Summary

• David Talbot's problematic storyline in Interview with the Vampire could be completely avoided in the The Talamasca series.
• The Talamasca show offers a chance to focus on David's strengths as a member of the Order, avoiding his controversial body-swapping storyline.
• Despite potential setup in Interview with the Vampire, David's character will require significant rewriting to address deeply problematic elements like expressing attraction to minors.

Since AMC's Interview with the Vampire aired, I've been dreading getting to a certain problematic, cringe-inducing storyline, but the The Talamasca series can ensure that storyline never happens. Interview with the Vampire has been a huge hit for AMC, and the spinoff, Mayfair Witches, has been quite successful, too. It was only a matter of time that another series in Anne Rice's Immortal Universe was greenlit.

Unlike the other two shows in any Talamasca spinoff show, however, has yet to be introduced: David Talbot. When he is, some changes will have to be made, both to his character and to his most hated storyline.

Anne Rice Book Readers Hate David Talbot's Vampire Chronicles Storyline

It's Problematic And Gross For A Few Reasons

It's no secret among Anne Rice fans that one of our least-loved Interview with the Vampire storylines involves David, and I can probably nix the "one of." There are a few reasons for this, particularly in modern times as the more problematic elements of Anne Rice's writing - and there are many - have not aged well. For starters, his whole body-swapping storyline in The Tale of the Body Thief is clunky and uncomfortable. Reading it for the first time as a teen, I didn't realize how the entire story revolves around a horrific lack of consent, particularly on the part of the psychic body thief, Raglan James.

Even if Raglan James was the one who forced David into his borrowed body, it's still deeply problematic symbolism to have two white men using and abusing the body of a young brown man.

However, things get more bizarre when he switches bodies with David Talbot. Look, I'm not a morality prude, but there are some real sketchy optics about an old white man taking over the body of a young Indian man, which had previously already been commandeered against his will. Even if Raglan James was the one who forced David into his borrowed body, it's still deeply problematic symbolism to have two white men using and abusing the body of a young brown man. Add to that the fact the man was a patient in a mental institution, and it adds a whole layer of grossly tone-deaf.

Beyond that, readers like me also hated David Talbot's storyline because he reads as a replacement for Louis. After the first three novels revolved around Louis, Marius, and other vampires, they were suddenly sidelined in The Tale of the Body Thief, only to be replaced by the human David. It was a jarring change, one that felt like a sudden standalone episode for one character of a beloved TV show where few of the other main characters are present. On one hand, I get it: this was Lestat's equivalent of wandering in the desert, something he needed to regain his zest for life. On the other, it was badly executed and deeply weird – and not the fun kind of weird.

The New Talamasca Show Can Keep David Out Of Interview With The Vampire

David Is Best When Playing To His Strengths

If Anne Rice's Immortal Universe's writers are smart, they'll cut David's Tale of the Body Thief storyline completely out of Interview with the Vampire. With The Talamasca series, that's now easier than ever. As the Superior General of the Talamasca, David need not even appear in Interview with the Vampire to be an integral part of the TV universe. In fact, I firmly believe he'd be a better character if he didn't, or, at the very least, only appeared in a cameo capacity. Instead, he can be a main character in the Talamasca show, along with Mayfair Witches' Ciprien Grieve, which plays to his strengths.

As a member of the Order of the Talamasca, David shines. In that capacity, he's great: brilliant, learned, philosophical, a master of history and the occult. He's often the steady hand at the wheel and a voice of reason in the overly dramatic world of vampires. He's even, in some ways, good with Lestat, often the only person able to rein in the Brat Prince and call him to heel. Everything beyond that, however, is a big old mess, especially where Lestat is concerned. It's best to leave him in the Talamasca show and out of the affairs of Lestat and Louis.

Interview With The Vampire Already Potentially Set Up The Body Thief Storyline

A Key Character Was Introduced In Season 2, Episode 10

Unfortunately, Interview with the Vampire season 2 already planted the seeds for David to potentially appear in a Tale of the Body Thief story. Interview with the Vampire season 2, episode 10 opens with Eric Bogosian's David Molloy having sushi when a man sitting at the sushi bar a few seats down strikes up a conversation and introduces himself as Raglan James. As soon as I heard that, my heart sank. He also introduced himself as a member of a secret organization – but not Mossad: "No. I work for another watchful shop, the name of which has not come up in your conversations with them… The name is Raglan James."

Readers know this "watchful shop" is the Talamasca. So, really, that little setup could be for any number of stories. In the book, when Lestat and David encounter Raglan James, he's already been kicked out of the Talamasca. It appears in the TV universe, he's still a member and his appearance could be setting up the spinoff series, along with David Talbot. On the other hand, this could also be a setup for some version of The Tale of the Body Thief's story unfolding in season 3. Even if David does become a main character only in The Talamasca, however, the writers need to do some serious work to fix his deeply problematic character.

David's Problematic Character Will Have To Be Rewritten No Matter What

Whether Interview With The Vampire Or The Talamasca, David Needs An Update

There's one last problem that most readers, including I, have a problem with regarding David Talbot, and it's one the writers will have to fix lest they want to find themselves in some deeply unscrupulous waters. Putting it bluntly, David is a pedophile. In the books, he openly expressed attraction for young people and minors, including Merrick Mayfair. It's not subtle either, but something other characters comment on in the books.

Virtually all of Anne Rice's characters are really problematic in ways, especially with age gaps and a predilection for minors. This is almost impossible to avoid in any story involving a romance between a vampire and a human by virtue of the vampires' great ages. David, however, is squickier because his predilections aren't a byproduct of no one else in the world aside from other vampires being his age, but part of him as a human. It's a disturbing part of his nature and one that doesn't add anything to his character, nor would it to the show.

David, however, is squickier because his predilections aren't a byproduct of no one else in the world aside from other vampires being his age, but part of him as a human.

To be fair, I'm being quite harsh to David. He never really acts on his desires in the books, and he is a true and loyal friend to Lestat and others. He's one of the few people in the Interview with the Vampire series, much less human, who can hold a candle to Lestat intellectually or gain his respect. He can and should be a major character in The Talamasca series as he has a lot to offer. But if he is introduced into the Immortal Universe, some changes must be made.