The Alienist

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
Okay I caught the premiere episode. It was okay but not riveting. There's a lot they didn't explain that's going on in the background. But I'm sure they will flesh it out more over the rest of the series.

I have to say that some of the acting is pretty bad. The only one who performs smoothly is Luke Evans. Everyone else seems to be speaking lines exactly as they were written in the script. Hopefully the acting will improve in future episodes. (I had high hopes for Dakota Fanning in this but she is very wooden and doesn't capture the spirit of the character from the book.)

It's not horrible though. Keep in mind that it is horror and the story is about a serial killer in 1896 New York. The main character is a psychologist; an "alienist" in 19th Century terms. He's trying to figure out who the killer is while also dealing with an unhelpful police force. Teddy Roosevelt is the police commissioner btw.

I know this isn't a ringing endorsement but it's not a damning critique either. I'm still going to give it a chance for now.
 
Okay, I binged this show to the end and it was pretty good. From what I understand the ratings were fairly decent so TNT is considering doing another season. Caleb Carr has written two books in the series so it's assumed that season 2 will be based upon the second book. Carr is also a writer on the series so that helped to keep the story on track. There were minor changes from the book to the show but they didn't really affect the story, otherwise everything was pretty much the same.

Couple things that might affect this show in the long run: Caleb Carr is supposedly writing book #3 and #4 but that could take a long time and it's unknown if he, and his publishers, would want those books "watered down" by also being shown in a TV series at the same time.

Also, the reported cost of filming is 5 million per episode. It's the most expensive show that TNT has produced so far. It's a period piece about New York but is filmed entirely in Budapest. I don't know if that makes the production cheaper or more expensive to be honest. (The production values were quite high and very detailed and believable for recreating NYC circa the turn of the century.)

The only other thing that is sort of bad about the show is Dakota Fanning's performance as "Sara Howard". She is a main character that has a huge part in the story but Fanning plays her as one long, flat note. Seriously, her face is a blank slate in nearly every scene and her voice remains at a constant level of bored delivery throughout the entire show. Keep in mind that this character is supposed to be dynamic; she has harrowing encounters and her day-to-day life challenges the status quo of women in society at that time. (She is the first woman employed by the NYC police department, hence challenges.) But Fanning is annoyingly wooden in the role and it grates at times. This is unfortunate because I want to like her and think she could really shine in the role if she loosened up and learned how to show emotion on her face.

Some of the other actors stumble at times but overall they're not too bad. The story does get a little confusing near the end in regards to the killer but it sorts itself out. As I said initially, I'm not into shows and movies about serial killers because they're usually just pointless gore and ridiculous scenarios but this one rises above that level of cheapness. Of course since it involves the ritualistic murders of young male prostitutes it can be disturbing to watch. Although, a big part of the story is how society not only ignores the deaths of the victims because they are poor but also how high society (and the government they control) actively works against justice being served in this instance. It's kind of fascinating in that regard.

I think now that it's done on TNT it is going to be shown on Netflix. I know it's available on Netflix in other countries right now. If not you can try the TNT site directly. Bottom line: I would recommend it. :beckett_new049:
 
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