Talamasca: The Secret Order - Season 1

These days, Anne Rice adaptations and spin-offs appear to be almost as regular as The Walking Dead spin-offs and well, here then is the latest offering from AMC Immortal Universe TV-franchise. This time it’s Season 1 of TALAMASCA: THE SECRET ORDER which sounds super exciting but unfortunately, this Secret Order turns out to be a bit of a yawner compared with some other Rice adaptations.

While the premise itself is no doubt an interesting and above all, a promising one, the execution is anything but…the plot lacks pace (compared with other Rice adaptations) although the lack of pace is often replaced with deaths and murder of the grisly kind. While the series’ main stars most of the characters are less interesting and thus we don’t really give a darn as to what happens to them. That said, the main cast and characters are stellar, with Australian Nicholas Denton at the forefront as an outwardly ordinary and immediately likeable young man named Guy Anatole, who soon turns out to be not so ordinary after all. Elizabeth McGovern is superb as the mysterious Helen, leader of Talamasca’s New York Motherhouse (we’ll come to that in a minute) and William Fichtner is suitably nasty as Jasper, a rock music-loving vampire who controls the London Motherhouse and boy, does he control it! Although TALAMASCA has of course supernatural elements running through the storyline, Rice fans will be surprised to learn that the whole shebang is more spy-thriller than gothic horror, and a slow-burning one at that.

We kick off with an admittedly nerve-wracking opening scene set in London (as so often these days, the London scenes, with one or two exceptions perhaps, were filmed somewhere up north) during which a young woman breaks into a building (which is later revealed to be the London Talamasca Motherhouse) to steal some important docus but on her way out is chased by a creepy figure who remains in the shadow. Just as the unfortunate lass thinks herself safe by hiding behind a still-standing train, it begins to roll and of course, we see the shadow figure waiting at the other side of the track. Then more shady characters arrive by car, one of them is Jasper, holding a particularly nasty looking knife and ordering his two minions to “get her”. They won’t, because the young woman, rather than being caught, jumps track again just as another train is coming and well, I shall spare you the horrendous details.

Jump again, this time to New York, where we are introduced to Guy Anatole (N. Denton), broke and in search of a job as a future high-flying lawyer. You see, this is what he wants to become, purely because of all the money a lawyer can earn. An interview with a law firm turns out to be interesting, with the head-honcho and two young lawyers asking arrogant questions, for example, whether Guy spent his summer holidays in posh parts like the Hamptons for example, to which Guy replies he spent his holidays in the library reading books. “But didn’t you read books at law school?” asks the head honcho, and the reply is priceless. At first, Guy does of course not land the job but just as he is politely shown the door, he reveals his true colours. His true colours, ah yes, You see, ever since childhood he has a psychic ability (which he tries to hide from others): he can hear what other people are thinking. As he walks out of the building, a much sought-after job in the pocket, he is followed and then approached by a mysterious blonde woman (E. McGovern) who offers him 5,000 bucks just to listen to her proposal. 5,000 bucks just to listen to a proposal? We should be so lucky? She wants him for a job and won’t take no for an answer even when he says he just landed one.

But you see, money makes the world go ‘round and since Guy is currently broke, he accepts the offer and agrees to meet the woman (who later gives her name as Helen) in an equally mysterious building, it’s massive and awe-inspiring and it turns out to be the NY Motherhouse of the Talamasca, a secret order with various Motherhouses around the globe where the carefully selected ‘agents’ monitor supernatural beings such as witches, vampires, demons and werewolves. “Now zombies?” Asks Guy sarcastically. “No, no zombies, you’ve been watching too much television” replies Helen. Of course, Guy has been on Helen’s radar way before she approached him, because of his psychic abilities. When he asks what the job involves, she explains that Talamasca agents monitor the supernatural world in order to maintain order and to protect us mortals and seeing how one supernatural creature (yes, Vampire Jasper in London) has recently gone a bit rogue, Helen wants Guy to let his new job go and fly to London instead to look after the local Motherhouse there. Thing is, Guy doesn’t believe in supernatural creatures and thus declines the offer, but when Helen takes him to her penthouse, we make the acquaintance of vampire Burton (a wonderfully humorous performance by Jason Schwartzman) and before he knows it, Guy is almost convinced. There’s another inspired and witty cameo by Eric Bogosian as cynical journalist Daniel Molloy, who was made a vampire in the second season of Interview with the Vampire and now promotes his book (‘Interview with the Vampire’) in various NY bookstores. The conversation between Molloy and Guy is hilarious.

A short while later, Guy is on the plane to Old Blighty, with numerous credit cards and new ID passports - all taken care of by Helen. It’s here that his adventure begins, and it’s not long when, in a pub, he’s approached by an attractive young woman who clearly fancies him. Later on, they meet in a disco and end up in bed. When, the next day, Guy (who hands out flyers and shouts publicity for a strip joint (talk about an undercover job!) follows a certain individual he is sure off might have links to the mutilated woman on the train tracks, the man in question walks into a building and Guy, observing from the street, can see the silhouette of the man arguing with a woman in a top-floor apartment.

Then, quiet. With a very bad feeling, Guy enters the apartment and finds the man with his throat slit and a young woman hanging from a ceiling in the next room but, oh shock and horror, the dead woman (clearly, it was a murder suicide) turns out to be the seductive lass he spent the previous night with! More shock and horror lay in store, because the dead woman was a witch, and this discovery leads him to her coven of witches who hold a vigil for their departed sister and here, he makes the acquaintance Talamasca handler Olive (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) becomes his handler. The heat is on when Jasper bounces onto the scene full throttle and then there’s the mysterious ‘752’ who turns out to be…
The dialogue comes across as a little clunky at times and too much time is wasted on endless shots of characters walking along nightly London streets and alleyways but for those who appreciated slow-burning dramas, Talamasca might just be the ticket.

TALAMASCA: THE SECRET ORDER - Season 1 has just been released in Blu-ray format and is available as a 2-disc set. Bonus includes ‘Episode Insides’ and ‘Show Me More’.