2017 gave us several TV series that focused on the evolving methods behind capturing notorious criminals. In Discovery’s Manhunt: Unabomber, we learned about forensic linguistics, developed by the FBI’s Jim Fitzgerald that helped connect Ted Kaczynski to his crimes. Going back a few decades earlier, Netflix’s Mindhunter follows the FBI’s early days of criminal psychology and criminal profiling, through the lens of the Behavioral Sciences Unit. Now, TNT’s The Alienist, based on Caleb Carr’s book of the same name, goes back almost a century earlier to the very nascence of connecting forensics and psychology, as madness was defined as being “alienated” from one’s own nature, giving the name “alienist” to those who study the afflicted.

When The Alienist begins, our alienist himself Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl), has been at work for many years and has something of a reputation. The New York politicians and police seem to mostly consider him a nuisance, but the work he does in trying to understand the human mind, and in treating children with “unusual” personalities by letting them be themselves, cannot be ignored. The series then immediately connects our leads —  Kreizler, alongside his society friend and illustrator John Moore (Luke Evans), and the young police secretary Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning) — through one unrelentingly brutal murder.

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Image via TNT

It is that murder (or the aftermath of it) that really defines The Alienist. It does not shy away from the graphic violence inflicted onto the corpse of the child (so much so that we actually, in one particularly harrowing shot, travel with the camera through a gaping eye-hole). The placement of the corpse, and Moore’s later illustration of it, immediately becomes an iconic image within the series. There are other visual place-markers like this one, not all of them essential to the plot, but all essential to the atmosphere. (A brief scene with an opera singer in a vibrant court jester costume, from “Rigoletto” perhaps, leaves a lasting impression).

Director Jakob Verbruggen has a very specific aesthetic he wants to convey, with exquisite attention to detail. But there’s something more, thanks to the show’s simmering soundtrack and a terribly gleeful foley artist, that creates a terrible sense of dread that permeates the production. Upon the discovery of the mutilated boy on a snowy night, a police officer starts banging his baton against a metal pole, with reverberations that echo throughout the city as a warning and an alarm. It is alarming, as well as haunting and exceptionally creepy.

On the other side of The Alienist, though, is the gilded world of 1890s New York, which is as sumptuously and lavishly detailed as the darker places of the city are in grime and despair. The story’s politics are clear, from the portrayal of the abusive and corrupt police force to the inhumane treatment of children by exploitative businessmen, but there is also hope. Teddy Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty) plays a pivotal role as the police commissioner, one who is interested in sincere reforms. But as Sara Howard discovers, the young victim was not the first boy, nor first prostitute, to be murdered by the brutal killer — something the police force has been covering up.

Image via TNT
Image via TNT

By the second episode (of 10), the last available for review, Kreizler, Moore, and Howard have united alongside a pair of talented brothers (Marcus and Lucius Isaacson, played by Douglas Smith and Matthew Shear respectively) to run a parallel investigation to the crime. Each member of the rag-tag group is an interesting one, and none (save for Moore) object to often grotesque conversation, investigation, or consideration of the crime. Moore is, so far, a kind of balance for the zealous attitude of his cohorts when it comes to the particulars of the murders, but Evan’s portrayal can be a stilted one. (A boy prostitute aptly says to him, “You’re not very fun. In fact, you’re no fun at all”). Despite Evan's overall likability in the production, it highlights some of the problems with The Alienist, which comes not from its style but its storytelling. It’s not hard for fans of murder mysteries to get swept up in the whodunit of this one, but The Alienist is a very slow burn. More than that, its dialogue is routinely clunky, and the actors are so understated in their roles that any deviation from that is a relief.

The character where that dichotomy works, though, is with Fanning’s Howard, who must be buttoned-up and chilled in her work at the police station, as the first woman ever hired, and surrounded by lecherous co-workers. But in her home life she’s calculating and sharp, she smokes and she looks over police files, and more than anything she has a intense drive to be a part of this investigation, despite assumptions made about her being (as a woman) too delicate for such matters. It’s that drive that catches the eye of Kreizler, who recognizes a kindred spirit, and there’s a very minor love triangle developing there as Moore (a long-time family friend) futilely resists his interest in Howard. But far more interesting than any romantic plot is the meeting of minds between Howard and Kreizler, who are constantly questioning human nature and its motivations, observing it cooly from a perch of calm self-assuredness.

The Alienist is an incredibly ambitious series for TNT, and unlike anything else the Turner network has ever aired. It has a prestige TV feel, and a cinematic appeal, but it’s not yet firing on all cylinders. Throughout its first two episodes, the series hints at many things: the ambitions of an alienist; the monstrous nature of the murderer; the construction and corruption of late-19th century New York; and a show that will continue to improve as it explores the depths not only of its willing amateur investigators, but the depravity of the one they hunt.

Rating: ★★★★ Very Good

The Alienist premiere Monday, January 22nd on TNT.

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