If you did enjoy the first season of “The Alienist”, you may enjoy the second season “Angel of Darkness” as well. It may focus more on Sara Howard primarily but the gripping storyline will no doubt hold your attention and worth giving a try!
Click here to purchase “The Alienist: Angel of Darkness” on Blu-ray or DVD on Amazon
TITLE: The Alienist: Angel of Darkness
YEAR OF TV SERIES: 2020
DURATION: Episode 11-18 (391 Minutes)
DVD INFORMATION: Color, 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio, English 5.1 Surround, English SDH
COMPANY: TNT/Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
RATED: Not Rated
RELEASED: May 18, 2021
Directed by David Caffrey, Clare Kilner
Written by Amy Berg, Stuart Carolan, Caleb Carr, Alyson Feltes, Gina Gionfriddo, Tom Smuts, Karina Wolf
Produced by Stuard Carolan
Executive Producer: Cary Joji Fukunaga, Steve Golin, Eric Roth, Rosalie Swedlin, E. Max Frye, Chris Symes, Jakob Verbruggen, David Caffrey, Alyson Feltes, Pavlina Hatoupis
Associate Producer: J.B. Popplewell, Daniel Robinson
Music by The Haxan Cloak
Cinematography by Cathal Watters, Alejandro Martinez
Edited by Dermot Diskin, Cheryl Potter, Liyana Mansor, Jay Prychidny
Casting by Avy Kaufman, Lucinda Syson, Natasha Vincent
Production Design by Ruth Ammon
Art Direction by Marco Furbatto, Glen Hall, Josef Brandi, Michael Fissneider, Celina Hollaender, Alex Santucci, Esther Schreiner, Alessandro Troso, Marton Voros
Set Decoration by Nimrod Hadju, Missy Parker
Costume Design by Rudy Mance
Starring:
Daniel Bruhl as Laszlo Kreizler
Luke Evans as John Moore
Dakota Fanning as Sara Howard
Robert Wisom as Cyrus Montrose
Douglas Smith as Marcus Isaason
Matthew Shear as Lucius Isaacson
Ted Levine as Chief Thomas Byrne
Martin McCreadie as Sergeant Doyle
Brian Geraghty as Theodore Roosevelt
Q’orianka Kilcher as Mary Palmer
David Wilmot as Captain Connor
Brittany Marie Batchelder as Joanna Crawford
Rosy McEwen as Libby Hatch
Melanie Field as Bitsy Sussman
Emily Barber as Violet Hayward
An unflinching psychological thriller amidst the underbelly of New York City’s “Gilded Age,” The Alienist follows Laszlo Kreizler (Brühl), a brilliant and obsessive “Alienist” in the controversial new field of treating mental pathologies, who holds the key to hunting down a never-before-seen ritualistic killer murdering young boys.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD, which I am reviewing in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own.
Based on Caleb Carr’s 1994 novel “The Alienist”, “The Alienist” TV series drama adaptation for the second season (2018) titled “The Alienist: Angel of Darkness” has arrived on DVD courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
The TV series drama adaptation stars Daniel Bruhl (“Goodbye Lenin!”, “Rush”, “Captain America: Civil War”, “Inglourious Basterds”), Luke Evans (“Dracula Untold”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Fast & Furious 6”) and Dakota Fanning (“War of the Worlds”, “I Am Sam”, “Man on Fire”).
The first season featured newly appointed police commissioner Teddy Roosevelt contacts Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (portrayed by Daniel Bruhl), a criminal psychiatrist and John Moore (portrayed by Luke Evans), a newspaper illustrator to work together and conduct an investigation in secret to look into child murders.
Roosevelt also sends his secretary, Sara Howard (portrayed by Dakota Fanning) to assist them in their case and becomes the first woman employed by the NYPD.
The second season of “The Alienist: Angel of Darkness” is now set in 1897 and begins with a woman who awakens in a hospital looking for her baby. The woman is accused of murdering her baby and is now on trial.
For Sara, who is now a private detective and no longer with the NYPD, she believes the police deemed the woman/mother as guilty without doing a thorough investigation. And the woman is executed.
But when the infant daughter of a visiting Spanish dignitary Narciso Linares and his wife Senora Isabella Linares (portrayed by Bruna Cusi) is kidnapped and a dead baby is found in a toy store with marks on its eyes, the three are brought together as there could be a serial killer targeting infants on the prowl. Also, joining theme are a few NYPD detectives and forensic specialists, brothers Marcus and Lucius Isaacson and Kreizler’s servants, Stevie and Cyrus.
But what makes things challenging for their investigation is the rising tensions between the US and Spain and also, a war in Cuba seems to be inevitable.
The DVD is presented in English 5.1 surround with subtitles in English SDH.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Alienist: Angel of Darkness” comes with the following special features:
- Inside “The Alienist: Angel of Darkness”
- The Hunt for a Killer: Building the World
- Dressing a Modern Woman
- Walking the Set 2.0 with Luke Evans
With the second season of “The Alienist” titled “Angel of Darkness”, the main three of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, John Schuyler Moore and Sara Howard are back once again to track down what may be a serial killer of infants.
And like the first season, NYPD are still the same when it comes to protect the reputations of high society and not finding the true killer. Newspapers are the same, are more about eye catching headlines and exaggerated stories (yellow journalism) and the rights and roles of women are ignored.
What is interesting with the TV series adaptation is how writers wanted to focus less on Kreizler (as he is the main protagonist in the novel) but focus on Sara Howard.
Sara, now a detective, will not any man talk her down and she fights for the rights of women. Meanwhile, as she grows closer to John Schyler Moore (who is dealing with demons in his own closet), the three must work on their own investigation knowing how the NYPD are.
But it’s not easy as the NYPD are looking at mothers of the deceased children as the main culprit and not thinking a serial killer could be on the loose.
In addition, because the Linares family are Spanish dignitaries, and their child has been kidnapped, because of the tensions between US and Spain (which would eventually lead to the Spanish-American War of 1898), especially in Cuba, because of how political things are, not many want to help the Linares family.
In fact, for mother Senora Isabella Linares, the way the Americans look down at her and tensions make the case even more challenging.
But will the three find the killer before another infant is killed?
For the most part, the second season is entertaining but with the second season coming out two years later and there was a major change of directorial and writing staff, there was a major change. To focus on Sarah Howard and her fight for the rights of women but also how she is not going to back down for any man.
It’s no doubt different from the novel but at the same time, I didn’t mind the change of style and the theme of “The Alienist” as in someways, it was trying to mirror today’s modern society juxtaposed in 1897 New York.
Where today, like then…police corruption still exists, women’s rights (especially in a position of power) is still in the forefront and sensational journalism is still commonplace.
But I can understand if faithful fans of the novel were not thrilled with the loose adaptation for the second season.
For the most part, it was nice to see Daniel Bruhl, Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning reprising their role and their characters taking on a new investigation.
The second season was no doubt dark, a bit gruesome but I have to say that the set design for “The Alienist: Angel of Darkness” was awesome to see and how they were able to capture that side of life for that time (even to the details of horse crap on the streets). Costume design was also well-done for this second season.
Overall, if you did enjoy the first season of “The Alienist”, you may enjoy the second season “Angel of Darkness” as well. It may focus more on Sara Howard primarily but the gripping storyline will no doubt hold your attention and worth giving a try!
Click here to purchase “The Alienist: Angel of Darkness” on Blu-ray or DVD on Amazon