Review
Talamasca: The Secret Order is a supernatural thriller television series created by John Lee Hancock as part of the Anne Rice Immortal Universe on AMC and it is the third series to make its debut alongside the Interview With The Vampire and Mayfair Witches series. The Talamasca series differs in that it is not based on any particular book but on the secret organisation that is threaded throughout the later vampire novels and more so the Mayfair witch series.
The Talamasca is a secret society that monitors the activity of immortal beings across the Immortal Universe in order to maintain the equilibrium between the mortal and supernatural worlds. In this series, a young lawyer, Guy Anatole (Nicholas Denton), who has telepathic abilities, is recruited by the mysterious Helen (Elizabeth McGovern) to investigate the London Motherhouse which has been infiltrated by the vampire Jasper (William Fichtner). As Guy is drawn further into Jasper’s world, he eventually learns that the Talamasca and Jasper are trying to find a book known as the 752 which is said to contain secrets about the origin of the Talamasca. The Talamasca are desperate to find the book first as it poses a threat to their very existence and Jasper wants it to destroy them forever. Caught in the middle, Guy doesn’t know who to trust and soon finds an ally in a young woman called Doris who has some big secrets of her own.
I’ve always thought the premise of the Talamasca would make a great TV series and was excited when it was announced but just wasn’t able to connect with it. I feel like Interview With The Vampire has set the bar so high that any other show created in the Immortal Universe is doomed to fail from the start. That is not to say Talamasca is a bad show because it is so much better than Mayfair Witches and it has some fine actors in the cast. The series was only given is episodes with the first half of those being very drawn out before things start to get more interesting in the last two episodes. There was definitely room for improvement and it may have found its feet with a subsequent season but the show did not perform well enough to warrant renewal. That beggars belief when Mayfair Witches is about to head into a third season and is much maligned by critics.
The premise of the Talamasca was to combine the supernatural world with a spy thriller which sounds good in theory but didn’t really work all that well when your audience just wants to know about vampires and witches. We never really got inside the Talamasca as an organisation so the dissension between the Motherhouses was never going to hold my interest because we don’t know the people involved. It speaks volumes when your more interesting characters are ones given cameo roles from other shows. As much as I like William Fichtner’s work, Jasper was doomed as soon as they introduced the Vampire Burton in the first episode. Burton (Jason Schwartzman) is a far more charismatic and dangerous vampire but he only gets to stick around for one episode.
Talamasca: The Secret Order did have great potential and would have been interesting to see how it developed into a second season and I would have definitely chosen this show over Mayfair Witches for renewal.