The exciting new series, Anne Rice’s Talamasca: The Secret Order, is set to premiere its first two episodes on October 26th across AMC and AMC+, with new episodes following weekly.
Fans of gothic horror icon Anne Rice, whose passing in 2021 left a void, can rejoice in AMC’s ongoing ‘Rice-aissance.’ This expanding Anne Rice Immortal Universe, drawing from her rich mythology, began powerfully in 2022 with the outstanding Interview With the Vampire series. While 2023 saw the somewhat less impactful Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, we now have showrunner and creator John Lee Hancock’s (known for Saving Mr. Banks) latest offering: Anne Rice’s Talamasca: The Secret Order. This show provides a captivating glimpse into Rice’s world, portraying the shadowy Talamasca organization as a thrilling supernatural spy drama. We experience the intricacies of this group through the eyes of its newest recruit, the outsider Guy Anatole (Nicholas Denton), who expertly guides us through a tense, unpredictable mystery. He stands out as a rare hero worth rooting for in this often morally ambiguous universe.
Set in contemporary New York and London, Talamasca: The Secret Order seamlessly integrates with the established lore of previous series. Think of the Talamasca as a supernatural equivalent to the Watchers’ Council from *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*. This global organization operates through “motherhouses” worldwide, dedicated to researching and monitoring the supernatural realm—particularly vampires, witches, and demons. Their mission is to maintain order and protect ordinary civilians, acting as a kind of mystical intelligence agency. The New York branch is overseen by the enigmatic Helen (Elizabeth McGovern), who has secretly been keeping tabs on the London house’s management. When a disturbing message—a bloody eyeball accompanied by a note reading “We see you”—lands on her desk, she swiftly decides to recruit an unconventional new agent to help her uncover what’s happening at the London facility.
This is where Guy enters the picture. A brilliant but financially struggling NYU law graduate, Guy is about to interview for his first job. He harbors a significant secret: a lifelong struggle with often-painful clairvoyant abilities, which have led him to live largely in isolation. Helen, it turns out, has been aware of Guy for years, finally appearing in his life to offer him a high-paying position within the Talamasca as a field agent in London. Her offer not only validates the unsettling truth of supernatural creatures existing in the world but also reveals that Guy’s mind-reading powers make him uniquely suited (with some specialized training) to navigate both realms. Helen has subtly guided his life, acting as his unseen “Auntie Xavier” and shaping opportunities to prepare him for this very moment. Initially reluctant, Guy only accepts the mission when Helen hints that his long-presumed-dead mother might, in fact, be alive. He takes the job, fully intending to use the Talamasca’s vast resources to find her.
Hearing that there’s no connection to the original books unburdens the audience from carrying any expectations into the show. Unlike the other two series, every twist, turn and revelation is a surprise.
A series like this lives or dies based on how well the audience responds to Guy, so the AMC team deserves praise for choosing Denton, a knockout choice to carry the series. He immediately finds a sweet spot for Guy, balancing sympathetic fish-out-of-water vibes with a shrewd awareness of how to leverage his powers and smarts to stay afloat. Disarmingly relatable from the start, Denton’s Guy is vulnerable but never foolish as he gauges friend or foe status with everyone he meets. He’s also got great chemistry with everyone in the ensemble, particularly McGovern’s Helen, who keeps him, and us, guessing about her true motives.
Another plus for this series is that Guy’s arc and story are entirely original. Having no direct connection to the books frees the audience from any existing expectations for *Talamasca: The Secret Order*. Unlike the other two series, every twist, turn, and revelation here is a genuine surprise to experience as it happens. And prior knowledge of the other series is also unnecessary to fully enjoy what unfolds, a welcome rarity with interconnected universes these days. However, if you *do* know Rice’s world or the other shows, you’re rewarded with useful mythology expansion and well-placed cameos from Eric Bogosian’s Daniel Molloy and Justin Kirk’s Raglan James.
In the pilot, which Hancock wrote and directed, he establishes a *Three Days of the Condor* vibe for the series, but that’s dampened in Episode 2 and after by clear budget constraints overall. The Secret Order is nowhere near as richly production-designed as Interview With the Vampire, instead using Manchester, England, as a production stand-in for London. As a result, the episode directors have to use a lot of tight shots and angled frames to create the illusion of the locale. However, that smaller perspective actually services the growing claustrophobia that comes with Guy’s tightly maintained footprint near the London motherhouse.
Nicholas Denton stars as Guy Anatole in Talamasca: The Secret Order, delivering a performance that anchors the series.
In counterpoint, there is an appreciated variety to the supernatural representation, with Guy encountering a spectrum of grounded witches, vampires, and humans who aren’t just simple, monolithic representations of their kind. Jason Schwartzman is very much welcome as the ancient vampire Burton, who briefly tutors Guy about the rules and motivations of his kind. He doesn’t hang out long enough. But that leaves more space for William Fichtner’s Jasper, a savvy and rather terrifying vampire with ambitions that commingle with Guy’s over time. A great Fichtner performance is almost always one that requires him to exhibit simmering restraint, which he does here, matching Denton’s countenance in a way that makes their scenes together particularly resonant.
With just six episodes making up the season, Talamasca: The Secret Order doesn’t wear out its welcome either. It uses those six hours well to effectively establish an urgent tone, lay out the complications that come from Guy’s steep learning curve in the Talamasca, and to introduce supporting characters that are entertainingly unreliable. And the mysteries are solidly built so the audience doesn’t get ahead of the many surprises. Of the three series, Talamasca: The Secret Order earns second best of the bunch because of its ease of entry, the excellent work of Denton, McGovern, and Fichtner, and by fleshing out the concept of the Talamasca with Guy as a beguiling navigator of its secrets. The third Anne Rice AMC series is a tight thriller chock-full of personal stakes for Guy, while also revealing the tantalizing rot festering inside the ancient Talamasca society. Nicholas Denton is superb as Guy Anatole, and his contrarian approach to everything thrown at him, be it human or supernatural, immediately assures his place as one of the more vital characters in the Anne Rice Immortal Universe.