Kent Gibbons and Michael Malone talk about NBCUniversal's Peacock launch, The Alienist's return to TNT, and HBO's I May Destroy You.

Streaming service Peacock headlines this week’s new show debuts with the launch of several new original series.

The NBCUniversal-owned Peacock service, which debuts July 15 and will be offered in limited free-to-consumer AVOD and premium $5-a-month subscription iterations, will premiere with such original shows as Brave New World, a sci-fi thriller which follows the travails of a future Utopian society; The Capture (pictured), a conspiracy thriller that looks at a troubling world of fake news, and Intelligence, a comedy in which a maverick American NSA agent and a junior analyst team to thwart a workplace power struggle, said the company.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several other shows debuting the week of July 13 to July 19  on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

July 13 -- The Nest (drama) -- Acorn TV

July 14 -- Showbiz Kids (documentary) -- HBO

July 16 -- Fatal Affair (drama) -- Netflix

July 16 -- The Secrets She Keeps (drama) -- Sundance Now

July 17 -- Absentia (returning series) -- Prime Video

July 17 -- Cursed (drama) -- Netflix

July 17 -- Into the Dark: The Current Occupant (horror) -- Hulu

July 17 -- The Sims Spark’d (reality) -- TBS

July 19 -- The Alienist: Angel of Darkness (returning series) -- TNT 

The Alienist: Angel of Darkness begins on TNT July 19. Set in New York in the late 1800s, Angel of Darkness follows Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a brilliant psychiatrist or, in the parlance of the period, an alienist. Season one, called The Alienist, saw Kreizler and his team, a newspaper illustrator and a secretary focused on becoming New York’s first female police detective, track down a person murdering young boys.

Season two sees the trio searching for the kidnapped infant daughter of the Spanish consular. TNT will air two episodes every Sunday until the finale on Sunday, Aug. 9.

The series is based on novels by Caleb Carr.

Stuart Carolan, executive producer and showrunner, shared about Angel of Darkness with Multichannel News senior content producer Michael Malone from his Ireland base. An edited transcript follows.

How did you get involved with the project? I had worked with producer Rosie Swedlin before and know her well. I was asked to pitch first. I sent the pitch to Paramount and to TNT. It was 10 people on a Zoom call before it came fashionable.

Any COVID issues in terms of shooting the season? We wrapped in Budapest in October, then moved to London and post was in Los Angeles in January. We started hearing about COVID then, but we had everything in the can.

Tell me about the case at the heart of Angel of Darkness. It’s a missing-child case set against the backdrop of the tensions between Spain and the United States with the war in Cuba looming. What we have is the child of the Spanish ambassador who goes missing, and Sara Howard [played by Dakota Fanning] is called to investigate. At the same time, Dr. Kreizler [Daniel Brühl] is looking at another case where there’s a woman accused of murdering a child. We connect both cases, and realize someone is stealing children and possibly murdering them.

These are period pieces, but what about them makes them timely in 2020? There’s a lot of stuff that’s pretty relevant. Sara Howard was established in the book as an exceptional woman, a trailblazer. That speaks to a lot of women at the moment, especially after Me Too. She was battling sexism, she was battling misogyny.

Other things we were conscious of, when you look at Black Lives Matter, there’s Joanna [Brittany Marie Batchelder] and Cyrus [Robert Ray Wisdom]. Joanna was introduced very briefly in season one. She worked at the Philadelphia Tribune. In season two, she comes to New York to work at The New York Times. We took a bit of artistic license. The first African-American reporter at The New York Times [arrived in] 1945. We tried to bring her into the story in a big way.

In terms of Cyrus, he worked with Kreizler, driving his carriage. We wanted to give him a little more agency. We set him up owning the Montrose Oyster Saloon. The historical reference we used is a man named Thomas Downing, an African-American abolitionist. He started an oyster bar in the 1820s and it became one of New York’s best oyster bars. He was a huge figure at the time.

Thoughts on TNT showing two episodes a night? I think that’s fantastic. Especially in the era of streaming — you get used to binge-watching. You watch it, it will grab you, and by the time you get through two, hopefully, you’re hooked. 

BONUS FIVE

Shows on your DVR?Normal People on Hulu, I May Destroy You on HBO, I Am Not Okay With This on Netflix. Waiting for third seasons of Succession, Atlanta.

All-time top TV show?The Sopranos

Destinations on yourbucket list? Once COVID is behind us, I want to go back to Italy. For the moment I’m at home in Dublin and swimming daily in the Irish Sea in a place known as the Forty Foot.

Books on your nightstand?Shakespeare in a Divided America by James Shapiro, Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli, Show Them a Good Time by Nicole Flattery, Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Recent memorable meal? A roving tour of Nepalese Momo Dumpling restaurants in Jackson Heights, New York.

TNT has moved up the start of The Alienist: Angel of Darkness. The season will now start July 19, after TNT initially said it would begin July 26. TNT did not explain the move other than to say it is “an effort to continuously bring consumers thrilling, event television at a faster pace.”

Angel of Darkness is a four-week event, with two episodes every Sunday, concluding Aug. 9. 

TNT calls the series “an unflinching, gripping, turn-of-the-century murder mystery that traverses both New York’s wealthy elite and the struggling underbelly of the city’s ‘Gilded Age.’”

Based on Caleb Carr’s novels, The Alienist follows Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl), a brilliant “alienist” in the controversial new field of treating mental pathologies. In the first season, Dr. Kreizler chased a person murdering young boys. He was joined by newspaper illustrator John Moore (Luke Evans) and Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning), a secretary determined to become the city's first female police detective. 

In The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, Sara has opened a detective agency. She reunites with Kreizler and Moore, now a New York Times reporter, to find Ana Linares, the kidnapped infant daughter of the Spanish Consular.

The series is produced by Paramount Television Studios, with Anonymous Content's Rosalie Swedlin, showrunner Stuart Carolan, director David Caffrey, writer Alyson Feltes, Pavlina Hatoupis, Ben Rosenblatt, Eric Roth, and Cary Joji Fukunaga the executive producers.

TNT is moving up the premiere of its thriller series The Alienist: Angel of Darkness by a week to July 19.

The series, which was initially scheduled to launch on July 26, will roll out over four weeks with two episodes airing every Sunday through Aug. 9, according to the network.

The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, a followup to The Alienist series which debuted in 2018, stars Daniel Brühl, Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans, Douglas Smith, Matthew Shear, Robert Ray Wisdom, Ted Levine, Melanie Field and Rosy McEwen.

TNT offers a new season of The Alienist July 26. Based on the Caleb Carr novel The Angel of Darkness, the new season is called The Alienist: Angel of Darkness. 

Season one, which aired in 2018, was based on the Carr novel The Alienist. The Angel of Darkness is a sequel to that novel.

Daniel Bruhl, Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning are in the cast. 

A turn-of-the-century murder mystery set in New York, The Alienist followed Laszlo Kreizler (Brühl), a brilliant and obsessive doctor in the controversial field of treating mental pathologies. In the first season, Dr. Kreizler pursued a killer murdering young boys. He was joined by newspaper illustrator John Moore (Evans) and Sara Howard (Fanning), a secretary determined to become the city's first female police detective. 

In The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, Sara has opened a detective agency and is leading the charge on a new case. She reunites with Kreizler and 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 path of murder and deceit. TNT said 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.”

The Alienist: Angel of Darkness is produced by Paramount Television Studios, with Anonymous Content's Rosalie Swedlin, showrunner Stuart Carolan, director David Caffrey, writer Alyson Feltes, Pavlina Hatoupis, Ben Rosenblatt, Eric Roth and Cary Joji Fukunaga the executive producers.