I have been watching Interview with the Vampire and for the most part I have enjoyed it. Season one and two had some issues for me, mostly around casting choices that strayed from how certain characters looked and acted in the books. I could sort of live with that. I can sort of tolerate how they deviate from the story, for the most part, but season three is an entirely different, infuriating story.

I need to talk about Marius.

In the books, Marius was young when he was made, a Roman senator who kept his hair cropped short like a soldier, except for the times he grew it long, which is how he looked the night he was turned. He was composed. He was measured. He carried himself like the statesman he was.

The show throws all of that out. They have turned Marius into a rambling old man muttering nonsense, repeating lines like the work must be done, the job must be done, this is the job, over and over like he has lost his mind. That is not the Marius from the books, and it is not even close to the character description they had to work with. I could accept a different take on his personality if they had at least kept the essence of who he was. Instead they gave us a caricature. It is sickening to watch, and it feels disrespectful to a character who was supposed to be one of the most composed and dignified vampires in the entire mythology.

Akasha has some of the same problems. I have not read the book in years so I will not pretend to remember every detail, but I do not recall her rambling and unraveling the way she is shown here. I am willing to give her a pass for now since she is still in that early haze after waking up, so maybe they turn it around once she is fully conscious in the story.

I know people are going to tell me this is just how the Lestat character has always been, dramatic and over the top. I read the book. I read it years ago. That chaotic, unhinged energy they are painting this season is not how it read on the page. They took real creative liberties this season, not good ones by the way, and it shows in the dumpster fire that is season 3.

I am still watching because I am a fan and I need to see where they take this. But season three has been a strange, frustrating ride, and the Marius situation almost made me want to walk away. The actor is not the problem. Give him the real Marius and he probably nails it. What we got instead is a crying shame.