The first of Caleb Carr’s novels featuring Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychiatrist (or alienist) in late nineteenth-century New York, was adapted into a ten-part miniseries for the TNT cable network in 2018. Its ratings were sufficiently high to warrant this eight-episode follow-up based on Carr’s second (and thus far last) Kreizler book, which aired, also on TNT, in 2020.
The first season, starring Daniel Brühl, involved Kreizler’s search for a killer targeting boy prostitutes, with the doctor aided by John Moore (Luke Evans), a newsman for the New York Times, and Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning), the first woman on the staff of the city’s police department, as well as two brothers (Douglas Smith and Matthew Shear) of the NYPD detective bureau.
In this second season the investigators try to identify the villains behind the abduction—and in some cases murder—of infants, including the daughter of a Spanish diplomat and others born at a hospital where wealthy men often consign their expendable pregnant mistresses.
Its focus, however, shifts from Kreizler to Howard, who has established her own private detective agency. She emerges as a proto-feminist heroine, not only heading a business that breaks the glass ceiling of its day but championing the cause of women who are misused by powerful men. She also dominates her frequent partner Moore, often rescuing him when things get dangerous rather than the reverse. By contrast, Kreizler recedes into the background, only occasionally playing a significant role in unraveling the mystery, which takes an inordinate amount of time—and too many implausible plot twists—to be resolved.
The change of emphasis is doubly unfortunate since Brühl gives a far more textured performance than the stiff Fanning, even though he is stuck with a dreary subplot in which Kreizler becomes infatuated with a female alienist. There is also the potential for romance between John and Sara, though it is obstructed by the fact that he is engaged to the goddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, just one of the historical figures shoehorned into the narrative—another is Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Overall Angel of Darkness is not as effective as the first season, but it is equally impressive in visual terms—the production design, costumes, and cinematography are superb, with Budapest locations providing a credible stand-in for nineteenth-century New York City. And Ted Levine, returning from the first series, brings a welcome burst of energy as the retired police chief whose cynicism, sexism, and anti-immigrant attitudes symbolize the monied corruption with which Kreizler, Howard, and Moore must contend.
Extras include four brief featurettes: “Inside The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, The Hunt for A Killer” (3 min.), “Inside The Alienist: Building the World” (3 min.), “Inside The Alienist: Dressing a Modern Woman” (3 min.), and “Inside The Alienist: Walking the Set 2.0 with Luke Evans” (2 min.). A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)