The Alienist – a review

The body of a boy prostitute is found on the rafters of the (to be built) Brooklyn Bridge – New York.  A brilliant enthusiast for the human psyche Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl) takes on the challenge to find the murderer. Helped by a philandering newspaper artist John Moore (Luke Evans) and a police station secretary Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning) – they set out to catch the cruellest of murderers.

If anybody remembers it: the alienist is basically an 19th century rendition of profiler or Criminal Minds with a bit of Murdoch mysteries thrown into the mix. The bulk of the story involves Kreizler and his crew trying to construct a psychological profile of the killer as a means to catch him rather than follow eye-witness leads or clues  as a ‘normal’ detective would do.

In this sense it is rather unsatisfactory that the final ‘catching’ of the killer comes as a direct result of good old fashioned policework rather than the profile. But I shouldn’t be too hard on Kreizler and his crew; their profile does lead them into the right direction to look for those clues.

But this does bring me to my first critique of The alienist. As an adaptation of Caleb Carr's 1991 book (he’s also an executive producer) The Alienist arrived too late.

It is fun to read a lot of the disappointed reviews on IMDB compare the TV-outing to the original source material.

Never compare a movie to the book you will hardly ever find yourself liking the movie more.

Out of fashion

We are currently living in the superhero time. Marvel and DC are fighting for best spot in the summer blockbuster ranking and Pixar smartly uses this current superhero-hype to release their long overdue The Incredibles-sequel.

These hypes happen in all forms of media. Take books for instance: After Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone a gazillion of young adult novels appeared in which the main teen character had to save the world. After The Davinci Code numerous books appeared about hidden historical mysteries.

Back in the early nineties it was serial-killers that were all the rage. The silence of the lambs just won best picture and other writers figured they could do the same. So, as a result, Deaver’s The Bone collector appeared and so did Carr’s The alienist.

All these books have the same modus operandi: a brilliant but flawed mind catching a brilliant (but flawed) serial killer.

This isn’t a bad thing per se. A story is a story. If a tale is written well I don’t mind about the tropes. It’s all in the hands of the writer.

I disliked Deaver’s The vanished man because the criminal was too intelligent.

But I do believe the timing has to be right!

Nowadays, I argue, the want for a ‘good ‘ol fashioned serial killer’ is at an all time low. Marvel and Star Wars kill entire planets in the blink of an eye. Serial killers are out of fashion for the mainstream audience.

Combine this with the overload of serial killer-movies and TV-shows we’ve gotten over the last twenty years and it becomes quite difficult to warm an audience for another stylish who-dun-it slasher.

Horror movies, however, will always keep serial killers because they are such an easy means to an (bloody) end.

At least, that is my view on things; because I started noticing a whole lot of flaws and tropes in The alienist that I wouldn’t have seen if the show really struck me.

It’s the same old song

‘Fresh’ isn’t the word to use when you are describing The Alienist. All the archetypes are there: the brilliant mind, the dumb but brave friend, the feminist female powerhouse (something an audience likes to see nowadays – rightfully so), the crooked cop, the straight as an arrow detective.

We’ve seen it all before.

But the show knows it!

In a post-post-modernism-way The alienist uses the most common elements of the era  to tell it’s creepy tale. These ‘elements’ are obvious from the start: The comparisons with Sherlock Holmes (the detective and his helper), Jack the Ripper (boy prostitutes instead of female prostitutes).

Jack the Ripper is directly referred to in this show (including that gruesome photograph of Kelly's mutilated body).

and H.H. Holmes (an almost superhuman urban killer). They are all there. This is the palette this show is playing with and the show (or book) never denies its origins.

The killer, apparently (I’m quite the knower of serial killers- I don’t know why really – movies I guess)

is based on a known killer called Albert Fish, also known as ‘The grey man’.

Criticasters could therefore diminish this television-series as a: ‘been there, done that!’. But I argue that television has NEVER been there so well.

The alienist is in every way an: update. It’s like this show takes all the movies and TV-shows from yesteryears set in the 19th century and, in its stride, shows the current viewer that which the original movie or TV-show didn’t have the means to do.

For instance, the nice cold open (that featured most of that particular episode’s budget). To set a story in the dimly lit rooms of 1895 you first need to convince the audience that they are living at that age. So there's a, dangerous, little horse ride. A steam train bustling through a crowded city. And then, of course (to entertain/ captures the Netflix audience) a tastily shot, but carnally executed, sex scene in a brothel.

The streets are filled with people (budget), the sex we all want (censor) and the effects of a steam train. These things couldn’t be done in ‘ye olden days’. The alienist updates those old movies like The Untouchables and The hound of the Baskervilles with a glint in the eye. The alienstis shows what ‘real’ life in the 19th century was like: because it has the technology (and budget) to create the cinematographic illusion.

Setting the first crime on top of the, to be build, Brooklyn Bridge looks to me like a direct call-back to Guy Ritchy's Sherlock Holmes.

But I guess it was in the original book as well.

There is something special about famous landmarks in scaffolding.

Like Remo William's: the adventure begins’s fight on top of lady liberty.

True detective prequel?

The alienist can be considered a prequel to True Detective. Produced by the very same Cary Joji Fukunaga this show too is focussed on detectives trying to solve a gruesome case.

Even the opening credits is reminiscent of True detective.

And like its predecessor there isn’t a lot of sleuthing involved on the viewer’s part. A lot of the stuff you can guess in advance. Or are simply handed to you on a silver platter.

Like True Detective before it The alienists does, occasionally, meander away from the main plotline in favour of philosophical debates or (‘deary me’) an action sequence.

You can see this in the various ‘jokes’ the show pulls per episode. There’s a boy getting a milk bath in the very same episode where two characters reveal that they were named after characters in Julius Caesar.
The man with the tick that appears to be a direct reference to Hitchcock’s The young and reckless. Or the creepy basement of Bellevue which is a direct reference to The silence of the lambs.

Then there are the deeper motives like: Bruhl’s character, who surrounds himself with (convicts) people who –each and every one has an issue with a parent. The fact that in one episode a boy dresses up like a woman and a woman dresses up like a man. The fact that the villain’s face is hardly ever seen. Or the fact that (SPOILER) combinations of two names echo the ongoing dualities the show highlights like: ‘old cop’ – ‘new cop’ or reason versus hearth, men versus women, et cetera.

But apart from this intriguing referencing The alienist does follow a well trotted path of crime stories before.

Some examples would be, the two main characters getting kidnapped by chloroform. The subplot between the two brothers and the communist girl (which doesn't really go anywhere). The crooked cop turning dangerous or the constant usage of a deux ex machima to save the day.

History lessons

As The alienist has the means to bring the nineteenth century to life in all its grittiness. The show also needs to bring all the commonly neglected details to the forefront. Yes, prostitution has always existed and will always remain. And it’s only in the last twenty years or so that the world (as a whole) decided to put a stop to child-prostitution.

But there are other things The alienist brings to light.

For starters there is a religious symbol on the wall in almost every room the show visits. This just to highlight how important religion was in those days.

Then there is New York itself (not referred to as ‘the big apple’ yet, that started in the 1940s). New York, for instance, was an immensely overcrowded city. Back then there was no TV. People were on the street. So, in every scene outside where our heroes are investigating there is somebody in the background to highlight this fact.

Then there’s the melting pot of different cultures. A Jewish neighbourhood, an Italian neighbourhood, et cetera. New York was (and is) a clash of cultures. There are the Brits, the Germans, the Polish, the Irish and many others walking the streets.

The show actually highlights this fact by contrast. At one point the investigators travel to the rural America. These two groups of people never really met. Which makes the city the immigrant blend where everybody is American. And the rurals considering themselves the 'Real' Americans.

Then there is the real history lesson. Like any time-travel-movie you want to meet some famous people along the way. The alienists provides in this. Theodor Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan both make an appearance. The ‘five-points’ are mentioned. There is a short scene of a first movie showing (by Edison - that thieving son of a...). Or a street fixer cart-machine which was actually a rather interesting thing to learn.

I love the fact that the elderly woman is constantly startled by that infernal ringing telephone.

Each segment ending with her claiming that the old days were better. History repeats.

But, then the show can’t help itself by having some fun by throwing some rudimentary investigative techniques into the mix: fingerprints analysis, handwriting analysis, sketch artist, containment of the crime-scene; it all makes an appearance. And eventhough the show is right in telling us that these techniques were indeed practices they weren’t a common ‘thing yet’ (let alone one team of investigators using all of them).

The stories they tell.

When you are telling a story set in the past you are bound to find some hurdles. Take racism for instance. A hundred years ago people of colour where generally considered lesser beings. So setting a story there and staying true to the time would mean that our protagonists -the people the audience identify with- should at times utter something racist. This creates a problem because you want the audience to like the main characters. So, more often than not, the choice is made to make a character less like his/her time.

In The alienist this happens as well. E.g. the Irish copper referring to a boy prostitute as an it. Which would be an acceptable expose of the times if not for the main officer on the case (Roosevelt) to put him in his place. It's a bit like making the 'real uncomfortable-ness of the time' comfortable for us present day viewers.

The other clearest example is Dakota Fanning’s feminist character. True, around that time all around the world women stood up for equality. But they weren’t that common back then. So it feels a bit convenient to add this character (even though the writer does give her a meaty story-arch).

Then there are all the other things that, back then were considered ‘lesser’, but are now generally accepted (e.g. homosexuality, God's view on perversion or sexual impulses). By letting the main character be unbothered by these human aspects makes him ‘unfit’ for his time. He’s a 2017 professor in the 19^th century. Thus it becomes rather preaching to the choir to me. I sometimes wish for reality/imperfection in period pieces.

The people who told the story

Acting wise The alienist is a slow-burn show - much like a flickering candle.

Bruhl has the meatiest part who - like Sherlock Holmes- pretty much invented the job he is practicing. And like Sherlock Holmes this supremely intelligent character has his little asocial behavioural issues.

As the season progresses layers of Bruhl's character are peeled away as he starts to learn about his own shortcomings. He begins to accept that, brilliant as he is, he lacks other skills and has his own problems. In this sense The alienist is also investigating himself. And The alienist: the show is investigating with him as the viewer learns more and more about his persona.

Even though this is a trick that movies often try to pull it is The alienist that brings this layered way of combining character driven en action driven storytelling that works so nicely. Because of the context of the show the way of how the story is actually told works -fits.

Bruhl plays him slowly and silently – often standing centre stage lost in thoughts. It works, just like his accent works in this melting pot of 19^th century New York.

It took me up to episode four to realize that our hero has a disadvantaged arm. Quite the sleuth I turned out to be.

The second standout character is Dakota Fanning’s role of the feminist in the wrong time. An archetype certainly but it works. Just seeing her smoke and hating her corset it are those little things movies and television love to throw in just to empower a woman but Fanning actually manages to make these tropes her own. She’s the kind of girl you expect to smoke.

My big time onscreen friend even makes a welcome appearance: Titanic foe David Warner.

I also wish to give a shout-out to Stevie (Matt Lintz) the brother of the Walking Dead's –“where the hell is she”- Sophia.

I saw his name on the opening credits and I wondered where I knew this name from.

He actually looks like his sister when he is dressed up like a girl (at least before the last time I saw her - I guess we all remember that scene).

The only character that didn’t quite fit for me was Teddy Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty). He is a bit sheepish as the war hero/ alpha male he is often described as. A bit of a stickler to the rules out of his dept instead of the real Theodor Roosevelt who shot down bears on a daily basis. But near the end he grows into the political game - but if there is a next season the man needs some meat to throw around.

Art is the eye of the perfectionist

To end with the trump card of the show: the visuals. This particular part is where The alienist shines brightest. There are so many details in this show it would be a task to name them all. Just the various posters plastered around town highlight this attention to detail.

The alienists has a massive number of executive producers and the money they put in shows. Crane-shots,  Drone-shots, CGI backdrops each and every (current) trick in the book is used to make old New York come to life.

Truth be told the show only had the budget of one fully dressed street. They sometimes refurbish this street so it appears like another street, but they don't fool me - it's the same street.

This, I rather enjoyed in The alienist. It struck me as a call back to 'old Hollywood' wherein they would just plant a decor to be used over and over - and people will believe it! Which is absolutely true.

In short: The alienist steals a lot of story elements but then coats it in amazing production design. Truly the effects on backgrounds are remarkable.

Conclusion

Overall, the alienist is a great show that, unfortunately, uses a lot of bits and pieces from previous outings. The story might not be fresh and new anymore. It may not be original but it certainly is entertaining and visually lavish.