AMC has slowly become a dominating force in genre television. From “Dark Winds” to “Interview with the Vampire,” they’ve crafted two series that have already become decade, if not century-defining television. There have been some duds along the way, but it’s undeniable that the writers who helm these series aren’t afraid to take risks, often transforming these shows for the better. Now comes their newest genre venture, “Talamasca: The Secret Order,” which exists within the Anne Rice universe that AMC continues to expand upon. 

First introduced in season two of “Interview with the Vampire,” the Talamasca is an organization made up of scholars and spies that watch over the supernatural. While surveilling witches, vampires, and demons, they do everything they can to remain unseen and observe these creatures without interfering with the natural order of things or dying in the process. At the Talamasca’s London headquarters, Helen (Elizabeth McGovern) is sent a severed eyeball in the mail. It belonged to one of her agents, who committed suicide via train while investigating a vampire with a volatile secret buried under the city’s sewers. In need of a replacement, Helen seeks out Guy (Nicholas Denton), a young man with a powerful gift for clairvoyance.

Since he was a child, Guy’s mind has been unable to fully channel his gift, filled with fractured whispers and phrases. To recruit him and to convince him of the Talamasca’s legitimacy, Helen introduces Guy to Burton (Jason Schwartzman), a flamboyant vampire who gives Guy an inkling that he may be more deeply connected to the Talamasca than he was led to believe. While reading a copy of Daniel Molloy’s (Eric Bogosian) novel recounting Louis de Pointe Du Lac’s (Jacob Anderson) story, Guy sees his mother’s name listed in one of the pages. When confronting Daniel later, the newly turned vampire tells Guy he didn’t write that page; the Talamasca did. 

With the Talamasca directly linked to the mother he long believed to be dead, Guy decides to join their ranks. What unfolds is a journey that wants to appear more thrilling than it actually is, missing the mark by disregarding ideas of agency and surveillance in the modern world, and how this would stifle the growth of an ancient secret society. Thankfully, halfway through the show’s six-episode run, Guy meets Jasper (William Fichtner), the show’s magnetic antagonist who breathes some much-needed life into the series. Guy goes looking to him for answers, but becomes enamored by the vampire, who, in turn, seems fascinated by the human. 

In the series’ best episode, titled “Wet Work,” Jasper takes Guy under his wing to show him how dark not only the world of the supernatural can be, but the world of the Talamasca. Each of them wants something from the institution Guy now works for, and they manipulate each other to get it, putting each other in harm’s way in the process. Yet there’s a mutual fascination shared between them, which Denton and Fichtner play up in scenes where the two share jabs, but also when they share disarmingly tender moments of understanding. 

Fichtner enters each scene with an unprecedented allure, waltzing through his gaudy apartment and the streets of London as if he were born to play a vampire. He gives the series not only the levity it needs but also infuses it with a campiness that should always be at the center of a series about supernatural creatures. Jasper is not only the most interesting character in the series but also one of the most fascinating characters in the three Anne Rice shows AMC has adapted thus far. 

When he 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. For a show that blends both the supernatural and the spy genre, the secrets that various Talamasca agents are attempting to uncover are not interesting enough for either of these genres to soar. Instead, the dynamics that truly fascinate emerge halfway through the series and fade away just as quickly, preventing the series from becoming something worthwhile. 

In an age where genre television has become the foundation for the modern TV landscape, “Talamasca” shows incredible promise, although stagnant characters and middling plotlines often hinder its potential. For now, the show exists in a limbo, positioned below AMC’s two knockout series, “Interview with the Vampire” and “Dark Winds,” each of which has completely transformed the horror genre on the small screen. Hopefully, if the series continues, it can provide actors like Fichtner and Denton with material that enhances their captivating performances, rather than being overshadowed by their presence.

Series premieres October 26 on AMC+.

AMC’s (formerly Disney’s) “Nautilus” is nine-tenths fun adventure. We’re talking otherworldly sea creatures, lost treasure, and 1850s technical marvels, portrayed by the best our 2020s studios can offer. The ten-part first season follows Nemo (an appealing Shazad Latif), the Odysseus-esque captain of the first-ever submarine, sharing the show’s title, in this loose adaptation of “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” He’s on an adventure to escape the British East India Mercantile Company that enslaved him and most of his shipmates, in addition to committing a whole host of atrocities.

And that’s the other tenth of the show—a clear-eyed portrayal of the evils of imperialism and the colonialism that empowered it. The brown and Black crew members of the Nautilus (including Pacharo Mzembe as the endearing firstmate Boniface) are escaping war crimes and enslavement. They are right to take arms against the unjust system that has gobbled them up along with their homes, even if their primary goal is just to survive personally.

The upper class white women—Georgia Flood as the intrepid, eligible engineer Humility, and Céline Menville as her fierce French maid/chaperone, Lottie—are also stuck in a patriarchal system that treats them as chattel, even as it provides them with good meals and pretty dresses along the way. I do wish Humility were more person and less plucky stereotype, but she gets some meaningful arcs as the story goes on, which counts for something in a show that is much more interested in plot than character development.

“Nautilus” also shows us how the system shapes white men—there’s Gustave Benoit (Thierry Frémont), the French scientist who builds the Nautilus and engineers its escape with Nemo rather than see his scientific creation become an instrument of horror. The company’s foot soldiers are generally there against their will, having chosen between starvation and conscription. And the leaders—Cameron Cuffe as Humility’s finance and would-be jailor Lord Pitt and Damien Garvey as the ultimate capitalist and company leader Director Crawley—are insecure snivels of men, certainly no one to envy.

It’s a compelling backdrop for an adventure. The stakes are high, the cause is righteous, and the villains are smarmy. The bad guys in “Nautilus” are akin to the ones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”—powerful and terrible, driven by malice. It’s just a simple switch between imperialists and Nazis. One red military uniform for another.

And like Indiana Jones’ tale, Nemo’s is powered by escaping peril, not social commentary (even if that is baked in). And the adventure is thrilling. Yes, obviously, we grown-up viewers know that the ship that bears the show’s name will survive past the second episode, as will our leading characters. Yet the threats that face them feel real. My heart was pounding. That’s the magic of moving pictures, and it’s in full effect here, with these sympathetic and attractive characters achieving death-defying acts of physical strength and mental acumen to stay alive and eventually triumph.

The monsters—underwater and above land, human and creature, big and small—are terrifying. And the filmmakers know how to harness and hone in on what makes them scary, giving us the close-up of one’s giant eye in one episode and another’s insatiable gaping mouth the next.

Now, some of the beats are pat. The love stories are predictable and obvious, if satisfying. As are some of the deaths and plot twists. Certainly, if you have a favorite sea myth, expect to see it in this first season. But that’s not bad, just part of the genre.

With these well-worn, comforting beats, “Nautilus” is fun to watch and feels ever so slightly subversive.

It’s perhaps a bit rebellious to paint the historical British East India Mercantile Company as the Nazis of their time, particularly as fascism and ethnic cleansing rock any modern pretense we may have of peace. For those unfamiliar with the Company’s atrocities, there’s a lot to learn (or Google), with hopefully some of the evil of it sinking in. For those who are familiar with the history, it’s satisfying to see a visually rich, mainstream story utilize this moral framing.

Certainly, to have an escapist show following righteous fighters who take arms against imperialism feels good. And yes, “Nautilus” shows the human cost and terrible harm of the Company’s historical power grab. But it’s also a rocking good time, an adventure worthy of its budget, with a set of heroes worthy of our allegiance, attention, and admiration.

Full season screened for review. Premieres June 29 on AMC+.