AMC's Latest Spooky Adventure: "Talamasca: The Secret Order" Takes on Supernatural Surveillance

AMC has been kicking some serious booty in the realm of genre television, bringing us compelling shows like "Dark Winds" and "Interview with the Vampire." They've become masterful weavers of captivating tales, taking some daring narrative leaps, which more often than not, breathed new life into their shows. Their latest spooky brainchild, "Talamasca: The Secret Order," adds another thrilling chapter to the expansive Anne Rice universe that AMC has been nurturing.

Introduced in the second season of "Interview with the Vampire," the Talamasca is a secret society made up of observant scholars and elusive spies who monitor all kinds of supernatural beings. As they shadow witches, vampires, and demons, these covert agents strive to remain invisible, aiming to merely observe without disturbing the natural order or, you know, meeting an untimely end.

The story amps up at the Talamasca’s London HQ when a severed eyeball (yikes!) arrives in the post for Helen (Elizabeth McGovern). The eyeball belonged to one of Helen's agents who tragically offed himself while on the case of a particularly unpredictable vampire with a secret quite literally hidden underground. This puts Helen on a quest to find a replacement agent, leading her to Guy (Nicholas Denton), a young clairvoyant with heaps of untapped potential.

Growing up, Guy struggled to fully harness his psychic abilities, often grappling with incomprehensible whispers and phrases. To bring him onboard and vouch for the credibility of Talamasca, Helen gives him a sneak peek into their world through Burton (Jason Schwartzman), a flamboyant vampire. As a result, Guy realizes the Talamasca might be more intricately connected to his life than he initially thought.

A plot twist happens when Guy, while reading a novel by Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) that recounts the story of Louis de Pointe Du Lac (Jacob Anderson), spots his mother's name. Confronting Daniel, the newly sired vampire spills that he wasn't the one who put that particular information in, the Talamasca did. You can imagine the shock!

Now aware that the Talamasca has links to his supposedly dead mother, Guy decides to join the secret society, setting off a chain of events that aspire to be thrilling but somewhat fumble. The narrative stumbles, missing its intended gravitas, lacking in its exploration of agency and surveillance. Luckily, when Guy encounters Jasper (William Fichtner), the intriguing antagonist who sprawls an interesting dimension over the series, things shake up and Guy turns to him for answers.

In the standout episode, “Wet Work,” Jasper mentors Guy, showing him the darker facets of both the supernatural realm and Talamasca. During their shared scenes, the series churns riveting ruminations on surveillance and manipulation. Unfortunately, when it strays from this duo’s captivating dynamic, it reverts to a generic genre series.

"Talamasca" has the enticing spark of an engaging show, but it often stumbles over bland characters and lackluster plotlines. For now, it sits in a sort of hold-position beneath AMC’s forerunning shows, “Interview with the Vampire” and “Dark Winds,” each having revolutionized small-screen horror. Here’s hoping that, should the series go on, it manages to utilize its talented cast to boost the show rather than overshadowing it.

The series makes its grand entrance on October 26 via AMC+.