The Alienist Trivia | 40 facts about the series

“The Alienist” is a very popular series, that had gained a lot of positive comments from both the critics, and the viewers.

So, let’s find out more about “The Alienist”!

1. The Alienist is an American period drama television series.
2. It is based on the 1994 novel of the same name by Caleb Carr.
3. The ten-episode limited series first aired on TNT as a sneak peek on January 21, 2018.
4. This happened a few days before its official premiere on January 22, 2018.
5. Also, it ended on March 26, 2018.
6. The series stars Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning as an ad hoc team assembled in mid-1890s New York City to investigate a serial killer who is murdering street children.
7. The series incorporates fact with fiction by including the characters that are historical figures, such as Theodore Roosevelt, who held the post of police commissioner from 1895 to 1897.
8. On August 16, 2018, TNT ordered a sequel series based upon the 1997 follow-up novel The Angel of Darkness.
9. The second season, titled The Alienist: Angel of Darkness.
10. It premiered on July 19, 2020.
11. The first season is set in 1896, when a series of gruesome murders of boy prostitutes has gripped New York City.
12. Newly appointed police commissioner Teddy Roosevelt calls upon Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a criminal psychologist and John Moore, a newspaper illustrator, to conduct the investigation in secret. Joining them in the probe is Sara Howard, Roosevelt’s headstrong secretary, as well as twin brothers Marcus and Lucius Isaacson, both detective sergeants in the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
13. The second season is set a year later.
14. During the second season Sara has opened her private detective agency. She, Kreizler, and now–New York Times reporter Moore team up to find the Spanish consul’s kidnapped infant daughter. Their investigation puts them on a path of another elusive killer, while showcasing institutional corruption, income inequality, yellow journalism, and the role of women in 1890s society.
15. St. Elizabeths Hospital was the site of a Federal Mental Asylum frequented by members of the armed services who were deemed unfit for duty.
16. In the early twenty-first century, it is slated for redevelopment as the Headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security.
17. The full name of Luke Evans’ character is John Schuyler Moore. Schuyler is an old New York Dutch family whose roots can be traced back to well before the founding of the nation and has close ties to the Roosevelt clan.
18. A well-known ancestor of Moore was Elizabeth Schuyler, wife of Alexander Hamilton.
19. In the original novel, the character John Moore is a crime reporter.
20. In the TV series, he is an illustrator.
21. In one episode, Moore purchases a typewriter at a tricky tray event and tells Sarah Howard that he is interested in becoming a writer.
22. Blackwell’s Island was later named Welfare Island, and subsequently renamed Roosevelt Island.
23. Due to the number of hospitals and asylums, the area was designated as a Hospital Park.
24. By the mid-twentieth century, it became a mixed-use zone, through the introduction of residential developments, and by the twenty-first century, a satellite campus of Cornell University and Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedom Park was established at the Southern end of the Island.
25. The former location of the “Old Met,” Old Metropolitan Opera building, was at the corner of 39th Street and Broadway.
26. The old building was known as the “Diamond Horseshoe,” and one of the major reasons why the Opera company removed themselves to Lincoln Center was that the stage and backstage area had very little room to accommodate the players and props.
27. The main titles for the series were created by the design studio “Elastic”.
28. It’s the same studio responsible for the intro of True Detective (2014) and Game of Thrones (2011).
29. An alienist is a term for a psychiatrist who assesses the competence of a defendant in a law court.
30. To put the show setting into context, the consolidation of New York -that is, inclusion of the four outer boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island into Manhattan- did not take place until 1898, two years after the established series date of 1896.
31. Theodore Roosevelt was right-handed. In series, Roosevelt is left-handed which was very much frowned upon by society.
32. The Croton Reservoir was located where Main New York Public Library and Bryant Park now reside.
33. The Alienist (2018) was nominated for the 2018 Emmy Award in the Outstanding Limited Series category.
34. It lost to American Crime Story (2016).
35. People with mental illness were once considered “alienated from society”.
36. This is why those who treated them being referred to as alienists.
37. High Bridge Tower is next to High Bridge. At one time, it served as an aqueduct which brought water from upstate into New York City.
38. The allusion to Immigration Station turned Aquarium, is now known as Castle Clinton or Castle Garden.
39. The serial killer in the series is based upon known serial killer Albert Fish, also known as “The Grey Man,” hence the silver smile reference. He abducted, murdered, and ate Grace Budd and then sent a letter to her parents detailing how he ate her and how he did not violate her. The same happens in this series.
40. John briefly interacted with a member of the Astor family. The family made their money in the fur trade in the Western United States and what remains of their legacy are: Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and a district in Queens known as Astoria.