While the end of summer can leave you feeling a little blue, cosy season is just around the corner, which means plenty more time snuggled up on the sofa watching TV. First up on our autumn watchlist is the dark and intriguing The Alienist, a brilliantly twisty series mystery fans will adore.
However, it’s certainly not your average detective drama. It takes us back to New York City in 1896, where police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty) is faced with a brutal killer targeting young boys across the city. With powerful officials desperate to turn a blind eye to the murders, he secretly recruits ‘alienist’ (the former term for psychiatrist) Dr Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl), who uses the controversial new field of criminal psychology to try to stop the killer.
With the series available to stream now, here’s everything you need to know about The Alienist, including the plot, cast and how to watch it.
What is The Alienist about?
Based on Caleb Carr’s 1994 novel, The Alienist, which first aired in 2018, takes us to New York City in 1896 where a serial killer is targeting young males. The police commissioner – future US President Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty) – secretly brings together an unconventional group to investigate: the exceptional but obsessive Dr Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl), newspaper illustrator John Moore (Luke Evans) and ambitious secretary Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning).
However, the group come up against various obstacles as the study and treatment of mental illness is relatively new – and taboo. Meanwhile, members of the police force would rather sweep the case under the carpet since the victims belong to groups that high society would rather ignore. As the killings become increasingly brutal, putting even more pressure on the team, Dr Kriezler attempts to build a psychological portrait of the culprit to anticipate his next move – but can they stop him before he kills again?
Series 2, The Alienist: Angel Of Darkness, picks up a year later with Sara staring her own private detective agency. She reunites with Moore and Kreizler, now a New York Times reporter, when she’s asked to find Ana Linares, the kidnapped baby of a Spanish dignitary. Their search exposes a chilling mystery involving other missing children, while Sara has to grapple with rampant sexism and scepticism as a woman detective.
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Who’s in the cast of The Alienist?
The cast of The Alienist includes:
- Daniel Brühl (Rush) as Laszlo Kreizler
- Luke Evans (Murder Mystery, The Girl On The Train) as John Schuyler Moore
- Brian Geraghty (Big Sky) as Theodore Roosevelt
- Robert Ray Wisdom (Flaked) as Cyrus Montrose
- Douglas Smith (Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters, Miss Sloane) as Marcus Isaacson
- Matthew Shear (Fantasy Life) as Lucius Isaacson
- Q'orianka Kilcher (The New World) as Mary Palmer
- Matt Lintz (The Walking Dead) and Dominic Herman-Day (The Hairdresser Mysteries) as Stevie Taggert
- Dakota Fanning (Man On Fire, Uptown Girls) as Sara Howard
- Rosy McEwen (Blue Jean) as Libby Hatch
Is The Alienist any good?
Yes – as well as being completely gripping thanks to its twists and turns, the premise of the series makes it even more fascinating. While the central plotlines are fictional, it features real-life historical figures and it’s steeped in the history of the Gilded Age of New York, where the disparity between the rich and poor was extreme and the city had a notoriously dark underworld. It’s gritty and gloomy, but the detective drama’s original elements, from the emergence of criminal psychology to political scandal and discrimination to its unconventional detective trio, make it completely unique.
Is there a trailer for The Alienist?
Yes – you can watch the trailer for The Alienist below.
How can I watch The Alienist?
All episodes of The Alienist are available to watch now on U.
What other crime dramas can I watch now?
For a chilling crime drama inspired by real-life events, we’d suggest The Vanishing Triangle, which tells the story of journalist Lisa Wallace (India Mullen), who writes an article about her mother’s unsolved murder. After the story is published, the killer strikes again, leading to an intense game of cat-and-mouse. But will she be able to catch him before it’s too late? You can watch The Vanishing Triangle now on Acorn TV via Prime Video. For a dark police saga, we’d suggest the six-part detective series River, which follows Detective Inspector John River (Stellan Skarsgård), who’s investigating the murder of his close colleague, Detective Sergeant Jackie ‘Stevie’ Stevenson (Nicola Walker). But River continues to speak to Stevie after her death through ghostly apparitions, along with other figures connected to his cases… You can watch River now on ITVX.
