The Best Vampire TV Series You're Not Watching Is Coming To Netflix

AMC is sitting on a treasure trove of television that deserves more attention. Everyone knows the house responsible for three of the finest entries in the age of the TV antihero — "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad," and "Better Call Saul" — is home to "The Walking Dead" and its many sequels and spinoffs. But it's also the network that's given us "Orphan Black," "Halt and Catch Fire," "Dark Winds," "Lodge 49," "Into the Badlands," and all the other best shows you've heard of but never gotten around the watching because there's just too much damn interesting TV to check out as is. Thankfully, though, one of the more underseen jewels in AMC's crown — not to mention the greatest vampire show on television — is about to become available to a much larger audience.

Thanks to a newly-minted deal between AMC and Netflix (via Variety), the latter company will begin streaming prior seasons of 13 AMC shows starting on August 19, 2024, including several of the titles listed above. Most importantly of all, that list includes "Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire," showrunner Rolin Jones' magnificent small screen interpretation of the late Rice's gothic, pulpy best-selling book series The Vampire Chronicles. The show itself only just barely wrapped its second season and has, thankfully, been renewed for a third one, making its Netflix debut the perfect jumping-on spot for those who've yet to sink their fangs into this sumptuous, sexy horror drama. And if you're a fan of hot, blood-splattered vampire-on-vampire action and melodrama (and why wouldn't you be?), you should absolutely give this marvelous show the time of day. This is essentially me doing my best Lestat impression and seductively crooning "Come to Me" to all of you "Interview with the Vampire" TV series newbies out there.

"House of the Dragon" is fine and dandy, but if murder-families being messy and chaotic is your thing, then "Interview with the Vampire" aims to please. The 1994 film adaptation of Rice's vampiric saga will always hold a special place in people's hearts, but 30 years of social progress since then has freed up the small screen version to be explicitly queer and grotesque in ways that Neil Jordan's movie simply wasn't allowed to be. Jacob Anderson (better known to many as Grey Worm on "Game of Thrones") is a revelation as Louis de Pointe du Lac, who's re-imagined here as a tormented queer Black man who oversees a lucrative New Orleans brothel circa the 1910s when he's drawn into an intoxicating — and more than a bit toxic — relationship with the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid). Tom Cruise might have reinvented Lestat for Jordan's film, yet Reid imbues the character with a devil-may-care charm, vulnerability, and a flair for the theatrical that makes the role all his own.

As excellent and entertaining as the first season is, "Interview with the Vampire" season 2 is where the show really finds its sweet spot when it comes to its gory dramatics. Operatic and unmistakably sensual (you've never seen a show use erotically-charged closeups of clasping hands quite the way this one does), the series is committed to doing the absolute most at all times, yet it somehow manages to be more considerate and measured in its treatment of race, morality, abuse, and the unreliable nature of memory than so many far more subdued prestige shows. It even handles its recasting of Louis and Lestat's teen vampire daughter Claudia (Bailey Bass in season 1 and Delainey Hayles in season 2) with unexpected grace and care.

"This agreement puts our high-quality shows in front of the vast audience of Netflix subscribers with the AMC brand clearly represented," said AMC CEO Kristin Dolan, adding that she believes it "will drive viewership and engagement on Netflix, while also raising awareness and interest in our award-winning content on AMC-branded and partner platforms across our distribution ecosystem." AMC, whose 11.5 million subscribers for its AMC+ streaming service is a mere drop in the bucket compared to Netflix's 296.6 million paying customers, previously saw success with this type of strategy when it sent "Fear the Walking Dead" and six other shows to Max for two months. According to Variety, this promotion "brought more attention to the series and drove traffic back to AMC's platforms, implying that the network is not concerned about AMC+ churn."

AMC's Netflix deal could also point to a better way forward for streaming. While the streaming wars have currently given rise to what's basically a new version of cable, but somehow much worse, services sharing series with the competition could also be the key to smaller ones like AMC surviving as we continue our slow, inevitable trudge towards larger cable-style streaming bundles becoming the norm. Or maybe it won't; I tend to leave the industry analysis to /Film's guru in that department, Ryan Scott. All I can say for certain is that the more people are able to make heads or tails of the sentence, "I really enjoy Not-Bernie-Sanders-From-"Succession" aka actor Eric Bogosian's take on pissy, jaded journalist Daniel Molloy," the happier I'll personally be.

"Interview with the Vampire" seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on AMC+, but will make their way to Netflix on August 19, 2024.