Doppelgänger TV shows happen all the time.
Series with similar set-ups, themes, or plotlines go head-to-head and, sometimes, only one survives — like in 2006, when two shows about the making of a fictional “SNL” squared off, and “30 Rock” trounced “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” Other dueling dualities both thrive, like “ER” and “Chicago Hope,” and still more bomb equally, like “Cashmere Mafia” and “Lipstick Jungle” in 2008, or “Do Over” and “That Was Then” in 2002.Being first to air isn’t always the deciding factor, but when you’re the second somber period drama to revolve around a dead baby — airing amid a global pandemic, no less — then you’re starting in a pretty deep hole.
And “The Alienist: Angel of Darkness” just keeps digging, building most of its eight-episode mystery around murdered, kidnapped, or otherwise tormented children.
Such a grisly predilection should sound familiar to anyone who caught HBO’s recent “Perry Mason” reboot,
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