User reviews

Wanted to love this but it is SO BAD. Taron Egerton couldn't act scared on the A train at four in the morning, as we say in NY. He seems to think "furrowed brow" is an acting choice. The writing is laughable. And what about the James Dean-esque hair and rolled up sleeves in prison? I thought he was supposed to blend in? Lol. Ray Liotta is just sad to watch. He looks horribly unhealthy. The actor who plays the FBI agent is also terrible, with her weird line delivery. Can't tell if she's flirting or taunting which is a good sign that she isn't very good. We made it through three episodes but don't think we can continue. Painful.

The big reveals are drab although the music like them. Egerton is everything you expect him to be. You can see him visibly remembering to suck his stomach back in one scene it's a bit silly to watch this gym bro try to convey being horrified about anything other than the right kind of diet and exercise. Every conversation has huge pauses between sentences which are ramped up to intermittent naps whenever Sepideh Moafi is on screen who incidentally is always on the verge of crying whilst also being a stern but extremely flirty FBI agent. The final episode's credits roll to the verve's lucky man which about sums up the type of quality production here.

Hauser was really good though, the expressions he can muster with his pixar face is incredible he pulls you right in it's a shame everyone else dropped the ball on him.

Now, after watching the entire limited series, I continue to have a big problem with 'Black Bird'. And the problem is this this: the series' premise.

The FBI have only one month to get a potential serial killer of young women to confess to murder(s). And each day their chances grow more slim. So, what do they do? They place a fake inmate into the serial killer's highest-security prison in hopes that the two men will bond and the killer will confess. That's it. The premise.

They could, of course, put a well-trained FBI Agent into the prison to bond with the killer. They could, of course, hire an actor to do the same. They could take anyone who is likable and somehow willing to play the role.

But they don't.

Instead, they take a drug-dealer, currently imprisoned, and strike a deal to commute his sentence but only if he gets the serial killer to (1) confess and (2) disclose where the body(ies) is buried.

I can't seem to get past this awful premise. Yes, I know, I have to suspend disbelief. And if this were about Space Aliens I could. But this is a current-day police procedural and, as such, has to have some semblance of reason behind it. The fact that in today's culture so many women are victimized makes it all the more difficult to accept the film's major plot device. And having watched the entire series, all six episodes, my feelings are unchanged.

Add to that the fact that the perils our 'hero' faces in jail are never fully realized. A time-consuming sub-plot with a seeming-Mafia-Boss goes absolutely nowhere. An evil guard simply vanishes from the story. Then add that two more of the most interesting characters - a cop and female FBI agent - also all but disappear. The serial killer is nowhere near as frightening as he should be; our hero shows no signs of fear of the killer (nor should he, nor do we). And finally add to that the fact that the series' finale leaves a lot to be desired (emotion-wise), and what you've got is one big disappointment.

The IMDB rating intrigued me. Personally, I found the acting, script & production to be subpar. Jimmy was not believable in his role. I had such high expectations and was very disappointed. Had it been a 2 hour movie, I may have bailed. As a 6 part series, we was hopeful that it would improve as I went (assumed it had to based on ratings). Unfortunately this did not happen.

For a max security prison dealing with mentally unstable prisoners (so they claim), as felt the production value was very "low budget like."

I want my 6 hours back.

This show suffers from the same issue as most "American" superhero movies. The lead role is played by a British actor. They spend most of their energy covering up that British accent. I cringe while watching them contort their mouth and constantly adjust their voice inflection to cover it up. It's a shame that they can't find one single American actor good enough to play these parts.

This show is good with some excellent performances except of course Taron Egerton who is one of the worse actors of his generation. Even in Kingsmen he had this monotonous acting going on. There too, he was saved by the movie itself and other actors. In Black bird Ray Liotta gives an excellent performance but the one who steals the show is Paul Hauser as the mentally challenged Larry Hall. You would think he is this way in real life. Sepideh Moafi as Lauren over acts every scene she's in but at least she has charisma unlike Egerton who walks around as if his muscles were to big for himself.

The movie can be slow at times and some of the conversations are plain weird like when Lauren asks Jimmy, "do you like women", "what do you like in women". However the good outweighs the bad and I wouldn't call it excellent but it's worth 7 stars and is fun to watch.

Update: i lowered the rating after watching more episodes. The show got even slower and not much is happening. Just a bunch of conversations. They even used the same sex scene from the first episode in the 4th. They're that cheap. I'm very disappointed. They built it up nice but by the 4th episode it fell flat. This could have been great.

Was I watching the same series as the majority of the reviews?? I saw the review score and was looking forward to a semi decent series. Perhaps the plot was good but I could not move beyond the bad acting by the gym boy lead character, cliched direction and screenplay. To add to this, the gratuitous nudity and sex scenes just made like a corny 90s cop show or a straight to TV 1980's b-film.

Apple really needs to up their game. This is the drivel that I expect to see on Netflix and not a premium brand like Apple.

I gave up after the second episode as I just could not bare it any longer. In the meantime back to rewatching decent series like Ozark.

Lighting and background is on point, but that's about it though. It feels like a PG13 serial killer series with over the top acting and unrealistic plot. The FBI agent is laughable and the main actor is even worse. You can do better apple!