Anne Rice built a world with rich history and lore, with each story existing in the same universe known as the Immortal Universe. Many authors do this well. Stephen King is famous for it. Within Rice’s universe is a secretive order that watches the shadows from inside the shadow. We met them in recent adaptations. Mayfair Witches gave a taste. Now that secret order has its own show: Talamasca: The Secret Order. This new chapter follows Guy Anatole as he steps into the clandestine world of the Talamasca, an international spy agency for immortals, and uncovers his family’s hidden ties to the supernatural. New episodes air Sundays on AMC and AMC+.
If the Immortal Universe began with haunted fragility in Interview with the Vampire and broadened to witchcraft in Mayfair Witches, Talamasca shifts the focus to the watchers. In Rice’s novels, the Talamasca are chroniclers and monitors of witches, vampires, ghosts, and other beings most people never notice. The series keeps that core idea and reimagines it through a conspiracy spy thriller frame. Agents work out of “motherhouses” around the world, some have abilities, and all are trained to investigate and contain threats that mortals are not equipped to handle.
Our way into this world is Guy Anatole, played by Nicholas Denton, a recent law grad who discovers his life has been shadowed by the Order since childhood. He’s recruited by Helen, a senior Talamasca leader portrayed by Elizabeth McGovern, and pointed toward London’s Motherhouse to root out a mole. The mission gives the series a clear engine: a rookie operative sent undercover in a place where every office plant and friendly smile could hide a centuries-old agenda.
William Fichtner’s Jasper looms as a powerful vampire presence entwined with the London hierarchy. Maisie Richardson-Sellers plays Olive, a field agent with her own playbook. Céline Buckens’ Doris is a wild card with Mayfair-adjacent ties, teasing bridges between the shows. Jason Schwartzman pops up as Burton, an “unexpected vampire” whose polished charm complicates loyalties, while Eric Bogosian’s Daniel Molloy returns from Interview with the Vampire to remind us that history is long and grudges are longer. The Immortal Universe connective tissue is here, but Talamasca aims to stand on its own as a bureau thriller soaked in candlelight.
Creator John Lee Hancock and co-showrunner Mark Lafferty steer the series toward a mash-up of supernatural procedure and espionage craft. The show leans on dossiers, dead drops, and safe houses as much as blood rites and occult rules. Critics have noted the shift in tone within AMC’s Rice adaptations. The A.V. Club tags it a conspiracy-minded spy story built almost whole-cloth from the Immortal Universe team’s imagination, rather than a straight lift from any single Rice book. That creative freedom lets the series explore how the Order functions day to day, not only as a lore footnote but also as a workplace where fieldwork can get you bitten.
Reception out of the gate is mixed-positive. Rotten Tomatoes lists Season 1 at around the low 60s with critics, a middling but serviceable score for a brand-new spinoff. Though fans on Reddit seem intrigued by the promise of a focused, six-episode arc instead of monster-of-the-week detours. The early consensus is that the foundation is sturdy, even if it has not reached the highs of Interview with the Vampire.
World-building details help Talamasca feel lived-in. The Order’s “motherhouses” suggest a global bureaucracy with regional flavors. London is all fog and stone and locked rooms. New York reads as glassy and pragmatic, a place where supernatural triage competes with budget meetings. The series also sprinkles in memorable side players, like detectives who keep bumping into evidence that never makes it into the official report. These glimpses sell the idea that a parallel history has been running beside ours for centuries. AMC’s Immortal Universe producer Mark Johnson has teased more series in development, and Talamasca presents a structural hub that can connect almost anything Rice imagined.
All that said, the show still needs to sharpen its hook. The premiere’s undercover setup is clear, but a spy story thrives on moral stress tests. The more the Talamasca blurs the line between safeguarding humanity and hoarding power, the more compelling Guy’s dilemma becomes. Is the mole truly the threat, or is the Order’s secrecy the bigger danger? When the show pushes into those questions, its identity clarifies. The best scenes let characters debate the ethics of surveillance and intervention when the subjects never die and the collateral damage spans generations.
If you have followed Rice’s universe on AMC, Talamasca is worth sampling for its angle alone. It reframes familiar myths from the perspective of the archivists, handlers, and fixers who keep supernatural society from tipping into chaos.
Screen Rated 