A strange chase of cats and mice among criminals is at the heart of this new streaming series.
When James Keene published his nonfiction memoirs of his time in prison, a Buffalo News reporter in the United States wrote that if he didn’t know it was a real story, he would have looked you in the eye in the face of the Hollywood plot.
Keene was a low-level drug dealer who was serving 10 years in a minimum security prison when he was offered an offer from authorities to reduce his sentence.
If he agreed, he had to move to a maximum security center, befriend a serial killer, get him a confession, and locate the bodies of his victims. And he had to do it quickly because the killer’s appeal went through the courts.
If he refused, he would stay where he was to serve his full sentence with no possibility of parole.
The scheme sounds like a Hollywood plot. So it’s no surprise that Hollywood saw in Keene’s story the potential of an exciting and disturbing real-life crime miniseries.
More than six episodes, Black bird Starring Taron Edgerton as Keene and Paul Walter Hauser as Larry Hall, the alleged serial killer who was only convicted on a kidnapping charge even though police had suspected he had links to dozens of rapes and murders.
Edgerton and Hauser play against the guy, doing quieter, more moderate performances than the roles for which they are best known.
Edgerton’s Keene is full of charisma, a young man of privileged background who is used to doing things his way, to the point that while he had minimal security, he successfully created a porn loan program.
This ingenuity and confidence made him a prime candidate for Hall’s task, chosen for his perceived ability to enchant and seduce Hall into revealing his darkest secrets. He has an arrogant security that doesn’t feel extravagant.
Hall, with his distinctive sideburns, looks like a child, casting an apparent naiveté that belies the words he uses to describe what he allegedly did to the victims. It’s a creepy juxtaposition that exploits the series.
The best scenes are the cat and mouse exchanges between Keene and Hall, verbally dancing around each other to see who will capitulate.
There’s a strange structural choice in which the narrative jumps between the “topicality” of Keene’s mission and the research of a few years earlier. The shoes between the parallel stories don’t necessarily stick together, and given the visual similarities between the early ’90s and mid-’90s, if you look at another time, it’s not always clear what period you’re in.
The performances of Edgerton and Hauser, as well as Greg Kinnear and Ray Liotta (one of his last roles), are considered and convincing. Even when the series breaks down, the performances can always be seen.
Created for streaming by Dennis Lehane (Gone Baby Gone, Mr. Mercedes, Shutter Island), the series has many of the hallmarks that made Lehane such a successful novelist and crime writer. There is texture and patience Black birda world rich in detail that is slowly being revealed.
Given that it is a real crime, there is an anticipated conclusion that, if you know the end, it can deflate the bets. Better not search Google for what happened.
Black bird It’s not a perfect series, but it’s backed by a fascinating story, strong performances, and a temperate, haunting atmosphere.
Black Bird is streaming on Apple TV +