I Am the Night

I can barely keep watching this. The first episodes are mainly the young woman walking around looking at things with wide eyes. I like dramas that are well written. I'm not one of those people that require constant action. This is not one of those good dramas. I feel it is poorly done and over hyped. I'd rather watch an older Black Dahlia movie or documentary. My husband agrees it's slow but wants to see it through, so I guess I shall keep watching. My 5 stars may decrease.

Series successfully uses actual people and events to craft a story that could easily span a dozen series. Not all of the events happen in the order they did in history, but the writer has skillfully put them together to make a six unit masterpiece. Excellent period piece (sets, cars, buildings) and very well acted.

An engaging subject coupled with a strong cast, I Am The Night oozed potential. Unfortunately the end product has been diluted to the point where even thought there are only six episodes it feels stretched out. And rather than the mature/adult tone the story merits, we're presented with I Am The Lite. It's Alien Covenant when it could have been Alien. I wouldn't recommend against watching, simply to go in with low expectations that way you won't be disappointed.

My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library. It is about 5 hours + or - and presented in 6 episodes. We typically watched 2 per night. As is the norm with these mini series a good 2 to 3 hours of programming is stretched to have it fill 6 episodes so it often gets a bit slow. Still it is a very captivating story from the 1960s Los Angeles.

India Eisley is Fauna Hodel, raised by a black mother just outside Las Vegas, she always was told she was a mixed race child. But her mom would never tell her much. After digging around in 1965 at age 15 and finding her birth certificate, she learned that Tamar Hodel was her birth mother and she became determined to find her. All that is pretty factual.

A character was created for dramatic effect, Chris Pine as Jay Singletary, Los Angeles reporter and military veteran of the Korean War. This character suspects Fauna's grandfather, Jefferson Mays as physician George Hodel, in the murder of the Black Dahlia and perhaps other crimes. So the paths of Fauna and Jay eventually get intertwined.

Another departure from truth comes from depicting George Hodel as living in Los Angeles during the 1960s when in fact he had left the country around 1950 after his trial.

Still it is all a very interesting presentation, Fauna did find her mother, in Hawaii, and grew up to have an interesting and productive life, dying only in 2017 at the age of 66.

I enjoyed the first episode. It sets out two line that we know will connect. Both lines have sympathetic lead characters Pine a down on his luck reporter, who could be a composite of lead character in the best Noir films. Eisley is the poor, lost, innocent soul, adopted as a baby and brought up in the countryside trying to connect with her natural (and rich) family in LA.

It all seems very promising and I will be definitely been watching the next episodes.

I have sort of ruined it for myself by researching the people. Right now after the first episode I really wish I had avoided the temptation to Google the real characters. I have the feeling the director will let the secret out of the bag quite quickly but if you can avoid researching them I believe it will enhance your experience.