I Am the Night, a stylish American Noir thriller series currently on Alibi

I love a mystery based on real life happenings. This stylish and dark series is inspired by the memoirs of Fauna Hodel, the granddaughter of the infamous George Hodel, suspect in the gruesome and unsolved Black Dahlia murder case of 1947.

Written by Sam Sheridan and starring Chris Pine as a veteran of the Korean war and now freelance journalist and India Eisley, who plays an adopted young girl who thinks she is of mixed-race parentage and is looking for her birth parents. The series is set in Los Angeles during the time of the Watts race riots and the Civil Rights Movement, and the setting oscillates between a poor black neighbourhood and the swish Californian surroundings of the privileged.

Fauna Hodel (Eisley) travels to Los Angeles in an attempt to track down her grandfather George Hodel, a wealthy doctor and art lover. Even though he says he wants to see her, she never manages to establish a meeting. His ex-wife tells the girl that she is in fact white, but she refuses to say anything about the girl’s father and very little about the girl’s mother, George Hodel’s daughter. Having grown up in modest circumstances with her black adoptive mother, Fauna feels out of place in the posh surroundings she finds herself in. Discouraged by numerous set-backs which include attempts on her life, she nevertheless doesn’t give up trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of her parentage.

In contrast to the young and naive girl, Jay Singletary (Pine) is a jaded, drug addicted Korean War hero who is working as a freelance journalist. Despite being warned off in a number of brutal police attacks, he too is on the trail of George Hodel, whom he suspects of a number of murders, but who always seems to get away with it. Fauna and Jay meet and eventually join forces, although no one tells Fauna about the fact that her grandfather is considered to be a very dangerous man.

The series consists of 6 pacey episodes, full of interesting dialogue, intrigue and mystery. Brutal in parts, it never fails to entertain. The supporting cast is excellent, and the two main protagonists, Chris Pine and India Eisley, put in outstanding performances. I also loved the sound track. So cool.