‘BLACK BIRD’ takes humanity’s broken wings, fastens a crime drama series that flies

Preston Barta // Features Editor

Now, here’s a limited drama series with some major bite.

Give your attention to Black Bird, a six-part true-crime thriller developed and executive-produced by Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River and Shutter Island author Dennis Lehane. Apple TV+ premieres the first two episodes today, with one following each week through August 5. Learn more about the series below and watch our video interviews with Lehane and actor Paul Walter Hauser (I, Tonya and 2021’s Cruella) below. 

Adapted from the memoir In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption by James Keene and Hillel Levin, Black Bird brings together an incredible ensemble that includes Rocketman’s Taron Egerton as Jimmy Keene, a high school football star and decorated policeman’s son who is sentenced to 10 years in prison following his creation of one of the biggest drug empires in the Chicago area. But he’s given a choice: stay put and serve his full sentence with no possibility of parole, or enter a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane and elicit a confession from suspected serial murderer Larry Hall (Hauser). Rounding out the cast is the late Ray Liotta, Greg Kinnear and Sepideh Moafi.

Lehane’s work fires on all cylinders. Not only is it incredibly intense, well shot and edited, but it wrangles together some of the best performances in some time. Egerton and Hauser have never been better, and an argument could be made about Liotta, too, as Jimmy’s father. It’s the conversations these talents have with one another. It doesn’t need massive drug bust scenes or consistent prison fight sequences to kick up your ticker. (Although, those scenes are thrilling to boot.) This series thrives on its sharp dialogue and the exchanges between characters. 

One episode features Jimmy and Larry discussing life’s simple pleasures (like the patches of land you can see from an airplane) and life experiences is one of the many multilayered moments that send your mind running with big thoughts. How Lehane perfectly places his reveals is a masterclass in plotting. Black Bird presents a lot of sides to this story, but it doesn’t short-change anyone. It’s a very novel approach that keeps its narrative full steam ahead, frying your nerves and maintaining your attention from start to finish. It’s perhaps the year’s best new television series. 

Q&A

To discuss it further, we (virtually) sat down with Lehane and Hauser. We chat about Hauser’s scary turn as Larry Hall and how he prepared to say some of the most chilling lines as well as how Lehane sleeps at night after being in these characters’ minds. Enjoy the conversation below, and catch the series debut on Apple TV+ today!