Varun Patel
Historical fiction proves to be an enticing genre. It allows for creative liberty as well as the exciting trip-down-history lane of stories set in the past. That is the reason several writers opt for the middle path: historical fiction wherein history is tweaked in order to present compelling tales. TNT’s ‘The Alienist‘ is a historical fiction TV show with a mystery premise that does exactly that. The show, like ‘Freud,’ uses actual historical figures to tell a largely fictional story.
The tale is set in New York of the late nineteenth century. It depicts how the Big Apple was a place of great technological innovation and a humungous wealth gap. The story is an adaptation of Caleb Carr’s book of the same name and the Dr. Laszlo Kreizler series in general.
‘The Alienist’ revolves around a criminal psychologist named Dr. Laszlo Kreizler. At first, he is called upon by police commissioner, Teddy Roosevelt to investigate a series of crimes involving the murder of several male prostitutes. He conducts the investigation in secret, along with a newspaper illustrator named John Moore. The police commissioner’s secretary, Sara Howard also joins them, apart from the detective sergeants, Marcus and Lucius Isaacson.
The cast of ‘The Alienist’ is truly star-studded. Daniel Bruhl plays the character of Kreizler while Luke Evans plays John Moore. Dakota Fanning plays Sara Howard.
The Alienist Filming Locations
As mentioned earlier, ‘The Alienist’ is set in New York of the 19th Century. The setting, as one would have guessed, is extremely important to the story. After all, it is historical fiction. There are various actual figures who play a notable part in the story as well. Hence, the portrayal of New York is highly crucial for ‘The Alienist.’ Thus, it is natural for viewers to wonder where the show is actually filmed. Is it actually shot in New York, like its setting? Or has some other place been used to double up as the Big Apple from the past?
Hungary
Well, filming for ‘The Alienist’ was not actually carried out in New York, like its setting. It would have actually been tougher to do so, thanks to modernization. Most of the filming was actually carried out in Hungary.
Within Hungary, filming was mostly carried out near Budapest. Various sets were built using tons of research from sources like historical photos and the Tenement Museum. Some of the sets were built at Origo Studios. Apart from that, filming was also carried out at Korda Studios. Real cobblestones imported from Europe and functional streetlamps were used for filming purposes. Have a look at some photos from the show:
Filming may have also been carried out in Los Angeles. Have a look at the following video which has the location, “Los Angeles” marked. However, that could just be the place from where the post was uploaded:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAd0Pj-A9cl/
Read More: Best Historical Dramas on Netflix
