Black Bird (miniseries)

Black Bird is an American true crime drama miniseries developed by Dennis Lehane, based on the 2010 autobiographical novel In with the Devil: a Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption by James Keene with Hillel Levin. The six-episode miniseries premiered on July 8, 2022, on Apple TV+. The series received critical acclaim with particular praise toward Jimmy Keene's original story and its cast.
James "Jimmy" Keene has turned to a life of crime until he is arrested as part of a wider sting called Operation Snowplow. Once a promising young football star who was offered several college football scholarships; instead he decided to stay in the Chicago area to be close to his thriving business. He accepted a plea deal he believed to be two years, as opposed to fighting the charges and risking five, released with parole after four years if convicted. But in the conspiracy he was enhanced with possession of a number of illegally held firearms and was sentenced to ten years without parole.
Given Jimmy's natural charming and charismatic personality and gift for talking, he was offered an opportunity for a fully commuted sentence with a clean record and no conditions by federal authorities. This is the story of the dangerous deal he was offered and what happened next.
In 2008, Paramount Pictures and GK-Films purchased Keene's story rights to make a feature film. Brad Pitt was attached to play the lead role as James "Jimmy" Keene, and Pitt’s production company Plan B was set to produce alongside Paramount and GK-Films. The rights were later purchased by HBO for a planned television series.
The rights were finally acquired by Apple and the series was announced in January 2021, with Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser cast to star. Ray Liotta was added to the cast in March, and Greg Kinnear and Sepideh Moafi joined the next month. The six-episode limited series premiered on July 8, 2022, on Apple TV+.
Production for the series began in New Orleans in April 2021.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 98% approval rating with an average rating of 8.2/10, based on 80 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Dennis Lehane's penchant for authentic grit is on full display in Black Bird, an absorbing prison drama distinguished by its moral complexity and elevated by an outstanding ensemble." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 80 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Mike Hale of The New York Times stated, "Despite that imbalance in the dramatic weight, Black Bird is mostly engaging — Hauser is onscreen a lot, and the production has a hushed quality, with occasional expressionistic touches, that is reminiscent of David Fincher’s crime stories. It’s at its best in the fourth episode, directed by Jim McKay (“Our Song"): Egerton is more relaxed, and Hauser even sharper than usual. And McKay's depictions of a prison riot and the subsequent cleanup, meticulously supervised by Hall, are among the show's best moments."
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the series three and a half stars out of four, commenting, "Its release in the era of a national obsession with true crime could lead people to dismiss Black Bird, but this show is worth your time even if you don’t usually buy into the genre. It reminded me more of rich, character-driven material like The Night Of than so many of the 'ripped from the headlines' mini-series of late. It has the weight of some of Lehane’s best fiction, even though it’s all so disturbingly true."
Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Black Bird gains a tremendous amount of gravity from one of Liotta’s last screen appearances. Liotta’s death brings additional poignancy to a character who, through failing health and visits to his incarcerated son, is dealing with his own mortality and legacy... Black Bird is methodical (though not as methodical as Mindhunter) in a way that gains power as the show goes along... There’s enough good drama here to make that worthwhile."