Black Bird and The Rehearsal: you want to see these series

Hi Mark, what new series do you recommend this week?

‘Black Bird, a six-part series on Apple TV Plus. I’m in the middle of it, the last two episodes will follow, but I already think it’s a strong, classic crime drama. The series is based on a true story, written in the autobiography In with the Devil.

‘In Black Bird The FBI tries to find out if a man who is in a prison for mentally ill offenders is actually a serial killer, as it is suspected. The FBI doesn’t have enough evidence to keep him behind bars, so they’re hoping to get a confession. To succeed, a rather unorthodox way is used: the FBI asks another inmate, James Keene, a handy boy in prison for drug trafficking, to go undercover and start a relationship with the man. It’s very exciting to see if Keene manages to get closer.’

‘Actor and rising star As an undercover inmate, Taron Egerton convincingly portrays a cunning criminal. He previously played a young Elton John in Rocketman – I had to look twice, but it really is. Opposite him is Paul Walter Hauser. As an interpreter of the mentally ill man, he has a rather intense role, a creep with a high-pitched voice. The contrast between the two works well.’

And then something completely different, the alienating The Rehearsal from HBO Max. What are we looking at?

‘Ha, that’s a good question. I don’t really know that myself after watching two episodes. On paper, the concept boils down to this: Canadian comedian and program maker Nathan Fielder wants to help people who, for example, regret past things they’ve done in their lives. For example, in the first episode we see a man who has been in the same pub quiz club for twenty years. He regrets ever implying that he graduated when he hasn’t, and is eager to tell his friends the truth.

“Nathan Fielder then – and now it gets interesting – endlessly rehearses with that man what possible conversations he will have when the truth about his education comes out. Those scenes take place in a meticulously recreated cafe, the same cafe in Brooklyn where the man has been coming for twenty years. It’s bizarre to see: the TV screens are working, beer is on tap.

Fielder casts the people to whom the man must confess his secret, to make them look as much as possible like his own friends. In the second episode, Fielder goes much further, using child actors to help a woman in her early forties experience what it’s like to be a mother. Just wanting to imitate something like that is crazy: you can only have a baby on set for a maximum of four hours.

‘Well, what are we looking at indeed, what is the purpose of this insane operation? Ultimately, I think this series is mostly about him. While Fielder helps people, he also puts himself through that endless rehearsal in all kinds of situations in which he tries to get a grip on life. In vain of course, you never know how life will turn out. Anyway, I’ve never seen anything like this before, an achievement in itself.’