AMC has built itself an interesting franchise with Anne Rice’s novels as the source material. Interview With The Vampire was one of their bigger hits in the post-Walking Dead era, and the universe is now on its third series with Talamasca: The New Order, which was recently added to Netflix.
Opening Shot: A woman walks down a dark alley in East London.
The Gist: She goes to an office where she takes data off a computer and puts the flash drive in an envelope. While she goes to deliver the envelope, she senses she’s being followed. When she’s cornered, and then sees a familiar face (William Fichtner) controlling their movements, she decides to sacrifice herself rather than be taken by the Immortals chasing her.
We see the motherhouse of the New York branch of the Talamasca, a mysterious organization that tracks Immortals: vampires, witches, ghosts and demons. They interfere if the Immortals’ activity becomes threatening to humans. Helen (Elizabeth McGovern), who is the director of the New York motherhouse, finds out about the death of one of their agents in London, thanks to a grotesque gift sent there by Jasper, who is the person the agent in London saw before she decided to sacrifice herself.
She looks for a replacement, because the correspondence from Jasper means “we’re getting close.” We see Guy Anatole (Nicholas Denton), a law school graduate, in an interview with a top law firm. He’s botching the interview when he suddenly hears something; he turns around and tells the interviewers the unvarnished truth about himself: Dad left when he was born, and his mom ODed on heroin when he was 9. His friend at the firm tells him he’s a shoo-in for the job.
Someone else looks to recruit him, though. Helen follows Guy as he leaves his interview, and when he calls her out, she offers him $5k to just listen to what she has to say. Given that he’s behind on rent and is about to be evicted, he takes her up on the offer.
What he finds out shocks him: Talamasca has known about his telekinetic abilities since he was placed in foster care, paying for his schooling through law school. They want him to join Talamasca because she thinks his skills would be useful for what they do. Of course, Guy is skeptical, so when he decides to follow her to see where she goes, she’s prepared; She intercepts him and takes him to a vampire named Burton (Jason Schwartzman), who doesn’t make Guy feel any better about the prospects of joining the Talamasca, but puts ideas in his head that he can’t avoid.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Talamasca: The Secret Order, created by John Lee Hancock, is part of AMC’s ever-growing “Immortal Universe,” based on Anne Rice’s novels. The first two shows in this universe were Interview With The Vampire and Mayfair Witches.
Our Take: It feels like Talamasca: The Secret Order is going to take the slow-play approach as Guy accepts Helen’s offer and becomes more embedded in the ways of the Talamasca, then is sent to London to confront Jasper. We’re not all that sure if that’s a wise approach, given that the series is about the people who watch the various Immortals, not about the Immortals themselves.
We do give Hancock and company credit with regards to how they introduce Guy to viewers. We get more than enough of his story just in that piece of his job interview where he sits back down and tells the partner the stark truth about his life. And then, when he goes to Florida to find out more of the truth from his foster mother, we have the background we need to believe why he may want to work for the Talamasca.
Then he confronts Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), author of Interview With The Vampire, his magnum opus about Lestat, and finds out that what he knows about his birth family might be wrong. But how much of that will factor into what he’s doing is still up in the air.
Helen, Jasper and everyone else who is embedded in the society are all mysterious, and they’ll likely stay that way. That’s not an altogether bad thing, given how mysterious the society is, but it definitely puts viewers at a distance from the story that needs to be made up with more information about Guy and some of the people he encounters while undercover.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: After finding out about his birth mother, we see Guy staring in the window of the New York motherhouse, looking at Helen.
Sleeper Star: William Fichtner’s character Jasper doesn’t say a word in the first episode, but his presence looms large.
Most Pilot-y Line: We’re trying to place Guy’s accent, and we can’t figure out what it is. Norton is Australian, but the accent he uses for Guy is weirdly semi-Southern at times and Generic American at others.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Talamasca: The New Order is entertaining enough for fans of Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe to get their fill, but we’re not sure if the story hangs together well enough for newbies.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
