Talamasca Can’t Stand on Its Own

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It quickly becomes clear that Talamasca: The Secret Order won’t be as ambitious as Interview With the Vampire. The story centers around a character simply named Guy – a seemingly ordinary name for someone who was a gifted psychic as a child and remains a powerful psychic as an adult. He’s pursued by a mysterious organization and destined for something he doesn’t yet know. These familiar tropes appear rapidly, and Talamasca soon feels weighed down by them.

AMC’s new series, Talamasca, begins October 26th and is part of the same universe as their adaptations of Anne Rice’s novels, including the critically acclaimed Interview With the Vampire (returning for a third season) and Mayfair Witches (also renewed). All these stories are linked by the Talamasca, a secret organization that monitors supernatural beings – vampires, witches, ghosts, and demons – acting as both researchers and spies. While knowing the background from those other shows might be helpful, it’s not essential. However, Talamasca doesn’t quite feel developed enough to work as a standalone series. The first season, consisting of only six episodes, feels stretched out with unnecessary side plots and hints at a future mystery. A particularly drawn-out nightclub scene, meant to be alluring, didn’t land – and honestly, even Charmed had more exciting moments.

The story starts with Guy Anatole, a law school graduate played by Nicholas Denton (who acts a bit like Eddie Redmayne), realizing that major law firms aren’t taking him seriously. When a strange woman named Helen (Elizabeth McGovern, looking very different from her role in Downton Abbey with a white wig and a sly attitude) offers him $5,000 to listen to her proposal, he accepts. Her business card, with the unsettling slogan “We watch and we are always here,” is just the beginning. Helen explains that the Talamasca is a privately funded organization dedicated to research, learning, and the supernatural, with branches in cities like New York, Amsterdam, and Hong Kong. Guy is about to dismiss her as crazy, but then she reveals she knows he has the ability to read minds—a secret he’s hidden by taking pills and spending time alone in the NYU Law library. Helen wants to use his gift for her own purposes.

The show wants viewers to root for Guy and his mother, Helen, as a dynamic duo – with Guy as the questioning newcomer and Helen as his strong, persuasive mother. However, the series doesn’t give Guy enough depth, making their relationship feel underdeveloped. Helen sends Guy on a secret mission to investigate Jasper, a powerful vampire who has a grudge against their organization, hoping he’ll use his special abilities. Instead of acting on his own, Guy simply follows Helen’s orders and gets caught up in Jasper’s world. Their interactions feel more like Helen tolerating Guy than a real exchange between equals. Supporting actors like Eric Bogosian and Jason Schwartzman steal the show as confident, long-lived vampires, while the main character, Guy, remains passive and doesn’t grow much throughout the season. By placing Guy in the middle of a web of secrets and primarily using him to relay information, the show prevents him from becoming a compelling character. Even after a full season, it’s hard to understand what motivates Guy or what he truly believes about the organization and its supposed values.

While Talamasca explores fantastical ideas, it doesn’t delve deeply into them, resulting in easily digestible, though somewhat simple, television. Years ago, with its mild sexual themes, troubled main character, and somewhat cheesy villain, it would have fit right in on The WB or CW, alongside shows like Supernatural and Roswell. However, Interview With the Vampire raised the bar for television within this universe, boldly challenging traditional adaptation and genre conventions by questioning ideas about immortality, sexuality, and fate. Where Interview With the Vampire strives for innovation, Talamasca feels like careful branding, and as the season goes on, it becomes clear it’s struggling to justify its existence.

The series Talamasca feels creatively flat, and this may be because it doesn’t directly adapt Anne Rice’s novels like Interview with the Vampire or Mayfair Witches. It’s not a fresh take or a re-evaluation of the source material, but rather a weak attempt to connect unrelated plot points. The show spends too much time focusing on the organization’s spying activities – complicated schemes involving secret messages and false information are often shown in montages with narration. The cast includes many double agents who are more interested in their own goals than the Talamasca’s mission. While it seems to be aiming for the style of shows like Slow Horses or The Americans, this focus on the Talamasca’s failures actually highlights the show’s inability to establish a clear identity for the group. The characters’ actions feel disconnected because we haven’t been given a strong foundation to understand what the Talamasca truly stands for.

Honestly, as a fan of Anne Rice’s work, the first season of Talamasca just doesn’t feel like it’s built to last, and it doesn’t quite capture the rich, detailed world she’s known for. If AMC wants this show to be the foundation of their Immortal Universe, they really need to go all-in with season two – bigger stories, bolder choices. Right now, it feels like Talamasca: The Secret Order is trying to do too much with too little, and unfortunately, it already feels a bit… doomed, like it’s on its way out.

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2025-10-25 17:55