TNT’s The Alienist can’t escape TV’s serial-killer fatigue

The Daily Beast

“The Alienist wishes to balance the quaintness of a period drama with the verve of modern procedurals like ....Hannibal and Criminal Minds,” says Ira Madison III, “but it all comes across as too familiar to be entirely exciting. The Alienist isn’t particularly interested in the minutiae of technology like the superior The Knick was and, as a period piece, it doesn’t quite feel as sumptuously lived in as The Crown or other series of that ilk. I have never read Carr’s novel; it’s quite possible fans were clamoring for this adaptation. But as it arrives now, it feels unnecessary in a television landscape where we’ve gone to this well multiple times. How many times must a brilliant man hunt down serial killers in the same fashion, without at least the visual and trippy panache of a Hannibal?”

ALSO:

• The Alienist’s joylessness and gruesome images combine to make it a slog
• The totality of the entire show can’t fail to impress
• The first two episodes are too slow in showing things in detail, as if it’s a little too proud of its expensive budget
• It’s almost too much at times, but the rich detail does justice for fans of Carr’s novel
• The Alienist doesn’t distinguish itself in a crowded field that includes similar shows like The Knick, Ripper Street and Peaky Blinders
• It’s hard not to be distracted by the settings because they are more interesting than the people on screen
• Author Caleb Carr has spent 25 years “battling against really bad interpretations of this book” to bring it to the small screen