Talamasca: La Orden Secreta, de Anne Rice

They tried to mask it up as something special by adding a great actor - a couple of interesting characters. Pretty people and sometimes sexy storylines - in the end it's just boring -I'd love to be wrong - turn it around and make it good. MAKE IT GOOD ... NOT EVEN GREAT - I will continue to watch because everything else is bad, but that's not what you want this CALIBER show to be -I mean the story by ep 1 was predictable, by ep 3 was boring and by 4 made me write this review. Girl, you had me by the premise, you lost me by ... I'll find out.

I'm halfway through the second episode, so grain of salt. I'll change my review after watching a few more episodes, but I suspect it won't find its feet enough to improve much. I haven't read Rice (not this series, anyway) so I'm coming in without having read -- or watched -- anything but the original Pitt/Cruise Interview. First, the writing is just not very good. The premise isn't very original (maybe it was when Rice wrote it?) but that's okay as it's still pretty rich and this show holds so much promise. So why isn't the writing better? They say painfully obvious things, hold back information annoyingly but unnecessarily, and it's bad enough that the actors are struggling with it. Denton is chewing up the scenery and responding to situations so inconsistently and inappropriately that his acting alone was almost enough to get me to stop watching. It may not be his fault, IDK. And please, do something with his hair, he's not 12 (or James Blunt) and it's 2025.

If the writing shores itself up and Denton gets better direction, maybe it'll attain its promise. Crossing my fingers, but not betting on it.

Watched the 3rd episode. Too much angst, too much explication, not enough movement. The tension is forced and it gets pretty boring.

The Good

Interesting peek into the workings of the organisation.

Vampires, witches and other supernatural occurrences.

Acting, directing, and the rest of the production are all great.

Interesting enough plot and subplots.

The Bad

As has been said, it *is* a bit of a slow burn...

Vampire abilities, magic, and psi abilities aren't popping off every few seconds...it's somewhat understated beyond the first episode. It *isn't* a magical show.

The story so far is quite tight - you do get a glimpse into Talamasca, vampires, witches...but the story isn't *about* them, they're just in it...if that makes sense.

The story could be easily transposed into any other setting...the things the characters do for most of the screen time are pretty mundane and typical of detective/mystery fare. I appreciate that the same can be said for a lot of things, but in this case, it seems even more so.

It's set around central London - it's accurate...therefore it's grey...nowhere near as sumptuous as either of the other series.

Conclusion

I'm attracted by the paranormal elements, but the itch isn't quite being satisfied.

I'm happy to watch it, my score may go up and is unlikely to go down...but...I'm not being blown away.

If it were cancelled after 4 episodes, then the truth is I would be pretty indifferent.

So whilst I understand that the first two episodes are a slow burn, I have high hopes and I'm fully invested. I think it's too easy for people to write off a show after a couple of episodes. We live within a culture of instant gratification but sometimes we have to invest in something for longer than 5 minutes. I've read comments stating that the reviewers don't care about the characters but after two episodes why would you? I enjoyed both episodes.

I only saw episode 1, my overall impression is that most of the cast members fit the characters of the series. From the mysterious and manipulative Helen played by Elizabeth McGovern, the eeriely dangerous Jasper by William Fichtner, and the new recruit Guy played by Nicholas Denton. However, the title of show stealer should go to Jason Schwartzman as Vampire Burton. OMG, the scenes that he was in.