Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

I Am the Night - General Discussion


ohjoy
  • Reply
  • Start Topic

Recommended Posts

2 hours ago, MissL said:

Why did the police pick up Jay? What has he even done?

They said Hodel's ex wife caught him tailing her. Although I'm guessing it wasn't her who made the claim. Apparently there's some police cover up happening, and Jay is getting too close so they're trying to silence him. That's all speculation on my part, since this show is stingy with facts. I have no idea who that guy is that was following Fauna, and what his creepy art is about.

I think it's kinda gross that they showed the actual Black Dahlia crime scene photos. I didn't need to see that...

  • Love 2
Link to comment

The only thing that really interested me was the Chili John's restaurant location, even though the scene was meh.  Yes, it is real and still exists out in Burbank. 

Sometimes I find it hard to get out of the present day and transport myself back to the time when the film was set.  For instance, when the camera focused on Fauna's pie plate at the restaurant, the first thing I thought of was "get that fork and get a DNA sample off of it."

Link to comment
7 hours ago, pezgirl7 said:

They said Hodel's ex wife caught him tailing her. Although I'm guessing it wasn't her who made the claim. Apparently there's some police cover up happening, and Jay is getting too close so they're trying to silence him. That's all speculation on my part, since this show is stingy with facts. I have no idea who that guy is that was following Fauna, and what his creepy art is about.

I think it's kinda gross that they showed the actual Black Dahlia crime scene photos. I didn't need to see that...

Ah! Thanks! I thought they said something about JAY'S ex wife which was why he was so confused in the jail cell. But that makes so much more sense!  (I assume that strung out lady is his ex but maybe not.)

I guess they must have seen his car at the funky lunch museum. I usually catch things like that but I am struggling with this show.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Finally we see Fauna doing something with her hair. I'm surprised none of the Black girls she's living with have commented on her "good" hair.

So was there a tap on Big Mama's house phone or on the phone booth that guy leching on Fauna kept using?

Fauna seem absurdly naive. You don't go snooping in people's homes, even if you do think you're related to them and especially if they're wealthy. She could've gotten beat up or worse. Then she goes and gets in a car with a guy she doesn't know.

Are we to believe Fauna's just walking around strange neighborhoods? Nobody walks in LA, or so the song says.

Edited by Joimiaroxeu
  • Love 3
Link to comment
6 minutes ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

So was there a tap on Big Mama's house phone or on the phone booth that guy leching on Fauna kept using?

Pretty sure it was Big Mama's phone--at one point Fauna or somebody noticed a double click on the phone, meaning it was being tapped.

  • Love 2
Link to comment
12 hours ago, MissL said:

Oh my god is anything ever going to happen on this show?

Why did the police pick up Jay? What has he even done?

Fauna agrees to get in the car with Chris Pine why? Because he's Chris Pine?

Fauna and Jay finally meet and they have a stupid non productive conversation for less than 5 minutes where they tell each other nothing. This episode was awful.

So of course I'm gonna keep watching

Isn't because he's Chris Pine enough? Are you saying you would turn down those baby blues if he offered you a lift?  Cause I'd throw stranger danger right out the window. 

I guess since it was between Jay and the freaky Hodel lackey, I get why she took up Jay on the offer and I was glad she did since it looked like they would finally start featuring the pairing that was marketed as the show. Then it was over five minutes later after a conversation that went in circles. Fauna's been telling everyone she meets she's adopted and on a quest for her origins and why won't anyone help her?? Here comes a guy that seems to know a thing or two about this long lost family of hers and she chooses now to clam up. 

The series is only six episodes long and half over and nothing has happened.

  • Love 8
Link to comment
31 minutes ago, CharethCutestory said:

Isn't because he's Chris Pine enough? Are you saying you would turn down those baby blues if he offered you a lift?  Cause I'd throw stranger danger right out the window. 

I guess since it was between Jay and the freaky Hodel lackey, I get why she took up Jay on the offer and I was glad she did since it looked like they would finally start featuring the pairing that was marketed as the show. Then it was over five minutes later after a conversation that went in circles. Fauna's been telling everyone she meets she's adopted and on a quest for her origins and why won't anyone help her?? Here comes a guy that seems to know a thing or two about this long lost family of hers and she chooses now to clam up. 

The series is only six episodes long and half over and nothing has happened.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'd go anywhere with Chris Pine. 

  • Love 10
Link to comment

OK, can anybody explain what the hell the ox or steer skeleton skull symbolism is all about and what the hell was the surreal crap of Hodel hearing a violent ox or steer in the room and peaking under the door seeing hooves was all about?   See, I am not a deep thinker and abstract shit like that just frustrates me.

Also, really get that Chris Pine's character is fucked up so many ways and really, really tired of having to see all of the ways each episode.

Only reason I am still in is that it is only 6 episodes and I just want to see where they are going with this.

  • Love 3
Link to comment
1 hour ago, tiredofwork said:

Only reason I am still in is that it is only 6 episodes and I just want to see where they are going with this.

With only 3 more episodes, they better get going fast.  I thought this series would be compelling, but instead it's confusing.

  • Love 8
Link to comment

I thought this show was going to be interesting but nothing is happening and we are halfway in.  The part that held my interest the most in the last episode was that when Fauna was in the house snooping and around, came out and ran in the woods to escape Chris Pine she was wearing a headband.  She emerged from the woods and went for pie sans headband.  Very sad that I was questioning where her headband went instead of enjoying the show. 

  • LOL 1
  • Love 4
Link to comment

As confused as I am, I am very much enjoying this.

But Ivanovich is not a first name. In Russian nomenclature, it is a middle name, the patronymic--Russian middle names always take the father's first name and add as a suffix -ovich or -ovna, meaning son of or daughter of.

  • Useful 1
  • Love 5
Link to comment

So finally, when there's only what 2 episodes left?, we've got Fauna and Pine's reporter dude collaborating together and touching on the Black Dahlia murder. I think they would have done better if the episodes had each been 2 hours long. To me it seems as soon as things get interesting, the plot begins to jell and we break for the end of the episode. I do like how they have been showing the real photographs and art work of the characters the show is based on.

  • Love 4
Link to comment

So Jay has a big revelation about Hodel and the Black Dahlia after we barely see him researching anything and we're supposed to gasp? All we've seen are disjointed off putting scenes that weave nothing together. What's the narrative? After four episodes even though I really tried to like this show, I think it's just bad. Jay's let us know, in between ass kickings and getting drunk/high that he wrote about Hodel and it got him black listed. Then out of nowhere he latches on to Tamar having a daughter. Then he buys a magazine. Collage of horrific images. Some random phone calls. That's him on the case? 

I get they were trying for a noir, avant garde angle but this is a mess. All the metaphor and allusion and trippy scenes mean nothing if there isn't a cohesive story happening. True Detective season one is the best example of taking the unsettling and the allegorical and crafting it together with a riveting plot and characters you can't turn away from. It's all one complete work that never pulls apart. It's not easy and I Am the Night doesn't remotely get there. 

Jay and Fauna for their own reasons and common goal should've been working together from the end of the first episode and Jay should've ditched the booze and drugs and forced himself to get focused by episode three. Too bad because the show had tons of potential. 

  • Love 16
Link to comment

Yes, it is disjointed.  It's frustrating how the show leaves so many loose ends dangling. For instance, in the conversation between JimmyLee and Fauna in the club JimmyLee tells Fauna Sammy Davis Jr. heard her sing and offered to take her to Capitol Records.  Wouldn't any daughter ask the follow-up question, "so did he take you, mama?"

  • Love 4
Link to comment
3 hours ago, CharethCutestory said:

I get they were trying for a noir, avant garde angle but this is a mess.

ita. i'm wading through the bog here waiting for something to hold my interest and come together. Maybe when they get to Hawaii? They kind of had me on the first episode, but now I'm just wishing it would end so I can listen to the MFM podcast and see what Karen and Georgia have to say.

  • Love 1
Link to comment
11 hours ago, Linderhill said:

I do like how they have been showing the real photographs and art work of the characters the show is based on.

I hate that they're showing the real photos. They're so gruesome and I feel so bad for that woman, even though she's dead and isn't around to care. To be murdered and butchered so horrificly, and then to have photos of your naked, mutilated body shown for entertainment in a TV show... it just doesn't seem right.

As far as the TV show, I still have no idea what's going on. And no one seems to be acting realisticaly. When the dysfunctional alcoholic is the most normal personal, then you know something's wrong.

  • Love 6
Link to comment

@pezgirl7 I meant more the photos of Fauna and other people and the art work, not necessarily the Dahlia crime scenes.  Especially since they keep showing them over and over.  I halfway expected And Warhol to show up at "the Happening."

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Gosh I’m bored now. And it started out so good.

this last episode I found myself thinking without the music underneath it wouldn’t be scary at all just slow.

i guess the surrealistic art is meant to be a big clue: black dahlia was posed that way?

seems a stretch.

baxk when I was super interested in the show I told myself I wouldn’t google the real life people until it ended. Just gave up.

and yes, of course anyone would say so what happened? After the Sammy Davis jr. Story.

whatever they reveal can’t possibly shock us after Chinatown and let’s face it SVU. This needs to wrap up. 

Link to comment

The series has really underwhelmed.  However, I am a chronic "hate watcher" of many things so this is just one on the list, the Blessing is it is only 6 episodes.  I know the finish will  also most likely be underwhelming ( I have no insights, just projecting the cynicism) so I am prepared.

There have been subtle nuances raised in the show on the colorism in the af/am community historically and even today.  I am talking about the Fauna, "light Skinded" as we used to say, advantage..  That was raised back in Nevada when the schoolmate got jealous  because the young brother she was interested in was interested only in Fauna.  Then there was the cousin thing in L.A. when she came back to "auntee's" house and cuz was jealous Fauna  stayed with the brother (don't know his name) at his house.  Also Fauna gets to walk easily between the 2 worlds of Black/White no matter what the community is. Especially in those days that was a great advantage/privilege she had.  I don't know really if I wish they explored that more or not..  It is not something I have ever been fond of amongst my Black bro's/sis's.  But it just will always be there.

As has been mentioned previously on on this thread I like shows/movies with 40's 50's, 60's L.A.  I lived there briefly and like to see and think about the communities I know of and how they looked back then.  One movie that portrays it well is Devil in a Blue Dress with Denzel Washington.

Link to comment

I'm sticking it out but it sure is tough. At best this probably should've been a two-hour TV movie. It's clear they had to try rather hard to stretch the thin story out over several episodes.

Quote

I don't know really if I wish they explored that more or not

I'm glad they didn't since they seem to be insinuating that Fauna should be grateful that she's

Spoiler

actually fully White and not half-Black.

The choice of actress is still bothering me, especially since in the dialogue it's been suggested that one of the reasons she "passes" for part-Black is because of her fuller lips. If that's all it took to "look Black" it's a wonder the producers didn't cast one of the K Klan to play Fauna. Then there's the strange way Fauna talks. It's not quite AAVE and it's not quite a southern accent either. The whole thing seems like a weird kind of cultural appropriation but then I guess it wouldn't made sense

Spoiler

to have a biracial actress play Fauna since Fauna's true race is a major plot point.

Quote

I get they were trying for a noir, avant garde angle but this is a mess. All the metaphor and allusion and trippy scenes mean nothing if there isn't a cohesive story happening.

Yep, it's a lot of style and not enough substance.

  • Love 3
Link to comment

This show certainly has a lot of interesting ideas, performances, and a clear style, but I still have no idea what the actual point is, and it seems like we are finally seeing the actual show for the first time NOW when we should have started it ages ago. 

Jay and Fauna are finally working together, when they should have been doing this ages ago, and while the actors work well together (and I love that Fauna is way better at disposing of a body than Jay is) it seems like we dithered around so long, that we will miss really building a dynamic between them. 

The ending scene was creepy, but where does it come from? Its like we have a million cool weird images, but no story that actually seems to be coming together. And to make things even weirder, most of the actors in the supporting parts seem to be in some kind of local off-Broadway production written by some guy who thinks he is super brilliant, but is really just hanging out at coffee shops lecturing people about his next magnum opus while people are just trying to get a damn coffee. 

  • Love 6
Link to comment
On 2/21/2019 at 1:46 AM, tennisgurl said:

This show certainly has a lot of interesting ideas, performances, and a clear style, but I still have no idea what the actual point is, and it seems like we are finally seeing the actual show for the first time NOW when we should have started it ages ago. 

I have the same problem.  I've been watching Pure (a show that doesn't have a forum here for some reason) and besides thinking it's a very good show I understand what the end point of it is, take down the drug dealers, return to "plain" life and, hopefully, everyone on the good guys side makes it out alive.  But as good as Chris is in this show the show itself seems to be mostly people running around getting hit on the head (at least it was Fauna this week and not Jay who by now should have CTE!) and encountering weird rich people who do strange artful things which at times is more like watching someones acid induced hallucinations.  But I don't really get what the end point is, Fauna finds her mother and......?  She gets answers about her origins, maybe but I'm not sure she's ever said what she'll do once that happens, I'm not sure she knows what happens after she finds Tamar, the finding seems to be her end game right now.  As a view that feels incomplete and a half-planned plot.    Also it's hard to watch Fauna being such a mixture of dumb naivety and savvy sneak.  Smart enough to think about fingerprints on a weapon and dumping a body far from the party, not smart enough to stop sneaking around dark strange places alone knowing someone has been following and threatening her, suspecting that someone killed Nero, and having already been chased around and out of the Hodel house and the art gallery before.

  • Love 1
Link to comment
12 hours ago, Mrs. Stanwyck said:

Does anyone know who the actress is the Black Dahlia photo that they use in this series?  It looks like should could be a young Annie Potts or Madonna.  I've looked everywhere but can't find any credits for the photo.

Do you mean this one? :

image.png.4d54e60d3ef02f4968c0bf40e234c966.png

That is an actual photo of Elizabeth Short. It is in the public domain so I don't know who the photographer was. Maybe she had paid to have it taken for publicity?

Link to comment

Fauna's accent is so weird (and sometimes hard to understand) the actress would have been better just talking in her normal voice.

Spoiler

And Fauna pesters Tamar to death to tell her the truth. Tamar tells her the truth, and Fauna goes into a rage and makes Tamar feel terrible. What a little monster.

I never understand people (like Jay) feeling guilty about having killed someone clearly in self defense. It was kill or be killed. I would be proud of myself having thwarted the attack.

Spoiler

In the scene where Hodel appears in Jimmy Lee's kitchen, she knew what was coming. She had a couple opportunities to hit him over the head with the frying pan when he was turning away, but she wimped out. She knew she could be in danger from Hodel and was the door even locked? 

Edited by Pat Hoolihan
Link to comment
On 2/19/2019 at 6:21 PM, Lady of nod said:

ita. i'm wading through the bog here waiting for something to hold my interest and come together. Maybe when they get to Hawaii? They kind of had me on the first episode, but now I'm just wishing it would end so I can listen to the MFM podcast and see what Karen and Georgia have to say.

I listened to the first episode and kinda wish I didn’t. There is soooooooo much different. This show is a very loose interpretation and now I’m even more annoyed with this show. They should’ve just done a pure fiction show. 

  • Love 1
Link to comment

So..what can possibly happen with this show? Does Jay even have a story to write? Or anyone to publish it? Did we ever get any indication that Jays friend was on the take? Any at all?

So he's in jail again. Is he really going to lose an eye this time? Because that would bother me only because Chris' eyes are so pretty. Is it going to end like real life and Hodel gets away with everything?

Fauna what? She knows about her birth family now and her mother is murdered. What's the story arc for her? Does Hodel come for her now?

Either a lot has to happen in the last hour or the show ends as it's been going on all along...with nothing.

I've continued to watch so there has to be something intriguing to me about it. I just can't figure out what. Maybe a train wreck type thing?

  • Love 5
Link to comment
6 hours ago, MissL said:

Did we ever get any indication that Jays friend was on the take? Any at all?

We did not, but based on the sound of his voice on the phone call when he told Jay to meet him in Chinatown, it was obvious something was up. From my recliner I advised Jay to stay away; guess he didn't hear me. 

Don't see how they are going to wrap up everything in an hour, with anything resolved anyway. At least that is my school of thought since they are portraying criminal activity by a real person and he was never convicted of the crimes this series (& RL Fauna/Tamar) attribute to him. Although they show Hodel murdering Jimmie Lee, which didn't really happen, so who knows where this will go. IRL Fauna married at 16, so shortly after the events of this series take place. 

  • LOL 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment

If Fauna was only 16 why was she not in school and how was she running all over LA alone at all hours?  You'd think people would question why a child was without adult supervision and not in school. How does she just fly off to HI with some guy twice her age who she's not even related to? Where was she getting money from (to wear what looks like a Lily Pulitzer dress no less) and how did she avoid getting assaulted? It's all so unbelievable to me.

So Tamar named two of her children Fauna. Wonder how the second one felt when she learned the legacy of her name?

  • Love 3
Link to comment
11 hours ago, Toothbrush said:

We did not, but based on the sound of his voice on the phone call when he told Jay to meet him in Chinatown, it was obvious something was up. From my recliner I advised Jay to stay away; guess he didn't hear me. 

Don't see how they are going to wrap up everything in an hour, with anything resolved anyway. At least that is my school of thought since they are portraying criminal activity by a real person and he was never convicted of the crimes this series (& RL Fauna/Tamar) attribute to him. Although they show Hodel murdering Jimmie Lee, which didn't really happen, so who knows where this will go. IRL Fauna married at 16, so shortly after the events of this series take place. 

Yes, both the tone of Peter's voice and the fact that he was drinking tipped me off.

Didn't George's son Steve write a book claiming his dad killed the Black Dahlia? And I believe he was a cop.

  • Love 1
Link to comment
5 hours ago, Violet Impulse said:

Steve Hodel has written six books about his dad who is both the Black Dahlia Killer and The Zodiac.

George Hodel was the lowest of the low and most likely a murderer, but I'm not sure that I'd write books implicating a family member in murders. I'd probably change my name & move away. 

Link to comment

As has been pointed out on another site, the Mamas and Papas' version of "Dedicated to the One I Love" did not come out until 1967, so it's an anachronism.  However, it still made me smile to hear Mama Michelle's solo that begins that song, right when Fauna was about to meet Tamar - because in real life, Tamar Hodel was a close friend and mentor to Michelle.  In fact, Tamar might even have introduced her to John Phillips, or at least, brought her to the party where she met him.  Maybe that's why they couldn't resist using the song.

  • Useful 2
  • Love 5
Link to comment
On 2/27/2019 at 1:18 AM, Toothbrush said:

We did not, but based on the sound of his voice on the phone call when he told Jay to meet him in Chinatown, it was obvious something was up. From my recliner I advised Jay to stay away; guess he didn't hear me. 

You know. I'm pretty sure whoever is left watching this show thought the exact same thing. Especially when he kept insisting Fauna HAD to be with him. And Jay wasn't apparently listening to any of us.

I actually started to get a bit suspicious when Tamar told Jay that everyone knew what Hodel had done and that "he already owns you" (I believe that's what she said I'm not rewatching to make sure I got it right). Might be the only foreshadowing we got. 

  • Love 1
Link to comment
On 2/27/2019 at 12:34 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

If Fauna was only 16 why was she not in school and how was she running all over LA alone at all hours?  You'd think people would question why a child was without adult supervision and not in school. How does she just fly off to HI with some guy twice her age who she's not even related to? Where was she getting money from (to wear what looks like a Lily Pulitzer dress no less) and how did she avoid getting assaulted? It's all so unbelievable to me.

It seems sad and weird to say this today because we (mostly) know better but in 1965, nobody cared.  She was, in everyone's eyes, a black girl living with a single Mom then living in Watts with relatives.  To the authorities she was nobody.  Segregation had just ended in 1964 and the so called summer of love didn't happen until 1967.  Even in progressive or enlightened cities racism wasn't just rampant it was normal.  The police that did notice she was out and about during the day could stop and hassle her but would probably just write her off as another lazy black person.  The attitude of the times plus creative license for a TV show.    Jay got the ticket money from Peter.   The flying isn't too unusual either, those were the days when you needed no ID to fly and walked out to the tarmac to board the plane using stairs.  Again depending on your age it's weird or impossible to think of it now but the only security was an xray machine, they left cockpit doors open (and invited visitors) and smoking on board was common.   With no ID not even a drivers license required they wouldn't know she and Jay weren't related, people back then even flew using another persons ticket because nobody checked them.

Slightly off topic but true story just to illustrate how crazy lax people were then - my Grandmother flew to Hawaii in the early 60's, lived there several years and came home in 1965 with my Grandpa who was a Marine and had been stationed at Kaneohe Bay.  On her way to HI with a high school friend they had a layover in Los Angeles, the two of them actually went to Paramount Studios and demanded to see Michael Landon (he was starring on Bonanza at the time) then sat themselves down in the studio offices.  You'd be arrested for this now assuming you could get past security at the front gate!  Anyway the studio finally told them Landon wasn't there that day which was the truth he wasn't but they'd give them a tour of the Ponderosa set which was just the yard and false front of the house.  We still have the pictures they took.  I've heard that story more than once and find it crazy, I can't imagine what a 20-30 yo would think of it compared to the hyper-secure world we live in now.

Jay was smart to have Fauna wait in the car but dumb for not picking up on the desperation in Peter's voice and realize something was up.  What were they going to do with Fauna if she had gone in the restaurant with Jay?  What will happen to the pictures Jay took in Hawaii, will all his proof disappear in wonder?  I'm not sure Jimmie Lee is definitely dead, she was moving until just before what's his name picked up the phone, maybe she will die but maybe they'll have her survive.  I still can't figure out how this is supposed to end - the fantasy is they bring it all out into the open and George and all the rest go to jail in disgrace, they reality is he's probably going to get away with it all but my curiosity on how they end it with Jay and Fauna will make me watch the final episode.  I have a feeling though I'm going to be disappointed in how this is wrapped up.

  • Love 6
Link to comment

I've been fast forwarding most of the episodes because nothing happened. I did enjoy the last episode in Hawaii because of the location and because Jay and Fauna were working together.  Nothing much is still happening but at least the two main characters interacted. 

  • Love 2
Link to comment
On 2/27/2019 at 12:34 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

If Fauna was only 16 why was she not in school and how was she running all over LA alone at all hours?  You'd think people would question why a child was without adult supervision and not in school. 

For some reason I thought this taking place during the summer. I thought during the first or second episode she talked about wanting to spend school vacation in LA looking for her birth mother. 

  • Useful 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment

I kind of giggled at Faunas face when she was on the beach with her mom, and while her mom was going on about how she randomly said that she was black on her birth certificate, a fact that has impacted just about every aspect of her life since as long as she can remember, with a super spacey "I just admire black people so much". Like she was just thinking "holy crap, my bio mom is kind of an idiot." To be fair though, I did feel bad for them. Fauna clearly wanted answers to the countless questions she had, but she probably didnt have to run away in horror when she heard the truth (even if being freaked out is very understandable), but on the other other hand, her bio mom didnt seem to be taking meeting her daughter all that seriously or why any of this would be upsetting or confusing to her, but, again, I felt really bad for what happened to her. Her father was a horrible even if he didnt happen to be the guy who killed Black Dahlia.

I did like a lot about this episode though, and seeing Fauna and Jay actually hanging out and getting into their respective backstories was actually quite good, and the island vibes in the 60s were really nice and a good change from LA. I really wish we could have gotten here earlier, maybe skip the endless shots of random weirdos in awful 60s performance art, or even more random "oh my god creepy" flashes. 

So, what even is this story that Jay is going to write?

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Well. It's over.

Loved to see Fauna save herself, you go girl. "You're boring". Indeed.  I did feel something when she ran and gave Jay a hug and I was able to see shirtless Chris Pine on a surf board so that's something.

Maybe I'll have more thoughts later but right now that's all I've got.

  • Love 10
Link to comment
1 hour ago, MissL said:

I did feel something when she ran and gave Jay a hug

Yeah. I thought they had good chemistry so their scenes together were about the only thing I found interesting about this.  Of course, she's supposed to be 16 and he's....not so that's that. 

  • Love 3
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...