Dakota Fanning’s 2-Season Sci-Fi Thriller With an 80% Audience Score Is a Hidden Gem Worth Binging

At first glance, The Alienist looks like another gloomy period mystery — with cobblestone streets, gas lamps, and corseted intrigue. Yet, the deeper and closer you look, the more you’ll find one of the most intelligent, slow-burning thrillers of the past decade. Starring Dakota Fanning, Daniel Brühl, and Luke Evans, this two-season series from TNT delves into the roots of criminal psychology, forensic science, and early advocacy for women’s equality — all set against the moody, meticulous backdrop of 1890s New York.

What ‘The Alienist’ is About

Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans, and Daniel Bruhl in period outfits in a library in The Alienist.Image via Paramount Television

Adapted from Caleb Carr’s best-selling novel published in 1994, The Alienist chronicles Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Brühl), a criminal psychologist (or “alienist” as it was termed in that period), assigned by Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty) to investigate a series of gruesome homicides involving street children. The series depicts a nightmarish picture of the duality of a wealthy, divided Manhattan in 1896, where gilded mansions are mere blocks from brothels and the tenements where street children live.

Kreizler forms an unlikely investigative trio with illustrator John Moore (Evans) and Sara Howard (Fanning), Roosevelt’s ambitious secretary and the first woman employed by the NYPD. Together, they use emerging forensic techniques — fingerprinting, early crime scene analysis, and behavioral profiling — to hunt a killer the city’s elite would rather ignore.

It’s a richly detailed world, filmed in Budapest to recreate Gilded Age New York in all its grime and grandeur. The production design alone could rival Peaky Blinders or Boardwalk Empire, drenched in candlelit melancholy and industrial soot.

What Makes The Cast of ‘The Alienist’ So Strong

Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans, and Daniel Bruhl Pose in The AlienistImage via Paramount Teleivison

The show’s real hook isn’t the whodunit — it’s why. The murders serve as a vessel to explore trauma, morality, and the psychology of alienation. Brühl’s Kreizler is a man both fascinated and repulsed by human depravity, and the show never lets him — or the audience — look away from the uncomfortable.

Evans brings charm and melancholy to Moore, the jaded reporter whose idealism slowly reignites, while Fanning’s Sara Howard gives the series its heart and edge. As a woman operating in a man’s world, Sara’s conviction that she wants to be taken seriously often becomes the most compelling source of conflict on screen.

Her story subsequently expands in the second season, The Alienist: Angel of Darkness. Sara is now the head of her own detective agency, and when a Spanish diplomat’s infant daughter is taken, she is once again called into Kreizler and Moore’s investigation. The three then plunge back into the city’s shadows to uncover corruption, class tension, and their own moral limits.

While Season 1 leans on its noir mystery and gothic atmosphere, Angel of Darkness turns inward. It is a little less bloody but still brutal, delving into things like children’s abductions, political conspiracy, and women’s treatment in the early 1900s in America. The stakes are higher now that the characters are increasingly complex.

Fanning commands the spotlight here, shedding Season 1’s stiffness for a more confident, layered performance. Her Sara Howard isn’t just breaking glass ceilings — she’s smashing them with steel. The mystery may hinge on a chilling new killer, but it’s Sara’s evolution into a fearless investigator that gives The Alienist its lasting power.

The supporting cast remains stellar, with Douglas Smith and Matthew Shear reprising their roles as the Isaacson brothers, and new additions like Alice Krige (Gretel & Hansel) bringing a dose of gothic menace.

Why ‘The Alienist’ is Worth Rediscovering

Dakota Fanning Wears Hat in The AlienistImage via Paramount Television

The Alienist doesn’t reinvent the crime drama, but it executes it with precision. It’s atmospheric, psychological, and beautifully acted — more Zodiac than Sherlock Holmes. Some critics found its pacing deliberate, even languid, but that restraint is part of its appeal. It’s not a rush of twists and reveals; it’s a slow excavation of 19th-century minds and morals.

With the series now streaming for free on Spectrum, it is finally reaching the broader audience it always deserved. Between its sumptuous production, grounded performances, and Fanning’s commanding turn, The Alienist remains one of the most overlooked gems of recent television — a thoughtful exploration of the birth of modern criminal investigation and the dark heart of progress.

Though a third season hasn’t been announced, the source material — and the series’ cult following — leave the door wide open. For now, both The Alienist and Angel of Darkness stand as a complete, elegantly chilling story worth binging in full.

The Alienist

Release Date

2018 – 2020

Network

TNT

Directors

Clare Kilner, James Hawes, Paco Cabezas