Talamasca: The Secret Order

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.

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.

The series itself is a great concept. Well acted. Well done. William Fichtner is great. As usual. The thing that bothers me is the 'decoding the episode' shorts they do after the episodes. It's seriously an insult to the viewer's intelligence. You do not need to explain what happened in the episode. Let the viewer work it out. Don't spoon feed them. It's honestly quite insulting.

Was really hoping for something intriguing and enjoyable but the main character, who's supposed to be bright, isn't. Kept thinking about the writers conference where someone threw out the idea that they should make a series with Napoleon Dynamite and vampires. Will give it one more episode before giving up completely.

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.