In My Dreams, I Like To Kill Women
Larry Hall
Black Bird is a 6 episode series of sustained tension, performances and there was no drop in quality over the whole coverage.
Criminal-based series has always been a bang, but the ones which are based on real life characters have always been a level up compared to others. Gangs, Drug Lords, Narcos and Scam based series are all top notch to me.
In comparison to series like Narcos, Narcos Mexico, Gangs of London and other real life-based storytelling series, Black bird is a level up as it is featured around a suspected Serial Killer, Lawrence D Hall popularly known as Larry Hall.
Despite having my reservations from the title of the series, I became eased after discovering it was an Apple TV+ series, as Apple TV+ shows are held in high regards for me and this didn’t disappoint as it was rated 4.5/5 from its IMDB viewers.
I have dug hundreds of grave since when i was a child,
Larry Hall
Probably more than you’ve had women
Seriously I’ve dugged more than you’ve fvcked
I have dugged in the cold, I have dugged in the boiling heat
I have dugged in the rainfall, turned the soil into oatmeal
I know a good grave, I do James.
Serial killers are smart, mostly clean to the fault, good at hiding and laying low, invisible and hard to detect, which makes them draws more resources from the authorities, fear and chaos from the masses and puts them way above regular criminals in pecking order.
In the case of Larry Hall, he was way high on the food-chain, even after being a detained suspect who vividly confessed to killing and being questioned, he was still able to confuse and convince the authorities that he just has a weird personality.
One of Larry Hall’s signature move was to confess to various heinous acts, in great detail, only to turn around immediately after, or even few days later to say he was simply recounting a dream he had. He didn’t kill women; he just dreamed about doing so.
Paul White Hauser’s (who played Larry Bird) obsessive and complete transformation into the character of a disturbed serial killer gives the brilliantly dense writing of the character and its contradictions of justice. He adds a layer of humanity that forces you not only to empathize, but to be constantly put in between two states of his innocence or the monstrosity that creeps in brilliantly the more you watch and how the story unfolds.
The series is very realistic and didn’t for once get boring, from the buildup; to the relationship between Jimmy and Larry who has a sensitive, anti-social side which was easily exposed to the convincing and heart-opening character of Black Bird’s protagonist-ish (actor as we call a protagonist of a movie growing up) as he tries to pursue and extract the truth from Larry. [, as he is not a regular senseless killer (yet)]. Their interactions gets deeper each and every time they begin to open up to each other and their dialogue is always intriguing and in line with the plot.
The mini-series not only has a good plot but also dived deep into the crime genre and explores the extent of human darkness, deceiving and destructive power of psychosexuality, and why not to judge based on looks or appearances. The quick dive into Larry Bird’s background throws light into his dark/dirty deeds and the role it played in shaping him into a psychosexual killer. This gives us a little insight, of monsters dressed as humans to do their dirty deeds and on how flawed and easy to manipulate the justice systems can be as Larry almost got out on the basis of not enough evidence.
All in all, it was a great performance from the cast and brilliant writing and scene creation from the crew. I will give this series a wonderful 8/10 Racoon rating.
Watch Trailer Here
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