With David Fincher‘s “Mindhunter” setting a tremendously high bar for procedurals that delve into the inscrutable minds of psychopathic killers, you might feel a little bit sorry for “The Alienist.” TNT‘s high profile series covers similar terrain – albeit about eight decades earlier – but the source material is great, the casting is solid, and it could turn out to have its own unique look at the minds of depraved criminals.
Set in the 1890s, based on the best-selling book by Caleb Carr, and starring Daniel Bruhl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning, the show follows an unlikely trio — a psychologist, a newspaper reporter, and a female police officer — who form an unlikely team, tasked to track down a killer of young boys. Their methods include using new-fangled techniques such as fingerprints, and of course, trying to decipher the mind of the man they’re trying to catch.
It’s promising stuff, and you can kick off your year of Peak TV viewing with “The Alienist” on January 22, 2018.