TNT gives us a sequal to ‘The Alienist’
A summer miniseries event, “The Alienist: Angel of Darkness” (9 p.m. Sunday, TNT, TV-MA) will air back-toback episodes over the next four Sunday nights. This is not so much the second season of “The Alienist” as an adaptation of its sequel novel, also written by Caleb Carr.
“Alienist” is a turn-ofthe-20th-century term for a psychiatrist or one who studies the mentally ill, who had, in the logic of the times, grown “alien” from their true natures.
The series reflects rich production values and a lavish re-creation of the kind of gaslit urban jungle viewers have come to know from “Houdini,” “Copper,” “The Knick,” and “Ripper Street.”
Despite its impressive look, “The Alienist” was a slow-going affair, with its main character, the alienist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Bruhl), saddled with stilted period dialogue. The series took no historical pains to accurately reflect New York Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty). One of the most chronicled figures in American history, Roosevelt was often a patrician intellectual amongst ruffians, cowboys, cops and workers. He could have been played up for his eccentricity, but “The Alienist” portrays him as a laconic cowboy.
› “United Shades of America” (10 p.m. Sunday, CNN) returns for its sixth season. Documentary filmmaker W. Kamau Bell offers wry observations on race, class and caste in America while interviewing local representatives, activists and filmmakers. The series makes the most of Bell’s humor, empathetic interview style and CNN’s limitless wealth of news clips and archival footage.
This season’s debut seems charged by the moment, arriving deep into the COVID crisis and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement from the sidelines to the center of the political debate. It also arrives as the White House has defined its political and leadership strategies as an appeal to white fears and resentments.
In the first installment, Bell addresses the issue of white supremacy. He immediately describes the most obvious examples of the ideology, like Klansmen and neo-Nazis, as the tip of the iceberg. He then examines the institutional roots of racism, like lending and housing policies that create and sustain both ghettoized neighborhoods and all-white enclaves.
According to Bell, the high death rates of black and brown citizens from the COVID crisis are no mystery. Poor neighborhoods are also likely to be located in the most environmentally blighted areas, where access to public transportation, grocery stores and medical care are the most limited.
Worse, Bell argues, media coverage tends to enforce the attitudes that black and brown Americans “deserve” their status. According to one study he cites, more than 70% of television coverage of black men in Pittsburgh showed them to be either professional athletes or criminals.
Bell also looks into how the internet and emerging media like YouTube have been fertile ground for white extremist groups and terrorists. He shows clips of children under 10 praising the terrorist who killed dozens of Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand. In many ways these recruiting sites and videos mirror the efforts of ISIS, only with a white-power message.
And it’s not a fringe phenomenon. Bell shows how Swedish entertainer PewDiePie, YouTube’s biggest star, insinuates violent anti-Semitic messaging into his programming. PewDiePie has more than 100 million followers.