Vampire Cyclone Shapeshifters

*sung to the tune of "Red Wine Supernova"*

When fighting doubles as flirting. (Credit: Jonathan Prime/Prime Video)

I desperately need to tell you about My Lady Jane.

I might’ve heard of this show before it dropped on Prime Video last month but mostly as a comparison to Bridgerton. If I had stumbled upon the Tribeca Festival premiere description or seen the trailer earlier, I might’ve been turned off by its desire to basically do Fleabag in Tudor-era England. But sometimes the TV gods surprise us all, and in the midst of the Fleabag-ification of Lady Jane Grey (Emily Bader) as she’s forced to marry Lord Guildford Dudley (Edward Bluemel) and gives us chemistry for days, it also gives us a revisionist Tudor YA fantasy series in which the romantic lead can turn into a horse.

Wait, what?

Yeah, you heard me. A FUCKING HORSE.

My Lady Jane is based on a YA novel by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows that’s part of a larger, loosely connected set of books centered around historical/literary figures in which some humans, known as Ethians, can change into animals. I started this on the recommendation of an old editor, and the Fleabag vibes are kind of grating at first. But then, in the middle of episode 1, Jane’s maid Susannah (Máiréad Tyers) turns into a bird. Among those Ethians is Jane’s husband (who can turn into a horse but can’t control it), which she only learns after the wedding.

If you were unfamiliar with the books, absolutely none of that is telegraphed in Prime Video’s marketing material, and the available footage didn’t reference it at all, but…y’all. We live in a time where faerie romances are huge. A romance novel went viral because of its “Minotaur milking farm” setting, while another has the title “Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf” (it’s pretty good!). Stuff like knotting has made its way into more mainstream paranormal romance novels.

Selling this show as a romance between Lady Jane Grey and a shapeshifting horse upfront might’ve been genius. Sure, you don’t get the people who think they’re watching a fun Tudor feminist reimagining with some bops and are blindsided by the shapeshifter reveal, but you do get people who are on board with that kind of twist from the start. At least Prime Video’s social channels are now starting to lean into it. Bless them.

Insert a variety of riding jokes here. (Credit: Jonathan Prime/Prime Video)

I’m still working through season 1, but I need approximately 876,589 more seasons of this show.

The Knit: Norway Pine Hat and Knotwork Cabled Headband

Purple! (Credit: Michelle Jaworski)

Pattern: Ravelry (Hat); Ravelry (Headband)¹

Yarn: Berroco Vintage in Fuschia (Hat); The Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted in Lilacs and Lace (Headband)

I never planned to pick up knitting to impress people; I mostly wanted to make myself the cool things I saw in the Harry Potter movies (2009 was a very different time in HP fandom). As you know, it eventually clicked.

It’s not uncommon that young people have gravitated towards knitting and other fiber arts in recent years, more so during the pandemic’s early days. (Nor is it a new phenomenon.) But I guess that for some folks, the idea that someone under the age of 60 knows how to knit sounds impressive—especially once I tell them I learned to do it not via a grandmother (I don’t actually know if either of my grandmothers ever knew how), but rather through YouTube tutorials. I also think some people are just as impressed when they encounter cables or colorwork; I find cables easier, but that’s mostly because my tension is too tight for colorwork.

But now, I’m purposely using my knitting skills to impress (fingers crossed that it works!). I’ve made four items over the past few weeks, but here are two of them made for the same recipient; the other two (for another recipient) might feature in a future newsletter. The hat used up almost an entire skein of yarn, while the headband—coincidentally also the first cabled pattern I ever made—used yarn leftover from a hat I made my mom last year.

The Flick: Twister

Sir, you are ENGAGED! To someone else! Who is right there off-screen?! (Source: Max)

Streaming: Max

Mark Twister, the 1996 Jan de Bont blockbuster, as another entry in the “avoided when I was younger because it scared me” canon. But times have changed. I’m no longer 6; there are way scarier things out in the world than a tornado in a movie—for one, tornadoes in real life—and there was a new film that piqued my interest. (At the very least, it didn’t seem like it would be a legacyquel.) And since I kinda like that Glen Powell guy, I planned to do my due diligence.

The original? I don’t necessarily think it’s a good movie, but it sure is a great one². *Stefon voice* This movie has everything: Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt having a ton of chemistry and generally being hot (we used to be a proper country); scientists getting huffy at professional colleagues for, gasp, selling out; Philip Seymour Hoffman playing a stoner; TÁR director Todd Field acting(!); Alan Ruck and Jeremy Davies filling out the crew; a smarmy Cary Elwes; a five-act structure that ramps up as they encounter increasingly more powerful tornadoes; and a remarriage screwball comedy in the middle of a blockbuster disaster movie. And, oh yeah, that flying cow. It’s so dumb, but I had so much fun watching it.

Justice for Melissa (Jami Gertz), Bill Paxton’s fiancée and possibly the only sane person in this entire film!

What I’m Reading

• The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton: A sapphic love story, the first implementation of AI in a story that (so far) doesn’t want to make me want to throw things, and a bunch of space shenanigans? Oh, this one hit the spot.

• The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz: My most recent book club read isn’t exactly “fun,” given how prescient its extremely unsubtle politics feel—if time travel existed, I could totally see some people using it the way the villains in this book do—but it’s captivating. And it’s a guaranteed way to make you curse the name of Anthony Comstock even more. (It’s the second book I’ve rec’d in this newsletter where he’s a villain!)

• As someone who very much operated in this sphere (but wasn’t one of the people interviewed) and has spent roughly one-third of my life covering a single franchise, I have a lot of thoughts about Verge’s look back on what the Game of Thrones Content Industrial Complex did to entertainment journalism. A lot of them. Afraid you’ll have to buy me dinner first to hear them, though.

• Also, framing George R.R. Martin’s taking 13 years (and counting) to write The Winds of Winter as a form of procrastination because maybe he doesn’t want to write it anymore is kind of genius and relatable.

• Letterboxd has a great retrospective on When Harry Met Sally… (a movie that’s definitely part of the Cinematic Knitwear Mount Rushmore if there was one) to celebrate the film’s 35th anniversary, which I’m mostly flagging because of its use of “knit-fits” in the headline.

Shameless Plugs

• I’m so back: I’m covering House of the Dragon season 2 at The Daily Beast, and I’ve been having a great time writing about the show’s many, many psychopaths (affectionate). But there’s a lot to check out, so I separated those pieces by which side of the war they’re. (For both, look no further than my look at the limits of the show’s girlboss feminism.)

• Team Black: I wrote an ode to a certified queen and examined the incest line that HOTD finally crossed.

• Team Green: Here are some thoughts on why everyone hates Ser Criston Cole so much and a close read of episode 3’s “shocking” full-frontal nude scene.

• Sticking to the HOTD beat, I wrote a eulogy for Reactor Mag on the saddest “death” in season 2 so far: Viserys Targaryen’s model of Old Valyria, a piece of production design I’ve been obsessed with since I watched the very first episode. (I was legit bummed out that Viserys’ LEGO set got destroyed!)

• If you’d rather hear my HOTD thoughts instead of reading them, I appeared on my friend Jocelyn’s podcast, I’ma Need More Wine, where we went really long on Episode 5. Available wherever you get your podcasts!

• I’m also helping edit my friend—and Knit(ting) Flicks subscriber—Shan’s blog for her brand-new independent bookstore! I’ll have a longer chat with her in a future newsletter because she’s basically living the Meg Ryan rom-com dream right now.

Knitwear of the Week

Knit: A brown turtleneck sweater that had to withstand more than a few blood stains and survive war-torn European terrain.

Worn By: Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), a vampire about to make his grand entrance in Paris (and will probably regret it for decades), with his sister-slash-daughter³ Claudia (Delainey Hayles) in Interview With the Vampire season 2.

Costume Designer: Carol Cutshall

And then they never ever interacted with anyone in the Parisian vampire coven and moved on to the next city. Right?…Right?! (Credit: Larry Horricks/AMC)

I came into Interview With the Vampire (AMC’s TV adaptation of the 1976 Anne Rice novel) as big a sweet summer child as you can imagine. I’ve never read anything in “The Vampire Chronicles” series⁴ and never saw the 1994 film, so there were no nostalgic bars for it to cross.

I obviously knew that there’d be an interview with a vampire, that Game of Thrones alum Jacob Anderson played the titular vampire, and that the show changed some things about Louis’ backstory. My old colleague Gavia Baker-Whitelaw sang its praises from the start, and she’s rarely ever led me wrong on TV recs. So I went for it and instantly fell in love with its messy and compelling self-awareness, the unreliability of its narrators, and its toxic romance; there’s a reason I listed season 1 as one of the best things I saw in 2022.

Season 2 aired in the spring, and it’s gotten even better. (If you’re interested, Jocelyn covered ITWV, too!) Largely set in a post-WWII Paris, the lush schemings of Louis, a dream-like Lestat (Sam Reid), Armand (Assad Zaman), Claudia (Delainey Hayles, replacing Bailey Bass), Santiago (Ben Daniels), and the rest of the Théâtre des Vampires bring out the best and worst in them all. In present-day Dubai, Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) continues trying to find the kernels of truth in Louis’ fantastical tale while they finally get to the bottom of what happened between them when a much younger Daniel (Luke Brandon Field) interviewed Louis in 1973 San Francisco.

But before all of the triumph and tragedy—and before Louis’ Paris blue-collar makeover—the nomadic vampire duo of Louis and Claudia arrive in the City of Lights. They’re worse for wear, having spent the past few years making their way around the world in search of other vampires and evading Nazis. Louis’ brown sweater might be more threadbare than it looks and is far from the flashiest thing in his wardrobe, but it sure looks like it could be comfy.

Want to nominate your own Knitwear of the Week?

I’m now offering you a chance to nominate your favorite piece of cinematic knitwear. I’ve got more information about what I’m looking for here. So, if you’ve got one, send an email over to knittingflicks@gmail.com with your pick!

1. Whenever I post pattern links, I try giving readers multiple options for where they can access or buy the pattern (especially for those who can’t access Ravelry). It looks like Ravelry is the only option for these two, but if that’s not the case and they are published elsewhere, I can update this post. Just comment on this post or email me.

2. Fun fact: There is an official Twister Museum in Wakita, Oklahoma that’s free for the public to visit from April until August and has a ton of movie props and memorabilia. Also, the staff closed the museum early on July 19 in honor of Twisters’ opening day, which is really just a delightful tidbit to stumble upon on Al Gore’s internet.

3. But not like in an incestuous way. Yes, I have to clarify this point because I’ve written way too much about incest-happy Targaryens over the years.

4. However, I have looked up the titles out of curiosity, and it’s incredible that there’s a book called Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (book 12 of 13). No, I do not need to know anything more.