Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches Reviews Are Here, Find Out What Critics Are Saying About The Alexandra Daddario Thriller

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Anne Rice fans, rejoice! AMC+’s adaptation of the Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy has finally arrived, with the new drama set to premiere on January 8, starring Alexandra Daddario. The actress has a loyal following, thanks in part to her role in the first season of The White Lotus and a particularly steamy scene in True Detective, and many are excited to see what the actress will bring to the role of Rowan. Those fans are in luck, as reviews have arrived for Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, adding more context to what we already know about the streaming series.

In addition to Alexandra Daddario as a neurosurgeon who learns she is the heir to the Mighty Witches dynasty, Mayfair Witches stars Harry Hamlin as Mayfair’s current patriarch, Tongayi Chirisa as new character Ciprien Grieve and Jack Huston as the shapeshifting entity Lasher. . With this series following Interview with the Vampire – one of the best new TV shows of 2022 – let’s see what critics have to say about the latest addition to Anne Rice’s immortal universe.

Variety writer Daniel D’Aaddario (no relation to the actress) is disappointed with the execution of Mayfair Witches, although the reviewer still acknowledges Alexandra Daddario’s acting prowess, saying:

Daddario proves once again that she is a competent performer. Even if one wishes for something more from the spectacle around her, she makes the role her own, projecting both intelligence and willful ignorance, depending on the moment. She’s what makes Rowan feel like a rounded character, rather than an object to whom things keep happening. And we leave Mayfair Witches in hopes of working more and better for a performer whose best witchcraft isn’t the literal genre.

CBR’s Josh Bell says the series is off to a slow start but begins to pick up at the end of the five episodes that have been made available for review. This review posits that the series might have been better suited to embrace the soapier tendencies and moods of Anne Rice’s novels. The critic says:

While there are a few steamy sex scenes, Mayfair Witches fails to capture the doomed eroticism of Rice’s novels, and its tone is perhaps a little too restrained. Creators Michelle Ashford (Masters of Sex) and Esta Spalding position Mayfair Witches as a prestige drama, but at heart Rice’s novels are more like a twisted soap opera. Mayfair Witches would be more entertaining if it took that tone, with all its sinister twists and over-the-top characters, rather than holding back.

Collider’s Carly Lane says there are glimmers of hope in the first handful of episodes, and those familiar with the source material know how crazy things are about to get. And since the series has barely scratched the surface of what the books provide, it’s still too early for this reviewer to declare that Mayfair Witches is a disappointing second effort in the immortal universe, and she rated the series a B- , saying :

As [Interview With the Vampire], Mayfair Witches is keen to unfold its plot slowly – but without the framing device of the previous show which inherently lends itself to a trickle of information, the final pace feels more like a gradual creeping than an intentional rampage. It may be too early to pass a definitive judgement, as several of the first season’s episodes were held back by critics, and a number of avenues remain to be taken for the series to move from primarily entertaining television to a truly phenomenal television.

Gizmodo’s Linda Codega, however, has far less flowery opinions swirling in her metaphorical cauldron, saying there’s no real hope for Mayfair Witches, somewhat anchored by the claim that Alexandra Daddario lacks energy in his performance. And despite Rowan’s “over-the-top mid-flight phantom orgasm,” this reviewer called the show “tragically unsexy,” saying:

After five episodes, Mayfair Witches is a show without ambition or direction. It recoils from the real taboo and the horrible, resolves emotional hooks within thirty minutes of baiting them, as if afraid of audience recall, and refuses to expand its reach too much beyond its main character. If the final three episodes of Mayfair Witches hope to save the series from the burning house that is AMC’s streaming cuts, it needs to start pulling the skeletons out of the closet and getting them pole dancing. Literally, nothing else could make this slow, pale show interesting.

Not that all reviews are so negatively skewed. For example, ComicBook.com’s Nicole Drum rates the series 5 out of 5, calling Mayfair Witches the best adaptation of Anne Rice’s work to date. The reviewer credits the co-creators with their ability to cut down on what is a huge undertaking in the author’s The Witching Hour, on which the first season is largely based. She says:

It’s great storytelling, both from the source material the series draws inspiration from, but also from series co-creators Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford who find a way to literally take hundreds of pages of story and bring them to life in just a few hours of screen time, while visually bringing to life the lush and dynamic world that Rice put on the page.

For all the flaws found by critics, Mayfair Witches currently gets an 80% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes from reviews from available critics so far. This is bound to change one way or another, and will likely stand out from the audience score when it comes into play.

Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches will debut on AMC+ on Sunday, January 8, and will have a simulcast premiere at 9 p.m. that night on AMC, BBC America, IFC, SundanceTV, and WEtv. It will then air on January 12 via Shudder, Sundance Now, Acorn TV and ALLBLK.

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