The Vampire Lestat is camp. Nobody knows this better than star Sam Reid, who brings a sense of playful irony to his performance that informs everything from the florid voiceover — at the beginning of Episode 5, he advises viewers to “inflate your lips, be they facial or labia” for the story ahead — to the sexy, yet ridiculous concert scenes. “Look at me,” he says with his eyes, his lips barely suppressing a giggle. “I’m a dangerous and sexy vampire and everyone is afraid of me.” Prancing shirtless across the stage with his long blonde hair in ribbons, he knows that this is supposed to be fun. And in those moments when everyone agrees on what kind of show they’re making, it is. Sam Reid’s Lestat de Lioncourt takes center stage in Season 3. | AMC NetworksThe first two seasons of Interview with the Vampire were relatively self-serious affairs, and were successful as such. The third, a.k.a. The Vampire Lestat, jumps to the second book in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, which — as the title implies — shifts the point of view from that of the relatively steady Louis (Jacob Anderson) to his flamboyant maker (and on-and-off lover), Lestat. Already established as an unreliable narrator, Lestat moves the story forward with the same reckless abandon with which he has always lived his immortal life. Part David Bowie and part Peter Steele, the one thing Lestat is serious about is his music. Reid is, too, belting out power ballads and hip-swinging hard rock numbers with great conviction. The editing and graphics are all MTV flash, and while they’re unlikely to chart on their own merits, Lestat’s songs — written by composer Daniel Hart, who also did the music for Anne Hathaway’s fictional rock star in the recent Mother Mary — are better than they need to be. None of the members of his backing band really stand out much, but given that this tale is being told by a notorious narcissist, that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. What is is with prestige dramas and incest? | AMC NetworksPlot-wise, there’s minimal overlap with previous seasons, as well as with Rice’s book. The TV version of The Vampire Lestat introduces much of the same backstory for the 18th-century aristocrat-turned-immortal rake, making him a little more sympathetic in the process. Scenes set in the present day, however, are almost entirely new. For example, the show brings back back Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), the journalist from the first two seasons, ostensibly to make a documentary about Lestat’s tour but really to give the show something to structure its monologues around. Louis is also a bigger presence in the show than he was in the novel, and showrunners Rolin Jones and Hannah Moscovitch give him an arc that’s the gritty, blood-soaked opposite of Lestat’s ride on the tour bus to Hell. Louis is still reeling from Claudia’s execution, and his twisted attempts to soothe the pain of her passing are hard to watch at times. Even in “true death,” poor Claudia (Delainey Hayles) doesn’t get to rest, and those who felt that she was treated unfairly in the first two seasons will likely feel similarly here.By comparison, a trashy incest storyline involving Lestat and his human mother/vampire fledgeling Gabrielle (Jennifer Ehle) is positively light-hearted. That’s the kind of thing that pairs well with silly accents — nearly every actor on this show is doing an exaggerated voice of some sort — and gratuitous butt shots, not tearful confessions of grief and guilt. The Vampire Lestat tries to thread the needle by occasionally reminding us that these are monsters, and monsters do terrible things. But while some of the darker gambits do work, its inability to reconcile the pain and trauma of its B-plot with the debauchery of its A-plot is the season’s greatest weakness. Louis, meanwhile, is not having any fun at all. | AMC Networks When it gets a little silly, however, the season thrives. One cheeky touch of The Vampire Lestat the show is that The Vampire Lestat the band isn’t all that popular: Pitchfork gives its debut album a 3.1, and a shot of Lestat resentfully reading the review on his phone while lying in his coffin is one of the funniest of the entire season. Armand (Assad Zaman) hangs around the edges of the story — he’s doing the 12 steps, and has amends to make — and vampire queen Akasha (Shelia Atim) shows interest in a newfangled object called an “ice cream scoop” while she hibernates in a Paris catacomb. Its camp qualities pair well with its queerness — Interview with the Vampire is somehow gayer than ever in Season 3 — making the escapist portions of The Vampire Lestat an enjoyable ride. The problem is that the smirking rock ‘n’ roll romp and tortured trauma plot that are both contained within this seven-episode series are playing entirely different, discordant tunes. The Vampire Lestat premieres Sunday, June 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and AMC+, with episodes airing weekly through July 12.