By Rick Gables
TNT travels back to New York City’s dazzling gilded age with taut thriller, The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, premiering July 19, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The sequel to the Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe Award-nominated series The Alienist, the new season stars Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning. An unflinching, gripping, turn-of-the-century murder mystery that traverses both New York’s wealthy elite and the struggling underbelly of the city. The Alienist followed Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Brühl), a brilliant and obsessive “alienist” in the controversial new field of treating mental pathologies. He was joined by newspaper illustrator John Moore (Evans) and Sara Howard (Fanning), an ambitious secretary determined to become the city’s first female police detective. In this season, Sara has opened her own private detective agency and is leading the charge on a brand-new case. She reunites with Dr. Kreizler, the formidable alienist, and John Moore, now a New York Times reporter, to find Ana Linares, the kidnapped infant daughter of the Spanish Consular. Their investigation leads them down a sinister path of murder and deceit, heading towards a dangerous and elusive killer. As in The Alienist, the series shines a light on the provocative issues of the era — the corruption of institutions, income inequality, yellow press sensationalism, and the role of women in society — themes that still resonate today.
CBS will premiere its new reality series, Tough as Nails, on Wednesday, July 8, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. This competition series celebrates everyday Americans who roll up their sleeves and don’t think twice about working long hard hours and getting their hands dirty, in order to keep their country running. Competitors who consider the calluses on their hands a badge of honor will be tested for their strength, endurance, life skills and, most importantly, mental toughness in challenges that take place at real-world job sites.
Jackson Galaxy, renowned cat behavior expert, returns to Animal Planet during the COVID-19 pandemic to face all-new felines in a My Cat from Hell special on Saturday, July 11, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
truTV will premiere the new season of Hot Ones: The Game Show on Tuesday, July 14, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Chaos breaks out when two teams of best friends enter the Pepperdome for three rounds of trivia and a series of the world’s hottest sauces, leading to a chance to win a 25,000 prize.
