Streaming platforms continue to fight for the attention of viewers and prove that they are dominating the market and are worthy of a ton of accolades. Last year, the undisputed leader was the drama series “Mare of Easttown” from HBO. This year all bets are off as every streaming service is delivering content at its best. Including the ranks is AppleTV+ with its latest show, “Black Bird.”
Courtesy of Apple TV+
Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton) is a self–confident drug dealer, so at the moment when the police come to him to arrest him for selling, he smiles, because he has an “excellent lawyer.” However, everything doesn’t go according to plan. He thinks he is going to walk out or maybe see a tiny bit of jail time, however the court was not in his favor and sentence him to a decade. After his initial arrest, some time goes by and he seems relatively at home in the prison that is until he gets some unexpected visitors.
Detective Lauren McCauley (Sepideh Moafi), who was involved in his capture, comes to Keene and offers a deal; if Jimmy can gain the confidence of Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser), a maniac who received a sentence for the murder of two girls to talk. The police suspect that Hall over 12 more victims that have been unaccounted for. Hall is a mysterious person: a fan of historical installations, closed and somehow out of this world. Obviously, it won’t be easy to get him to talk, but Keene has no choice – he agrees.
Courtesy of Apple TV+
How many TV shows about maniacs already exist? Is it possible to surprise the viewer, especially those who are adept and accustomed to a certain level of narration set by “Mind Hunter”, “Dexter”, “Hannibal” and other classical representatives of the genre? Perhaps, yes. The peculiarity of “Black Bird” is that it is a real psychological thriller. And not because it is a “thriller with psychology” (all films are somehow tied to human psychology).
Courtesy of Apple TV+
But because this is a rare example of a literal immersion in a person’s personality – akin to a psychotherapy session. Only as a psychiatrist in front of us is a charismatic criminal, and in the role of his patient is a creepy bear–like maniac, in whose gaze literally nothing is read. I.e. at any moment he, an infantile–looking man, can do anything – it is unpredictable.
And excellent actors demonstrate here the magic of transformation in the skin of their characters so much that the jaw drops. Egerton flaunts his trademark bravado (although he does it in a way that no one can do better), Hauser, brings a new sort of creep to the word creepy. He is one of the most memorable maniacs you’ve ever seen in your life. The hidden evil that radiates from his harmless, at first glance, kind of mattress-redneck, comes out gradually and is not always noticeable to the eye – this is a real chameleon man, the impersonation into which Hauser turned out to be so brilliant that the blood in his veins freezes.
Courtesy of Apple TV+
This is the highest level of acting – when the performer of the role merges so much with his character that you forget at the moment that you are looking at a feature film, and not a meticulous documentary. The duo play off each other so well its hard to tell who is really running the show or winning the “game” at any given moment. It’s a highly tense story told in a very confiding space which somehow makes it even that much more concerning.
Ray Liotta, in one of his last roles before he passed, manages to play out all the necessary emotions with ha glance. His intense conversations with Jimmy and the ever doting father that is just trying to get his son free is something not to be missed. It would not be surprising if Liotta gets some awards for the role next year.
The story keeps a super fast pace as its only six episodes which were written by “Island of the Damned” writer, Dennis Lehane. This pace keeps the viewer invested. Its a story that you seem to binge in one sitting (that is if you didn’t watch it live week to week as AppleTV+ released them).
Courtesy of Apple TV+
On top of that, we must remember that this entire crazy story is based on some sort of real events – it seems that such a fantastic plot (a drug dealer makes friends with a maniac to find out the details of his crimes) can only be something so crazy that it has to be fictional; but no, real life inspired it.
That fact along makes one shudder – it’s enough to look into Larry Hall’s empty, hazy eyes to understand how often we don’t understand the world we live in, and how much we don’t know about its most intimate and terrible secrets.
Check out the trailer below:
You can watch the entire series now, currently on AppleTV+. Let us know what you think.
Polina graduated from State University of Management in 2011 with a qualification of Publicity Specialist majoring in "Advertising" and has a diploma of professional training at the Academy of Communications "Wordshop" specializing in Digital-specialist. She has completed courses in copywriting and creative writing in 2019 and continues to develop these skills every day.
Polina is always ready to learn something new and challenging and expand her talents. She is obsessed with watching TV shows and movies and loves to discuss this topic on social networks with like-minded people.
