The Alienist premieres Monday at 9 p.m.
ET on TNT
Daniel BruhlandLuke Evansare born co-stars.
And whenever Bruhl and Evans share the screen, they spark the TNT drama to life.
Credit: TNT
Evans is John Moore, an illustrator for theNew York Times.
Kreizlers a cerebral brainiac fascinated with the evil that men do.
The Alienistbegins with a body, as so many dark TV dramas do today.
you might see the crossover appeal.
Theres an added historical kick here.
Teddy Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty) is the Police Commissioner.
J.P Morgan (Michael Ironside) is still a person, not just a bank.
New York law is stapled together between an overreaching police department and insidious underworld bosses.
The police dont care about a connectionor are actively burying the case.
Like a lot of recent dramas, you feel that no expense has been spared.
Gilded Age New York is rendered with painstaking detail, dirty streets and gleaming high-society functions.
You cant tell whos showing off, the alienist orThe Alienist.
You want to scream Get on with it!
to both of them.
Will the plot thicken?
I worry that this adaptation is arriving at Peak Murder Chic.
Theyre too modern … and Jewish.
And then theres Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning), the first woman employed by the police department.
Fanning gives a chilly, impassive performance, which matches the mood of this chilly, impassive show.
Shedoesget to give my favorite line of 2018 so far.
Not to mention the mutton-shunters I work with!
SoThe Alienistwants to honor the dishonored of a dishonorable era.
Admirable, and intriguing.
But the first two episodes fall into some cliche, too, teasing more than they tantalize.
And Kreizlers methods feel on the nose.
His acts are so wretched, so evil, he muses about the mysterious killer.
Somehow it sounds lame even when Teddy Roosevelt says it.
