Apple TV+ is quickly becoming a must-have streaming service for Taron Egerton fans. The actor’s latest role in Apple’s “Smoke,” in which he stars as an arson investigator alongside Jurnee Smollett, is a crime drama miniseries created by author and screenwriter Dennis Lehane (for the unaware, think of Lehane sort of like the Stephen King of gritty crime fiction). The show, which has a jaw-dropping twist in the second episode, was inspired by the “Firebug” podcast about a serial arsonist in Southern California.
If you try out “Smoke” and find that you not only like it but want more of the same, I’d argue there’s another series on Apple’s streamer also starring Egerton that likewise deserves your attention: “Black Bird,” which coincidentally is another crime drama from Lehane. Released in 2022, this series features Egerton as Jimmy Keene, a fallen golden boy turned prison convict, while Paul Walter Hauser delivers an unforgettable turn as suspected serial killer Larry Hall. One of the things that makes the show so interesting, at least to me: The series has near-perfect scores on Rotten Tomatoes — 98% from critics and 95% from audiences — which is almost unheard of for TV (it’s no guarantee you’ll be a fan, but still something you very rarely see).
Why Black Bird on Apple TV+ packs such a punch
This crime drama takes its inspiration from real events, following Keene as he’s given a grim choice: Serve out his full sentence of a decade in minimum security prison — or risk everything by transferring to a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane. His assignment there is as dangerous as it is unusual: He’s been asked to gain Larry Hall’s trust, a man suspected of being a serial killer, and get him to admit the truth before an appeal can put him back on the streets. What follows is less a straightforward investigation into the truth than a battle of wills — a game of cat-and-mouse where Keene has to balance his own safety against his urgency for a confession.
The series, writes a reviewer for IndieWire, is “a tone poem more than a plot-driven television show. It interrogated masculinity in a way that invited people in with a crime story, only to leave them with a call for deeper introspection about how we all move through the world.” That is to say: While “Black Bird” works as a tense thriller, it also operates on a deeper level and asks questions about power — as well as holding up a spotlight to the masks that men wear when they’re forced into extreme situations.
For fans of “Smoke,” “Black Bird” offers that same intensity but in a more claustrophobic narrative setting. It’s easily one of the best crime dramas that Apple TV+ has debuted thus far.
