Talamasca: The Secret Order

It is tremendous fun—fun enough to give the Immortal Universe a much-needed boost with the average viewer.

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.

Tonally and thematically, “Talamasca” is on surer ground than “The Mayfair Witches” was in its first season but still lags behind the astonishing feat pulled off with “Interview With the Vampire.” Yet that still signals a strong step forward for this Immortal Universe. .... As its own thing, too, there is a lot to enjoy.

John Lee Hancock, the creator of “Talamasca,” makes the plots and characters thoroughly accessible to the non-Rice fanatic. .... Guy’s conflicts with the group and his own unhappy history make up much of the story, and the flurry of plot points occasionally feels like bats flying around your face. .... For all the good acting in the face of absurdity, it’s really Mr. Fichtner’s show.

It’s not perfect — and no one should come into this expecting another Interview — but there’s plenty to sink your teeth into while you’re waiting for the next round of vampire drama.

Talamasca appears to fall squarely in between [Interview With The Vampire and Mayfair Witches], neither excellent nor bad, but a pretty good story, great performances, and a promising premise that hints at a stronger cohesion for the Immortal Universe in the future.

Overall, there's plenty here that's worth sinking your teeth into, even if you might be left a little hungry for more by the end.

There’s a ton of back-and-forth over who are the true heroes and it gets tedious fast.

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.

It’s more compelling than the disappointingly insipid Mayfair Witches adaptation. By the sixth and final episode of a puzzlingly short inaugural season, the revelations and twists in Talamasca will likely leave the ardent Rice fan wanting more.

When he [Jasper] and Guy share scenes, “Talamasca” becomes a fascinating examination of surveillance and manipulation. But when the series isn’t focusing on their bond, it fizzles out into a run-of-the-mill genre series.

The twists and turns and red herrings and dropped subplots do lead, eventually, to a pretty good finale, with a grand reveal that’s everything you hope one will be — elegant yet surprising, linking together several seemingly disparate threads while shaking up the board in ways that could pay off in seasons to come. It’s just that by then, even that feels like too little, too late. With plenty of plot potential but too few characters actually worth giving a damn about, Talamasca fails to conjure any lasting magic.

A disjointed and muddled attempt to turn Rice’s centuries-old secret society into a vehicle for a half-hearted spy thriller.