“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?”
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TOPICS: The Alienist, TNT, Caleb Carr