If you’ve listened to a true crime podcast in the past several years, chances are they’ve at least briefly covered the Black Dahlia murder. In 1947, an actress named Elizabeth Short was found cut in half in a field. She soon became known by the moniker “The Black Dahlia” and for decades armchair detectives have been trying to figure out who her true killer are. TNT’s I Am the Night posits that the killer was well known to the LAPD and that anyone who tried to bring him to justice faced life-destroying consequences.
In TNT’s I Am the Night, a young girl struggles with what she believes is her mixed race identity. Lighter-skinned than her friends, Pat (India Eisley) struggles to fit in anywhere and dreams of what life could possibly mean for her in Reno. In California, Jay Singletary (Chris Pine) suffers from major PTSD from the Korean War, and being blacklisted from the LA Times for going after Hollywood abortionist George Hodel. After Pat finds her birth certificate hidden among her mother’s items, she discovers that her birth name is Fauna and that the woman she’s called mom is a stranger. Jay is called to a special police press conference and sneaks into a morgue under assignment to photograph a brutally dismembered body, and begins to find out that the Black Dahlia may have only been one of a line of brutal slayings.
There are so many amazing aspects to this show. It is powerfully directed by Wonderwoman‘s Patty Jenkins. It stars Chris Pine with a semi-dad bod and serious PTSD. India Eisley is able to express so much emotion through just her eyes and is mesmerizing to watch. For Angelinos, keep an eye out for some iconic locations, like the creepy Sowden House, Greystone Mansion, Huntington Gardens, The Boom Boom Room and Chili John’s.
I Am the Night is a brutal six-episode limited series. It’s quick-paced, beautifully shot, and the costumes are incredible. However, if you’re not able to deal with the occasional bout of extreme violence or unsettling image, it may be time to look elsewhere. I Am the Night is not just The Black Dahlia, though that is the mystery placed there to pull you in. The show is a tale of generational and identity struggle, while also including one hell of a personal mystery.
If you love podcasts, TNT and Cadence13 will release an eight-part documentary podcast called Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia. This podcast is designed to be a companion to I Am the Night. It will premiere on January 30th, two days after the television show premieres. Root of Evil is the Hodel family’s story in their own words, about finding out about the crimes of their family and the struggles of what it’s like to live with a name associated to the Black Dahlia murder. The daughters of Fauna Hodel host the podcast in first-person. It will be the first time they share their experiences publicly.
I Am the Night premieres tonight on TNT.
