The Alienist

The Alienist needs to be assessed for its execution of already familiar genres. Judging from the early episodes, it’s fine: lush, moody, a bit stiff. But it’s nothing to clear your calendar for.

The book had all kinds of novelty going for it in the mid-’90s. The TV show lacks that same capacity to surprise, so it (based on the two episodes TNT gave critics) has to lean much more on its story and characters, which were on the sketchy side to begin with. ... The actors are all good, Brühl in particular finding the balance between altruism and obsession, but don’t especially elevate the middling material. (The period setting also forgives the hodgepodge of accents.)

Those who book full passage for Season One’s 10 episodes may or may not get full closure. The Alienist, which closes out Episode 2 with Moore at the mercy of gangland forces and their young boy prostitutes, so far is trying terribly hard to be darkly spellbinding. Toward that end, it has yet to make its case.

There’s a real disconnect in this telling. With the exception of Sara and two junior detectives, fraternal twins ostracized on the force because they are Jewish, the story seems as dry as a box of Wheat Thins. The scenery is set. The people are dressed for their parts. But The Alienist rarely gets moving.

Be it Sherlock Holmes, “True Detective,” “From Hell,” “Ripper Street,” or even more recent series like “Mindhunter,” this kind of story has been told before and told better. Serial killers are always intriguing because they feel so alien, but “The Alienist” can’t will itself to be anything more than an R-rated update.

Too much in the pilot gets short shrift at the expense of the show’s love affair with mood. Snow covers streets and then disappears in a scene set moments later; foreboding dialogue comes off as too on the nose. ... Episode two shakes off the unsavory visuals and moves the story and character relationships forward with less emphasis on the heaviness that hangs over the first hour, but by then, some viewers will have moved on.

The early hours are mostly placid, even docile. What must have come to life in the pages of the book struggles to find so much as a spark on the screen — difficult, admittedly, through the pall of smoke and shadows that tend to choke it. The characters are bland, too.

In its subtler moments the show offers some genuine chills. ... But the show’s overall joylessness makes it a slog, enhanced by the fact that the central investigation doesn’t feel like enough to pad out 10 episodes.

Grim and atmospheric to the point of dank, The Alienist proves so derivative as to blunt its appeal. Adapted from Caleb Carr's novel, this historical fiction is handsomely produced and smartly cast, but merely delivers the latest twist on a serial-killer yarn -- a particularly nasty one, true, but which at least initially fails to get under your skin.

The pace is breathless, the music propulsive, the dialogue delivered almost pugnaciously--why is everyone leading with his or her chin? But there’s also sufficient breadth to give the show depth. That said. ... The dialogue is frequently dull, when not being very deliberately decorated with archaic slang. The acting is mixed--Mr. Bruhl is wonderfully intense, Ms. Fanning stiff and Mr. Evans still, perhaps, awaiting his moment.

As a moody and essentially faithful adaptation of Carr’s novel, the series gets off to a chilly yet satisfying start, an adequate entry to a particular genre that features dim lighting, resourceful urchins, a class-conscious tone and the sort of arftul staging of corpses that signifies brilliant derangement on the part of the killer. ... Peppered with cliches and predictable banter, The Alienist relies mostly on its atmospheric details to draw viewers in.

Both the tone and the visual style are dark and murky, and while some of the historical details are fascinating, the crime drama around them is tedious and tiresome in any era.

It's all quite sordid and grisly, but only Douglas Smith and Matthew Shear as Jewish twin-brother detectives and cutting-edge forensic nerds seem to be enjoying the hunt. [22 Jan - 4 Feb 2018, p.13]

The Alienist, which is based on the Caleb Carr novel of the same name, comes off as a rote, by-the-numbers serial killer drama.