On the surface, Black Bird, the new psychological thriller from AppleTV+, seems like something we’ve seen before. And really, it is. An adaptation of James Keene’s autobiographical novel “In With the Devil,” we follow Jimmy Keene (a great Taron Egerton, showing range he’s never had the chance to delve into before), a mid-level drug kingpin in Chicago in the mid-90s who, in exchange for a shortened sentence, agrees to go undercover into a supermax prison to get close to convicted rapist and murderer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser, so good in such a disturbing role) and try to discover where he buried his victims – all before Hall’s appeal is granted.
It’s a bit Mindhunter, a bit every prison movie you’ve ever seen, but it turns out to be six pretty strong episodes of television – at least when you focus on the central performances and don’t look too closely at the rather flimsy narrative that surrounds them. Much of the story rests on Egerton’s performance. He must make us believe that Jimmy is charismatic enough to pull off this difficult assignment, but not too polished to appear to be a professional profiler – he is, after all, just another criminal with his own skin in the game. And Hauser needs to walk the line of making us question whether or not Hall actually committed the heinous crimes he was convicted off, as well as the number of unsolved disappearances the FBI and local sheriff (played here by, with far more depth than one might suspect for roles that are, in the end pretty thankless, Sepideh Moafi and Greg Kinnear, respectively). We’re granted flashbacks of Keene and Hall as kids, which deepen our understanding of each character, but which certainly don’t offer excuses for either of their crimes. The series is less successful with a late series episode meant to bring the focus to one of Hall’s victims, using her as a focal point but not really offering much depth in building her character at all.
When a scene is centered on Keene or Hall, it sings. It’s hard to overstate Hauser’s nuanced performance – from his high-pitched sing-songy voice, to his wide, seemingly innocent eyes – every choice he makes gives us a little piece of a surprisingly uncomplicated puzzle. And that isn’t meant to be a slight to the story – the mystery of whether or not Hall was the killer isn’t all that in doubt from the word go. It’s more a question of whether or not Keene will be able to break through to elicit a confession at all that is the true mystery of the series.
The series isn’t as successful when it slides into flashback mode of the initial investigation – or when we get to watch the current investigation unfold. Again, not a slight against Kinnear and Moafi who anchor these sections of the story, both do a lot with the little they get to work with. But you want to be back in the prison, watching Hauser and Egerton go head-to-head. There’s also a subplot that sees Keene trying to navigate the prison politics of his new digs, which brings his ex-cop father, played by the late, great Ray Liotta, in one of his final acting roles, into the story. Liotta is so emotionally compelling in his limited screen time that you wish we got to spend more time understanding his character from a perspective other than that of his angry son. Alas, we get precious little time with Liotta and Egerton together, although their scenes provide the heart to the character of Jimmy Keene – something that is largely missing from the character otherwise.
And that’s the real issue here: there’s not all that much story, even though the performances are more than enough to make you forget that. Sure, there’s some suspense as to whether or not Keene will succeed (although, once you realize the story is based on his own book, that suspense falls away), but there’s not a lot of narrative heft here. The dialogue is pretty run of the mill. The story reminds you of Mindhunter, but you’ll quickly realized that Mindhunter was a much better series that this one. But you know what? At six episodes, the performances are enough to recommend this one. I suspect most folks will be able to look past the thin plot and thin narrative thrust and settle in to watch some great actors give some great performances. And really, that’s not a bad way to spend a couple of hours.
Black Bird premieres Friday, July 8 on AppleTV+ with its first two episodes. Additional episodes will be released weekly. All six episodes were provided for review.
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