Episode 1 of Black Bird starts in Chicago 1996. After a brief introduction to the Butterfly Effect (how seemingly unrelated incidents can be connected) Jimmy Keene's life is about to be changed forever thanks to a girl on a bike and a business deal. The first episode of Black Bird gets off to a decent start, introducing these two timelines as we jump back and forth between Jimmy and Brian Miller. That works reasonably well to get a feel for the case in question and it's clear this is going to take on more of a Mindhunter edge from here on out as Jimmy works to try and get the truth from Larry. It's an interesting case and the show definitely has a lot of promise from its opening episode. There's a decent pacing to all this as well and the various characters, and the idea of two seemingly unrelated incidents being drawn together, could well be a foreshadowed hint that Larry isn't necessarily guilty of these murders. In the morning, Jimmy's house is stormed by FBI agents who handcuff and arrest him. Jimmy has stacks of cash, illegal firearms and drugs across the table. Even worse, his prosecutor for this case wants to make an example of him. However, if Jimmy takes the plea offering, he'll get 2 years but because of the guns he'll have to do the midrange - which means he'll have to serve 5 years and be out after 4 on good behaviour. This appears to be the only solution. Before court, Jimmy pleads guilty but unfortunately he gets 10 years, not the 5 he was hoping for. Seven months later, Jimmy is still in prison but called in to a meeting. There, he meets Special Agent Lauren McCauley accompanied by Mr Beaumont, the guy who convinced him to plead guilty in the first place. We then cut back 4 years earlier. A woman named Jessica Roach is found deceased in Indiana having earlier gone missing on July 20th. This girl happens to be the one from the bike we heard about earlier in the episode. This is how she's connected to Jimmy's case. The van in the middle of this whole mess happens to be owned by a guy called Lawrence D. Hall. Police are all over this, fronted by Chris Drydale and Sherriff Brian Miller who begin sniffing around and asking questions.
1 out of 2 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink