#the alienist cast

[supercalifragipopculturevomit]

FILM STILLS: THE MAIN CAST OF THE ALIENIST

Daniel Brühl as Dr. Laszlo Kreizler

Dakota Fanning as Sara Howard

Luke Evans as John Schuyler Moore

Q'orianka Kilcher as Mary Palmer

Brian Geraghty as Theodore Roosevelt

Douglas Smith as Marcus Isaacson

Matthew Shear as Lucius Isaacson

Matt Lintz as Stevie Taggert

Robert Ray Wisdom as Cyrus Montrose

[terriwriting]

And that suit jacket is baggy. Victorian fashion in general had a looser fit for men, but a suit for a man of this class would be tailored. This one just sort of hangs off the man like a sack.

On the other hand, by 19th Century standards this guy can't even be bothered to comb his hair before showing up to the party. So maybe he doesn't care about the fit.

so I'm not watching The Buccaneers, because period dramas have to pass EXTENSIVE peer review before I engage with them (for my own sanity). but this showed up on my YouTube recommended:

I.

this show is set in the 1870s. an unspecified year, and pre- vs. post-1875 does matter for fashion, but the decade in general that gave us Looks such as these:

and the best these designers could do was Lob With Headband + Frumpy Prom Dress What Does Not Fit? (even if the girl in question had short hair, at the time she would not have worn it that unstyled, especially not for evening. plus that is plenty long enough to pin back and attach a false chignon to, something common back then even if a woman DID have long hair)

apparently, based on interviews, this was a choice and not a budget thing. and like. I don't know about you guys, but I'm so damn tired of designers who make media set in eras they clearly don't even like the fashion of

congrats you made it less visually interesting. great job.

[p-isforpoetry]

Othello | Watch for Free | National Theatre at Home | Full Performance

To celebrate 60 years on stage, take your seats for a special free stream of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy, Othello, from National Theatre at Home, made possible by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Directed by Clint Dyer with a cast that includes Giles Terera (Hamilton), Rosy McEwen (The Alienist) and Paul Hilton (The Inheritance).

[leannareneehieber]

I write Gothic, Gaslamp Fantasy full of ghosts, mystery, romance, danger and eerie, spooky atmosphere...

I hope you'll dive into my worlds and stay a while...

Pictured Left: STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL (Gothic Victorian Ghostbusters with Jane Eyre and Dark Academia vibes, Greek Mythology bleeding into London at the time of Jack the Ripper, Intense Brooding Gothic Romance, Found Family, Tons of Ghosts) Book 1 of the Strangely Beautiful trilogy contains The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and sequel, The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker - (Here's Strangely Beautiful's TV Tropes page...)

Pictured Right: THE SPECTRAL CITY (The Alienist meets Ghost Detectives: Psychic Girl-Gang and their favorite friendly ghosts solve weird crime in 1899 NYC. Slow-burn inter-faith romance, found family, inclusive cast, even more ghosts) - Book 1 of a trilogy of novels...

All my full-length novels- I've a bunch more too- are available wherever books are sold in digital & trade paperback - if your local bookstore doesn't have any on the shelf, they can order them in! (For my novella series, including The Spirit Suitor extension of The Spectral City saga, check out Scrib'd!)

I'm always looking for new readers so if this appeals to you, I hope you'll immerse yourself in these haunted histories and sweeping sagas. All of my Gaslamp Fantasy novels feature crossover characters, so my Eterna Files (Victorian X-Files) and Magic Most Foul (Gothic YA Romance) series also feature crossover characters. You don't have to have read the series in any particular order, just be sure to start with Book 1 of the particular series title!

If you do know my work, could you tell a friend? Cheers and happy haunting!

[denimbex1986]

'Casting director Avy Kaufman admits even she was skeptical when Steven Zaillian asked her to come on board to cast “Ripley,” the Netflix limited series based on Patricia Highsmith’s classic novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” The story had already been adapted to screen, most notably in Anthony Minghella’s Oscar-nominated 1999 film.

“At first, I was wondering why Steve was doing this,” Kaufman says bluntly. “I’ve been lucky enough to work with him on many other projects, so I know how talented he is, but to reboot is really risky.” But the final product, which boasts 13 Emmy nominations, including a nod for casting, quelled any doubts. “It’s like a piece of art,” Kaufman raves. “I was really impressed. It tells so many different stories and gets inside the characters. I just think it’s a masterpiece.”...

Kaufman actually cast the limited series prior to the pandemic and admits it was an arduous process. “He wants to see a lot of people,” she says. “Which I respect, but it does take some time.” Andrew Scott was already attached to play the titular title character, and it was Kaufman who suggested Dakota Fanning to costar as Marge Sherwood, the female lead and a major antagonist to Ripley. “I had worked with her on a show called ‘The Alienist,’ and she was wonderful,” Kaufman notes. “At first I wasn’t sure she would want to jump back into television, but she did, and she was brilliant.”

Fanning was just one of several actors that Kaufman keeps in her mental Rolodex, reminding actors that they’re never just auditioning for one role but possible jobs down the line. Case in point: English actor Johnny Flynn, who plays the pivotal role of Dickie Greenleaf, the object of Ripley’s obsession. “Johnny is a favorite of mine, and when Steve took to him, I was so happy,” she notes. She was also a fan of Eliot Sumner, who plays Dickie’s friend Freddy Miles. While she was familiar with both, “Ripley” might be their most high-profile roles in the U.S...'

[elimgarakdemocrat]

2376 Bajoran Election | Elect.Wiki.Org/Fed

The first Bajoran General election under the Third Republic took place on February 2, 2376. The 676 seats in the Bajoran Parliament were selected based on proportional representation, with voters for parties below the 5 seat threshold having their votes redistributed to other parties of their choice. Shown are all the parties that gained seats, with their adjusted vote totals.

The Progress Faction was able to gain a plurality but not a majority of seats, and had to form a coalition to rule. The Peace Faction refused to provide the necessary seats, and as such the Progress Faction was forced to form an alliance with the Pagh Vedeka faction.

Progress Faction [40.9% of the vote, 277 seats]

Platform: To promote the material conditions of the people of Bajor, via economic development and intersystemic cooperation.

Scientific Universalist Party [15.5% of the vote, 106 seats]

Platform: To promote the ideals of scientific rationality and its application to the wellbeing of the Bajoran People.

Voter base: educated elites, many of whom are Alienists (people who believe the Prophets to be time-controlling aliens rather than Gods)

Prophetic Democracy Party [13.2% of the vote, 89 seats]

Platform: To strengthen the Pagh of the Bajoran people.

Voter base: rural professional middle class. Almost entirely Prophetists (people who believe the Prophets to be Gods)

Social Democratic Party [5.8% of the vote, 39 seats]

Platform: To promote the general welfare.

Voter base: urban professional middle class and some of the working class. Mix of Prophetists and Alienists.

Communist Party (Marxist) [3.3% of the vote, 22 seats]

Platform: Workers of the World unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains! [In Federation Standard]

Voter base: mostly urban former hardline revolutionaries, largely ones who disagreed with the dehumanization policies the Communist Party tried to engage in following the Federation withdrawal from DS9.

Democratic Socialist Party [2.2% of the vote, 15 seats]

Platform: To promote the welfare of the working people of Bajor.

Voter base: urban educated elite and some of the urban working class.

Pluralist Party [0.9% of the vote, 6 seats]

Platform: to promote the rights and values of minority species on Bajor.

Voter base: almost entirely humans settled on Bajor, and some non-humans who live in human districts.

Peace Faction [28.2% of the vote, 190 seats]

Platform: To promote a free and truly independent Republic of Bajor.

Independence Party [17.2% of the vote, 116 seats]

Platform: To free Bajor by resisting the intrigues of intergalactic empires.

Voter base: rural liberals of many stripes. The Independence Party was the political wing of the Bajoran resistance and ruling party during the provisional government, but lost much of its base due to attrition in that time period.

Prophetic Liberation Party [5.3% of the vote, 36 seats]

Platform: To liberate the Bajoran working class via the will of the Prophets.

Voter base: left-wing Prophetists.

People's Party [2.5% of the vote, 17 seats]

Platform: To oppose the machinations of politicians and produce a government that truly works for the people.

Voter base: low social trust voters.

Communist Party [1.7% of the vote, 11 seats]

Platform: Workers of the World unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains! [in Bajoran Standard]

Voter base: former hardline revolutionaries. The Communist Party was the political wing of the hardline Bajoran resistance fighters and the opposition during the provisional government. Lost power in several schisms over the species character of Communism.

Communist Party (Nalist) [1.5% of the vote, 10 seats]

Platform: D'jarra ga, Tessipa ga, Pagh'ten ga Pagh. [Traditional Nalist slogan, roughly translates to No Caste, No Lords, No Prophets But The Soul]

Voter base: former hardline revolutionaries who split from the Communist Party when it refused to fully carry through on dehumanization policies following the Abandonment of DS9.

Pagh Vedeka Faction [24.5% of the vote, 166 seats]

Platform: To restore the dignity of Bajor through strength; for only in strength is there dignity.

Prophetist Party [11.2% of the vote, 76 seats]

Platform: To glorify the prophets and create a new Bajor in the image of their plan.

Voter base: hardline Prophetist conservatives, many members of higher D’jarras. Most older Bajorans who remembered the pre-occupation status quo.

Bajoranist Party [5.2% of the vote, 35 seats]

Platform: To promote the unique interests of Bajoran people against alien interests.

Voter base: rural conservatives who are less focused on religious issues. Mostly still Prophetists.

Reparationist Party [3.6% of the vote, 24 seats]

Platform: To extract reparations from the Former Cardassian Oppressors, and bring justice to the victims of the Cardassian Occupation.

Voter base: hardliner anti-Cardassians, often in areas more heavily affected by the Cardassian Occupation.

Revanchist Party [2.6% of the vote, 18 seats]

Platform: To restore Classical Bajor to its True and Original Borders.

Voter base: hardliner anti-Cardassians, generally from urban provinces.

Bajoran Independence Party [1.2% of the vote, 8 seats]

Platform: To free Bajor by resisting the intrigues of intergalactic empires, by force if necessary.

Voter base: former Independence Party members who disagreed with the isolationist and pacifist stances of the party.

Communist Party (Surakist-Cesarist-Khanist) [0.7% of the vote, 5 seats]

Platform: To liberate the proletarian mass of Bajor against the bourgeois decadence of the ruling class.

Voter base: former members of the Communist Party who followed the teachings of Vedek Li, who sought inspiration from major “communist” figures throughout history.

Unaffiliated [6.4% of the vote, 43 seats]

Jeraddoist Party [4.2% of the vote, 28 seats]

Platform: To preserve the natural beauty of Bajor against industrial exploitation.

Voter base: educated elites disgusted with the energy plant on the moon Jeraddo and other similar development projects

Libertarian Party [1.3% of the vote, 9 seats]

Platform: To challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.

Voter base: educated elites who dislike the main political parties

Communist Party (Maoist) [0.9% of the vote, 8 seats]

Platform: To serve the people, never benefiting oneself, always benefit others.

Voter base: former Communist Party (Marxist) voters who agreed with the fundamental interspecies nature of Communism in the speciescharacterism schism, but disagreed with the Marxists for participating in bourgeois coalitional thinking.

This is part of a series I'm calling Exarchates, about the politics of Bajor and Cardassia post DS9.

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

The Watchers

I tend to watch films with a double consciousness. Part of me tries to become immersed in the plot and characters, while another part can’t help critiquing everything — a badly framed shot, a forced acting choice, an arbitrary plot turn. That was particularly telling in the last act of Ishana Night Shyamalan’s debut feature, THE WATCHERS (2024, Max). While I found the final disposition of leading lady Dakota Fanning’s emotional problems quite moving, I was also painfully aware that Shyamalan had shoehorned plot developments not to reflect character logic but rather to develop her themes related to the divided self and the need for self-forgiveness.

Fanning is a young artist living in Galway and dealing with guilt over her role in her mother’s death. When her car breaks down in the forest, she finds herself trapped in a mystical wood haunted by partially de-powered fae. She and the three strangers she meets can only survive by spending each night in a metal fortress with a large two-way mirror through which the fae study them in order to imitate them. Like the four humans, they’re confined to the woods, but they still work at honing their mimicry skills.

Shyamalan directs smoothly and with cinematographer Eli Arenson imbues the woodland setting with mystery and menace. She also melds the cast into a cohesive unit. Though clearly the most experienced actor of the group, Irish stage actress Olwen Fouérè doesn’t overpower Fanning, a film-raised actress who can flounder when not given proper guidance (see her in THE ALIENIST, or better yet, don’t). Fanning has a great face for horror. It’s very open, with large eyes that can express a lot and look particularly good when she’s focusing on something scary to either side of her. And her choices here are intelligent. Shyamalin, who also adapted the screenplay from A.M.  Stine’s novel, has given her a strong character arc, and Fanning hits all the right notes to make it work.

The idea of masking as an escape from the self runs through the film. When Fanning wants a night out, she dons a wig of a different color and picks up men by pretending to be someone else. That’s her way of not dealing with her own self-hatred. It’s almost too precious, then, that she’s held captive by creatures that can masquerade as anybody they study closely enough and do so in hopes of escaping their confinement in the forest. There’s also a final twist (like father, like daughter) that’s not as illogical or twee as some in her father’s films, though I think she carries it in the wrong direction. And yet, I still found the film surprisingly affecting, and that’s not nothing.

[cineste]

Three Notable Offerings on Netflix

I've already recommended The Zone of Interest and Poor Things. Here are a few more recommendations:

Ripley - absolutely magnificent in so many ways: script, production design, cinematography (beautiful B&W), casting, and the always brilliant Andrew Scott (who is onscreen 98% of the eight or so hours of the series). I recommend that the series  be judged on its own merits, not by comparison with the other five Ripley films or even with Highsmith’s novels for that matter. Many commentators seem to get hung up in the comparison game. Streaming on Netflix

The Alienist - intriguing in countless ways: script, production design and cinematography (shot in Budapest replicating 1896 New York). It's a “police”procedural that is more about the psychological problems/challenges of those doing the investigation than the serial killer they're pursuing. The development of psychiatry and psychoanalysis as medical and criminology disciplines is central to the story's thrust. Strong overall cast. But Daniel Brühl’s subtleties are especially noteworthy because of what's being asked of him with so many intense closeups.

The Forbidden - set and shot in Morocco, this feature film showcases the always brilliant Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain. A scathing invective of the British upper class in today's world and the moral consequences of ignorance about and disdain for others. Also on Netflix

Enjoy!

[vivianstravelblog]

TV Show Review: The Alienist

~ Warning! Spoilers! TV Show Review: “The Alienist” Season 1 & 2 (TNT 2018+2020) REVIEW A few years back, I heard a lot of positive reviews for “The Alienist,” and the cast is just delectable, so it has been on my list ever since. I recently decided to cancel my MAX subscription, meaning I needed to clean out my watch next list on the streaming service in less than a month. On there is “The…

[deliciousdreamblaze]

Ubuyashiki

Ubuyashiki

Ubuyashiki ( Japanese : 家と死 ) is a relationship of Shura and Niji. From a private hospital for the insane near Providence, Rhode Island, there recently disappeared an exceedingly singular person. He bore the name of Charles Dexter Ward, and was placed under restraint most reluctantly by the grieving father who had watched his aberration grow from a mere eccentricity to a dark mania involving both a possibility of murderous tendencies and a profound and peculiar change in the apparent contents of his mind. Doctors confess themselves quite baffled by his case since it presented the oddities of a general physiological as well as psychological character. Wen Xu

Creation

Ubuyashiki's wife

Ubuyashiki and Damashi In the first place, the patient seemed oddly older than his twenty-six years would warrant. Mental disturbance, it is true, will age one rapidly; but the face of this young man had taken on a subtle cast which only the very aged normally acquire. In the second place, his organic processes shewed a certain queerness of proportion, which nothing in medical experience can parallel. Respiration and heart action had a baffling lack of symmetry; the voice was lost, so that no sounds above a whisper were possible; digestion was incredibly prolonged and minimised, and neural reactions to standard stimuli bore no relation at all to anything heretofore recorded, either normal or pathological. The skin had a morbid chill and dryness, and the cellular structure of the tissue seemed exaggeratedly coarse and loosely knit. Even a large olive birthmark on the right hip had disappeared, whilst there had formed on the chest a very peculiar mole or blackish spot of which no trace existed before. In general, all physicians agree that in Ward the processes of metabolism had become retarded to a degree beyond precedent. Mishima

Relationship

Psychologically, too, Charles Ward was unique. His madness held no affinity to any sort recorded in even the latest and most exhaustive of treatises, and was conjoined to a mental force which would have made him a genius or a leader had it not been twisted into strange and grotesque forms. Dr. Willett, who was Ward's family physician, affirms that the patient's gross mental capacity, as gauged by his response to matters outside the sphere of his insanity, had actually increased since the seizure Ward, it is true, was always a scholar and an antiquarian; but even his most brilliant early work did not show the prodigious grasp and insight displayed during his last examinations by the alienists It was, indeed, a difficult matter to obtain a legal commitment to the hospital, so powerful and lucid did the youth's mind seem; and only on the evidence of others, and on the strength of many abnormal gaps in his stock of information as distinguished from his intelligence, was he finally placed in confinement. To the very moment of his vanishment he was an omnivorous reader and as great a conversationalist as his poor voice permitted; and shrewd observers, failing to foresee his escape, freely predicted that he would not be long in gaining his discharge from custody. Ubuyashiki and Mishima

Damashi

Damashi

Damashi ( Japanese : 欺瞞と嘘 ) is Half-Brother of Kamado After twenty-two years of nightmare and terror, saved only by a desperate conviction of the mythical source of certain impressions, I am unwilling to vouch for the truth of that which I think I found in Western Australia on the night of 17-18 July 1935. There is reason to hope that my experience was wholly or partly a hallucination - for which, indeed, abundant causes existed. And yet, its realism was so hideous that I sometimes find hope impossible. Sorcerer powerful and existence godlike eternal

Creation

Tathamet, Great Evil Seven

If the thing did happen, then man must be prepared to accept notions of the cosmos and of his own place in the seething vortex of time, whose merest mention is paralysing. He must, too, be placed on guard against a specific, lurking peril which, though it will never engulf the whole race, may impose monstrous and unguessable horrors upon certain venturesome members of it. Ubuyashiki and Liu Qingge

It is for this latter reason that I urge, with all the force of my being, final abandonment of all the attempts at unearthing those fragments of unknown, primordial masonry which my expedition set out to investigate. Kamado

Biological

Assuming that I was sane and awake, my experience on that night was such as has befallen no man before. It was, moreover, a frightful confirmation of all I had sought to dismiss as myth and dream. Mercifull, there is no proof, for in my fright, I lost the awesome object which would - if real and brought out of that noxious abyss - have formed irrefutable evidence. Shura confronted Samandriel

When I came upon the horror, I was alone - and I have up to now told no one about it. I could not stop the others from digging in its direction, but chance and the shifting sand have so far saved them from finding it. Now, I must formulate some definite statement - not only for the sake of my own mental balance, but to warn such others as may read it seriously. These pages - much in whose earlier parts will be familiar to close readers of the general and scientific press - are written in the cabin of the ship that is bringing me home. I shall give them to my son, Professor Wingate Peaslee of Miskatonic University - the only member of my family who stuck to me after my queer amnesia of long ago, and the man best informed on the inner facts of my case. Of all living persons, he is least likely to ridicule what I shall tell of that fateful night. Akai

Behind

I did not enlighten him orally before sailing because I think he had better have the revelation in written form. Reading and re-reading at leisure will leave with him a more convincing picture than my confused tongue could hope to convey. He can do anything that he thinks best with this account - showing it, with suitable comment, in any quarters where it will be likely to accomplish good. It is for the sake of such readers as unfamiliar with the earlier phases of my case that I am prefacing the revelation itself with a fairly ample summary of its background. Akai

It may be that centuries of dark brooding had given to crumbling, whisper-haunted Arkham a peculiar vulnerability as regards such shadows - though even this seems doubtful in the light of those other cases which I later came to study. But the chief point is that my own ancestry and background are altogether normal. What came came from somewhere else - where I even now hesitate to assert in plain words. Damashi

[supercalifragipopculturevomit]

Favorite behind-the-scenes photos from The Alienist.

Sources all over the web but most of these originated from the cast members' socials and @TheAlienistTNT Instagram. Edits are mine.

[indisden]

Daniel Brühl in various photoshoots

[sorcrxss]

Icons of Dakota Fanning as Sara Howard. Like/credits if you use!

Follow on twitter: @softtiegwaine

[madeleineengland]

Luke Evans on Instangram 😊

[denimbex1986]

'Twenty five years after the late, great Anthony Minghella introduced Patricia Highsmith’s mild-mannered manipulator to a whole new audience, The Talented Mr. Ripley has been reimagined once more – for modern-day streaming consumption.

That means even more time to spend in the company of the softly-spoken sociopath, as he causes chaos for Dickie Greenleaf and friends in sun-soaked early-1960s Italy.

But while some may debate the merits of expanding an already slow-burning thriller to more than five-times the length of Minghella’s very late 20th century masterpiece, there’s no doubting the aesthetic qualities and commitment to craft inherent in Netflix’s eight-episode Ripley.

Creator Steven Zaillian (The Irishman, Moneyball) might have eschewed the Amalfi Coast’s azure blues for the crisp black-and-white that helped make his and Steven Spielberg’s World War II-drama Schindler’s List so compelling, but it helps transport the viewer to another time and place (as does a 60s-infused soundtrack that initially includes hits by Orbison and Humperdinck), while also allowing cinematographer Robert Elswit (Nightcrawler, There Will Be Blood) to make great use of shadows and light for atmosphere-creation and narrative-reflecting.

Likewise, there’s less of a youthful and ensemble feel to the cast, the fresh-faced Matt Damon replaced by the more careworn (and centre-stage) Andrew Scott (Fleabag, Sherlock), while Johnny Flynn (One Life, Emma.) and Dakota Fanning (The First Lady, The Alienist) are terrific, slightly older matches for Minghella’s Dickie and girlfriend Marge – Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. And while there will no doubt be groans from some quarters at the restyling of key figure Freddie Miles (played here by Eliot Sumner), it actually feels like a sensible choice, rather than trying to find anyone to top the scene-stealing brilliance of Philip Seymour Hoffman.

For those unfamiliar with the plot of Highsmith’s 1955 crime novel (first adapted for the cinema via 1960’s French tale Plein Soleil), this Ripley follows the European adventures of New York-based Tom (Scott), as an unexpected opportunity lifts him out of borderline poverty and a seemingly perpetual cycle of petty phone and mail-based crimes.

Having tracked him down with the help of a private investigator, shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf (Kenneth Lonergan) wants to send Tom on a mission – persuade Herbert’s son Dickie, an old schoolmate of Tom’s, to come home. Convinced his offspring is no painter or writer, Herbert is frustrated by his years of “sailing and drinking and avoiding responsibility”, living “in a place around Naples” off a trust fund “we stupidly set up and can’t legally take off him”, contact only maintained by “an occasional postcard”.

Initially, Tom is unsure, until his apartment’s plumbing goes south and the prospect of a salary and an all-expenses paid trip to Italy’s southern coast prove too tempting to resist. However, once there, he quickly fesses up about the plan, admitting that “I’m not someone who takes advantage of people”.

But while Dickie thinks he’s genuine, Marge isn’t so sure, especially when her beau begins spending more time with his reacquainted college pal than her.

What follows is Highsmith’s captivating cat-and-mouse tale, here given copious amounts of time and space to develop and unfold, twist and turn the tension all the way up to 11.

While the production, costume design and overall mise en scène is quite frankly intoxicating, it’s Scott who provides the sizzle and dramatic meat of the story, giving his duplicitous and dangerous Tom a real edge behind the outwardly effortless charm and insouciant smile.'