Talamasca: The Secret Order - Expectations (not) met?!
I've seen multiple people voicing their opinions on this show, and now I wanna add my two cents too.
First things first, I loved the show. So please read everything from here with that in mind.
Many people compared the show to IWTV, since it plays in the same universe and comes from the same source material. But it's very much its own thing. So going into it and expecting the same kind of...well, everything that you got from IWTV will leave you sorely disappointed.
The main theme of Talamasca is familial love. Losing it, coping with said loss, finding it in the same or different places, looking for it and so on. There's zero canon romance (at least in s1), so if you're looking for that, this isn't the show for you. I found that quite refreshing, since nowadays it's almost impossible to find entertainment media without any romantic plots in it.
The show also has a lot of original characters as opposed to IWTV, which closely follows the story of the books with some minor but interesting fascinating changes. It's important to note that the show has adapted the concept of the Talamasca, but not a direct storyline from the books. If that bothers you, maybe skip the show.
Another common source of criticism is the way Talamasca treats its female characters, and how IWTV did it way better. First of all, I thought that for six episodes, the main female characters were reasonably well developed if we take their importance to the story and their overall screen time in mind. Second of all, the racism allegations. While Soledad (a black female character) was killed in her first on screen appearance (a fate that befell many characters of all skin colours and genders in the show), Olive/Chrysalis was still very much alive and will likely have a bigger role should s2 ever become a thing. So saying that the show is racist for killing black female characters without giving them lines doesn't make much sense if the same thing happened to many other characters of various skin colours as well. (After all, this is Talamasca, not Vampire Diaires!) Thirdly, I've seen complaints about how Olive was treated by the story. She was deemed unnecessarily seductive and oversexualized and thus, underdeveloped and fetishized. That struck me as odd because seduction has always been a way for women to assert dominance in a way that doesn't feel too fantastical to have happened for real. And why shouldn't Olive use this to her advantage? She certainly got the looks for it. Also, so many people complain about black people never being portrayed as desirable but then you have one that is treated as beautiful, resourceful and competent but it's considered terrible anyway... make up your minds people. Either women who use their beauty to their advantage are empowered or they're not. I know there's nuance to this, but Olive is not a character that I thought would face this type of criticism. And for the people who argue that IWTV treated their female characters better, stop. They had one, ONE, female character that was important to the story and even that one was brutally killed and for what? For the development of two male characters. I don't hate that because that's what happened in the books, but saying Talamasca did worse in that regard is just not true.
So yeah, if you like the IWTV!verse and don't mind huge deviations from the source material, check it out. It certainly isn't perfect but the main cast has given it their all and are just as enthusiastic as the IWTV cast, which makes this passion project worth watching in my eyes. I found it very entertaining and I hope others will too!
