: The mutilated body of a young boy prostitute is discovered on the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge. The victim was found dressed as a girl, a detail that reminds psychologist Laszlo Kreizler of a previous unsolved murder of one of his former patients.
(Douglas Smith & Matthew Shear): Detective brothers skilled in the new science of forensics who join the team. [S1E1] The Boy on the Bridge
: Dr. Kreizler, an "alienist" (an early psychiatrist), believes a serial killer is at work. He conducts a parallel, covert investigation because the police have wrongfully charged a man just to close the case. : The mutilated body of a young boy
The episode establishes the series' dark atmosphere, blending early forensic thinking with the grit of late 19th-century New York. The Alienist Episode 1 Review: The Boy on the Bridge newspaper illustrator John Moore
: Kreizler enlists his college friend, newspaper illustrator John Moore, and Sara Howard—the first woman hired by the NYPD and secretary to Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt. Cast and Key Characters