, Anne Rice‘s source material has plenty of clues.

    We Watch. And We are Always There.

    All signs point to Grieve working for an agency called the Talamasca. Created by Rice for 1988’s Queen of the Damned, the third novel in the prolific author’s Vampire Chronicles, the Order of the Talamasca is an ancient and secret society created to observe, chronicle and suppress the dissemination of information about the paranormal. Canonically, the Talamasca was founded in the year 758 by the ancient vampire Teskhaman, his fledgling, Hesketh, and the spirit known as Gremth. In Rice’s novels, the Talamasca served as the connective tissue between the Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches series.

    The character of Sip Grieve is something more of a mystery than the order for which he works because he is an original creation for the streaming series. According to EW, Grieve, who is played by Tongayi Chirisa, is an amalgamation of two major characters from the book: Talamasa agent Aaron Lightner and Rowan’s husband, Michael Curry. According to his file, Grieve possesses a power known as “Synesthesia Pareidolia.” The term seems to be a combination of two known sensory phenomena: synesthesia and pareidolia. Synesthesia is defined as a condition in which the stimulation of one sensory pathway activates another. For example, a sound may “sound” a certain color, words may “taste” a certain way or touching objects may trigger the visualization of certain objects. Pareidolia is a phenomenon in which a stimulus allows a person to derive meaning from an ambiguous perception. Taken together, it would seem that when Grieve touches objects, he can visualize their past and empathize with the people in those visions.

    Given Grieve is a composite character, it seems he may end up doing more than watching Rowan Mayfair over the course of the series. The character of Michael Curry plays a major role both in the life of Rowan and the plan of the being known as Lasher. That role is, however, incredibly spoilery to those who haven’t read the novels, so we’ll skip it for now.

    Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches is now streaming!

    Source: EW

  • REVIEW: Anne Rice’s ‘Mayfair Witches’ Worth a Short Spell

    REVIEW: Anne Rice’s ‘Mayfair Witches’ Worth a Short Spell

    A spoiler-free review of Episode 1

    Anne Rice might be best known for her Vampire Chronicles novels, amongst which the bestselling Interview with the Vampire has now seen multiple adaptations, most recently brought to life in AMC’s 2022 television series by the same name.

    But within Rice’s gothic horror world, which AMC has dubbed the Anne Rice Immortal Universe, there be witches, and the Mayfair Witches have a dark and compelling history taut with mystery that should lend itself well to a chilling mystery series. Based on Rice’s best-selling trilogy, Lives of the Mayfair Witches, the eight-episode series centers on Rowan Fielding (Alexandra Daddario), who discovers she is descended from a powerful family of witches haunted by a powerful spirit known as Lasher (Jack Huston). Rowan’s seemingly confident and calculated life—she’s a gifted neurosurgeon, after all—is thrown into chaos when she discovers a burgeoning power within herself that she cannot control.

    Harry Hamlin as Cortland Mayfair

    Rice’s love for New Orleans and its rich, gothic history has always made for gorgeous film and television adaptations, and Mayfair Witches is no exception. In the debut episode, “The Witching Hour,” the lush and haunting backdrop of Mayfair Manor is outshone only by the lavish mansion and decadent parties of Cortland Mayfair (Harry Hamlin). In the recent past, a young Deirdre Mayfair (Cameron Inman) escapes to the seeming freedom of Cortland’s estate, but behind the scenes it’s clear he’s manipulating events to achieve his own ends. For what purpose is unclear, but his laissez-bon-temps-rouler sort of attitude is more uncomfortable than disarming. What is clear is Lasher, the sometimes-companion of young Deirdre, is not at all welcome to the rest of the Mayfair clan.

    Jack Huston as Lasher

    Throughout the frenetic first episode, Rowan is anxious to discover her biological family history. While she has an incredibly close emotional bond with her adoptive mother, events lead to Rowan questioning her new supernatural gifts. In present-day, adult Deirdre (Annabeth Gish) is seemingly a withered invalid, kept safe and under control using antipsychotics. When her new physician decides to stop her treatment, Lasher appears again. Coincidentally, Rowan will find herself haunted as well.

    If you’re not quite following the time-hopping storyline, you’re not alone. It would presumably take an in-depth knowledge of the novels to see the connections being teased out in this first episode, they’re so ethereal. Showrunner Esta Spalding (On Becoming a God in Central Florida), Writer Michelle Ashford (Masters of Sex), and Director Michael Uppendahl (American Horror Story, Walking Dead) have delivered a turbulent first episode that, given a little more runtime, might settle into compelling television. While the series debut doesn’t quite achieve anything particularly novel or emotionally riveting, it manages to satisfy a “just-one-more-episode” sort of intrigue that confirms Mayfair Witches is more mystery/thriller than its drama/horror counterpart, Interview with the Vampire. While the plot might tug you along throughout the first half of the season, Rowan is unlikely to capture your interest beyond her immediate predicament. Her whirlwind backstory is at times both empowering and flailing. Which isn’t to say she isn’t interesting—who wouldn’t want to follow a supernaturally gifted, brilliant, and beautiful neurosurgeon around? But you’re much more likely to stick around to find out what happens to Rowan, rather than what she chooses to do.

    Episode one of Mayfair Witches debuts on AMC and AMC+ on Sunday, January 8 at 9:00 pm ET/PT. The eight-episode series then releases weekly.