Black Bird is a fist-clenching true thriller that places a likable drug dealer into a situation where he must go undercover to pry the locations of several victim’s bodies from a soft-spoken serial killer.

 

Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) plays Jimmy Keene, a quick talking criminal sentenced to ten years in prison with no opportunity for parole. Out of the blue the people that tricked him into taking the ten year plea deal, offer him a chance to scrap his remaining time if he is able to be transferred to a maximum security prison and retrieve the locations of several missing victims from a sinister serial killer. Played by Paul Walter Hauser (I,Tonya), Larry is that serial killer, his soft nature with a mystery clearly hidden behind every word brings a haunting reality to his chances of getting out if Jimmy is unsuccessful in his mission.

 

On the outside of the budding relationship between Larry and Jimmy, we have our authority figures on the case: the relentless investigator Brian Miller (Greg Kinnear), the heart of the operation Lauren McCauley (Sepideh Moafi) and the tricky C.O. Carter (Joe Williamson). Fully on Jimmy’s side at every turn is his ill father, Big Jim Keene played by the late Ray Liotta in one of his final roles. Every actor, both leading and supporting, delivers phenomenal performances from opening to closing credits, immersing the viewer into the experience that Jimmy has thrust himself into and giving some insight into the mind of a killer like Larry.

 

Two episodes in on premiere, creator Dennis Lehane has developed Jimmy Keene and Hillel Levin’s novel of the same name with a mesmerizing, daunting finesse, tapping into the riveting true crime genre to provide us with a thriller that’ll have you gripping your seat during this nearly impossible mission. Powered by the exceptional performances of Kinnear, Hauser and Egerton, this is a series that’ll be difficult to stop coming back to – the mystery of the outcome lies behind episode 6 and it’s a ways out of reach.