10 Need-To-Know Facts About True Crime Series 'Black Bird' on Apple TV+
It’s a tale as old as time: the drug dealer befriends the serial killer in order to betray him. Promises are made, deals struck, the feds are involved, everything is dangerous, and nothing is as it seems.
Black Bird is Apple TV+’s newest series in the true crime genre. Its pilot impressed critics and had the audience clamoring for more. A new episode drops every Friday, and for viewers wanting to catch up quickly, there are just a few essential facts to know before jumping in. To be clear: these are facts about the show, and are not to be taken as facts about real-life events.
Who is Jimmy Keene?
Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton) was a charming high school football star who rode that popularity into a lucrative career dealing cocaine. It’s an occasionally risky job with some pretty big rewards. He lives large, parties hard, and blows through beautiful women.
One day his luck runs out, and the feds swarm his house. The drugs are bad, but the guns are worse. They’d like to make an example out of him, and the new prosecutor is better at his job than Keene’s fancy lawyer gives him credit for.
Big Jim’s Influence
Jimmy’s dad Big Jim (Ray Liotta, in one of his final roles) was a cop for over forty years, a hero in Kanakee Illinois, just south of Chicago, where Jimmy grew up. But Big Jim wasn’t exactly squeaky clean himself. He was known to associate with mobsters and crooked politicians. In fact, Jimmy’s grandfather had been a driver for Al Capone. Jimmy was unsurprisingly following a well-trod path.
Jimmy’s childhood was volatile thanks to constantly erupting parents until they finally divorced. Still, Jimmy loves and respects his father, and Big Jim wants more than fancy cars and big houses full of empty bedrooms for his son.
Prison Time
Facing a daunting minimum sentence, Big Jim counsels his son to plead guilty, receiving a lesser sentence in exchange. His own instincts as a cop, and the discreet inquiries he’s made lead him to expect a term of five years for Jimmy, four for good behavior. But Big Jim’s advice doesn’t pan out.
The judge throws the book at Jimmy, shocking everyone with a ten-year sentence with no chance of parole. Prosecutor Beaumont lied to him, but it's a done deal now, with no recourse.
Chief Investigator Miller’s On The Case
When the body of a young girl is found discarded in a farmer’s field, it falls on Detective Brian Miller’s (Greg Kinnear) shoulders to investigate the case. His leads all point to a man named Larry who’s already been investigated for a similar crime in another town – questioned, and released.
It looks like those cops have already bungled the case, dismissing Larry even though several women and girls have reported being harassed by the same man with excessive sideburns following them around in his creepy van.
The Suspect, A “Harmless Weirdo”
In fact, Larry’s even confessed to another girl’s murder. The local cops reassure Miller that he’s a harmless weirdo and an attention seeker, but that doesn’t explain how he knows details about the murder scene that haven’t been made public.
Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser) goes to prison for one murder but has managed to suggest there may have been several others. However, he also claims that the murders were just vivid dreams and that his confession was coerced. He’s been granted an appeal and unless Miller and associates can come up with more evidence, there’s a good chance Larry will walk.
The FBI Makes Jimmy A Deal
Jimmy’s already been in prison for several months, and even though he’s managed to make a niche for himself in minimum security, Big Jim has recently had a stroke, and if Jimmy serves his full sentence, he’ll never see his dad alive again.
FBI Agent McCauley (Sepideh Moafi) offers Keene a deal: they’ll transfer him to Larry’s maximum-security prison for the criminally insane, and if Jimmy can befriend Larry and get him not only to confess, but to reveal the location of up to eighteen women’s bodies, they’ll commute his sentence and he’ll go free. Jimmy knows this is a dangerous proposition, but he’s determined to make the best of it, motivated by Big Jim’s health.
Taron Egerton Stars as Jimmy Keene
Egerton, as the newly minted Kingsman Eggsy in Kingsman: The Secret Service and its sequel, The Golden Circle, is clearly more than capable of this role. And although he’s in impressive shape for this role, Egerton’s range has proven again and again that he’s more than just a physical presence.
He’s played an optimist and Olympian in Eddie the Eagle, Robin in Robin Hood, a particularly mad mobster in Legend, Johnny the carjacking gorilla in Sing, and Elton John in Rocketman, in which he did his own singing, unlike some of his contemporaries.
If He Looks Like A Creep And Acts Like A Creep…
Paul Walter Hauser’s breakout role was arguably Richard Jewell in Clint Eastwood’s film of the same name in which he played a man falsely accused by the FBI of being responsible for the 1996 bombing of the Atlanta Olympics. But that’s not all.
Hauser has also portrayed one of Cruella’s henchmen in the Disney live-action remake, and one of Tonya Harding’s knee-bashing crew in I, Tonya. Black Bird is terrific evidence of his tremendous acting ability, but it just may be that Hauser has a face destined for police lineups.
Based On A True Story
Although Black Bird isn’t a podcast or a documentary, Apple TV+ cashes in on the true crime craze with a series based on a true story – a story that might otherwise have seemed like it could only be told by Hollywood. Not so.
Jimmy Keene and co-author Hillel Levin wrote In With The Devil based on Keene’s attempt to befriend and betray suspected murderer Larry Hall while undercover at a maximum security prison. The Apple TV+ series sports a different title. Why Black Bird? Perhaps it’s as simple as the black bird singing, which is what Jimmy was asked to make Larry do. But it’s also interesting to note that black birds in nature sing not only to attract a mate, but to declare boundaries to other males. Considering the twenty dead women thought to be Larry’s victims, it’s uncomfortably evocative.
From The Writer of 'Mystic River,' 'Gone Baby Gone,' and 'Shutter Island'
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Dennis Lehane is an American author, and his books have been adapted into some of this century’s most consuming crime dramas, including Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and Shutter Island.
He was also on the writing staff of The Wire, and Boardwalk Empire, and wrote the screenplay for the Tom Hardy/James Gandolfini film, The Drop, based on his own short story. Lehane’s stories are known for their grit, authenticity, and moral complexity. Lehane is a natural fit for Black Bird as he makes the jump from Boston’s seedy underbelly to true crime; fans of either will be criminally satisfied.
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