Addictive, engrossing conundrum
Memorable dialogue abounds as the mystery and intrigue deepen with every scene in this truecrime drama, finds
Those who have followed Taron Egerton’s career on the big screen are in for a shock.
The British actor most famous for playing Elton John, Eddie the Eagle and Kingsman’s Eggsy has significantly bulked-up for his latest role in the six-part true crime drama Black Bird.
The 32-year-old looks chiselled and buff, as he portrays the series’ protagonist, and author of the 2010 autobiographical novel (In With The Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption) on which it is based, James Keene.
The son of a career cop, he was, at one time, Kankakee’s favourite son, as his gridiron skills and million dollar-smile earned him four college scholarship offers. But somewhere along the way, things went a little ‘‘sideways’’. By November 1996, he is using his charms to move illicit ‘‘inventory’’ and making himself a tidy profit.
That stops one morning when a Swat team surrounds his house, interrupting his power smoothie-making. Defiant, he informs FBI Agent Lauren McCauley (Sepideh Moafi) that he has ‘‘great lawyers’’.
‘‘Really? They turn water into wine?’’ she retorts, after her team recovers drugs and a cache of illegal firearms.
Warning his boy that the prosecution will be looking to make an example of him, father ‘‘Big Jim’’ (the late, Ray Liotta in his final television role) advises him to cop a plea, so he’ll be out in five years instead of 25.
‘‘Tell me there’s a way out of this,’’ Keene pleads to his dad. ‘‘Not a quick one,’’ comes the sad reply.
To their horror, the sentence handed down is double that, so when McCauley and the district attorney show up for a surprise visit months later, Keene is not pleased to see them.
Impressed that he has managed to not only survive, but thrive, during his incarceration – he is running a pornography library business that helps finance his cravings for fresh veges and lean beef – McCauley has a proposition.
They want him to transfer to another prison and use his charisma to elicit a confession from a man who may have killed more than 14 women. ‘‘We need the precise location of a dead body,’’ McCauley says, going on to detail the finer points of the plan.
‘‘So you want me to go to a maximum security prison specialising in the criminally insane and cosy up to a demon and ask him where he’s buried the bodies?. . . Not for all the money in the world,’’ Keene angrily responds.
‘‘How about freedom?’’ McCauley says, confirming that success will result in a complete commutation of his sentence. She also pleads to his humanity by saying that if Larry Hall’s (Paul Walter Hauser) pending appeal of his conviction is successful ‘‘he will kill again’’.
Switching between the initial investigation into Hall’s potential involvement in the death of Illinois teen Jessica Roach, after her body was found in an Indiana cornfield in late 1994, and the Keenes’ growing angst at the stress his prison term is causing his ailing father (at least, that’s how his stepmother Sammy, played by our own Robyn Malcolm, portrays his debilitating stroke), the tension builds magnificently, aided by a brilliant ensemble that also includes Greg Kinnear.
Although the directing is split between former helmers of The Wire and The Drop, it is veteran crime writer Dennis Lehane’s (Gone, Baby, Gone, Mystic River) script that shines. Memorable dialogue abounds and mystery and intrigue deepen with every scene. You are drawn into the investigation and Keene’s conundrum until you’re completely engrossed by it all and pushing yourself to watch ‘‘just one more episode’’.
Black Bird now is streaming now on Apple TV+.
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