This drama miniseries was on my watch-list as soon as I heard about it, and now that I have Apple+ again and both the Golden Globes and Critic’s Choice awarded Paul Walter Hauser, I knew I had to start it ASAP.
Black Bird as a series also caught my eye because I learned that author and film/TV writer, Dennis Lehane was behind the creation of it. He gave us chilling tales like Shutter Island and Gone Baby Gone. The man knows how to do chilling, and the same treatment was given here with great success. We first meet Jimmy Keene, who’s real-life, autobiographical novel, was the inspiration and guide-book for Lehane’s vision. Keene, back in the day, was a pompous drug and arms dealer who finally got caught and was given serious time for his crimes. Not long after though, the FBI took notice of his charms and ease of connecting with people and recruited him to try and get a likely serial killer to confess to his crimes.
That man was Larry Hall. Larry, incarcerated for admitting to one murder, was likely to walk away a free man at an upcoming appeal because bodies could not be found. Over the years, a lot of law enforcement decided to write Larry off as a serial confessor, as he would admit to crimes and then flounder when “showing them where the bodies were.” In fact, Larry did read as kind of dim-witted, genial, and generally not capable of such carnage to much of the outside world. And it took Jimmy a lot of facetime and a certain degree of personal honesty for Larry to finally feel like he had a true friend and someone who could relate to the things he’d done.
Now, this kind of stuff I eat up. I love it. For some reason, these sixty minute episodes went at such a methodic pace that the very tail end of 5 of the 6 episodes kind of lost me. As in, I nodded off. That doesn’t happen often and I was sad that it happened here. It was a good story, but maybe they could have gotten away with shorter episodes, or even a shorter season altogether. Regardless, they managed to really win me over in the end with the final episode. There’s a scene where Larry confesses to Jimmy and then states that he’s going to win his appeal. Rightfully, Jimmy snaps at this psychotic analysis, but Larry does, too. It was really powerful stuff and totally cements those wins Hauser got for playing Larry.
I’d say if crime dramas are your thing, you will love this miniseries. And even though it wasn’t a homerun for me, it completely deserves all the praise it’s been getting, and is likely to still get at the Emmys later this year.