In a realm where vampires, witches, and demons rule the night, a secret society, the Talamasca, guards the fine line between order and chaos. When a troubled psychic (Nicholas Denton) is invited to join its ranks, he finds himself thrust into the middle of a long-gestating power struggle that threatens to upend both the mundane and magical worlds and change his perception of himself forever. Created by John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr. Banks, The Highwaymen), the six-episode supernatural thriller series Talamasca: The Secret Order is part of Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe, and is now streaming on Netflix alongside its sister series Interview with the Vampire and Mayfair Witches. Read on to learn more.
Guy Anatole (Denton), a powerful clairvoyant who struggles to keep his abilities in check, recently graduated from law school. Though he’s been struggling to make ends meet, things are starting to look up. After using his mind-reading powers to impress the partners at a prestigious law firm in New York City and lock down a job, he’s approached by a mysterious woman, Helen (McGovern), who offers him a position at her equally mysterious organization. Guy agrees to an informational meeting, only to leave with more questions than answers: Who is Helen, anyway? What does her absurdly wealthy, privately funded organization actually do? And how do they know so much about his past and his abilities?
To prove how invested her group is in him, Helen gives Guy a letter — one he wrote to Santa as a child. More confused than ever, Guy heads to Sarasota, Florida, to meet up with his former foster mom, Ruth Anatole (Elise Robertson), who took him in after his birth mother died. Ruth is distraught by Guy’s questions, and seems almost incapable of remembering the details of how he came to be in her care. But she does reveal that Guy owes the Talamasca everything, and urges him to hear them out.
Upon returning to New York, Guy confronts Helen, who reveals that the group has had eyes on him his whole life. Guy is special, she says, and they need his help after something bad happened at the group’s headquarters (the “Motherhouse”) in London. She also explains the group’s purpose: The Talamasca tracks, observes, and occasionally intervenes in the world of immortals, including vampires, witches, ghosts, and demons. Guy initially laughs the claim off, but Helen has the solution to his expected skepticism. She introduces Guy to Burton (Jason Schwartzman), an affable, 384-year-old vampire who works with the Talamasca as an informant. But Burton refuses to lie to Guy, and cautions him against the organization and its shadowy mission. Burton also points to a recently published tell-all book, Interview with the Vampire, as proof that the Talamasca doesn’t have as tight a hold on this world as they claim. In its pages, Guy finds a mention of his long-dead mother, Anna Leamas.
Determined to find answers, Guy attends a book signing event for journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), who interviewed the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) about his life and published their conversation, thrusting vampire-kind into the spotlight. Daniel reveals that the Talamasca put Anna’s name in the book against his wishes — and that she’s actually still alive. Armed with a lifetime of questions and a few key clues, Guy agrees to join the Talamasca as a spy in order to find his mother. Little does he know how perilous his mission is: A terrifying vampire, Jasper (Fichtner), has taken control of the London Motherhouse, and is determined to use the Talamasca’s own powers against it.
Talamasca: The Secret Order is based on the titular covert organization found in Anne Rice’s novels, particularly the Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches book series.
