In 1947, Elizabeth Short, nicknamed the Black Dahlia, was brutally found murdered in Los Angeles, but her killer was never found. 71 years later, people believe that the killer has been found, and TNT has made a television show to prove it. “I am the Night,” is a miniseries that began on January 28, and tells the story of Fauna Hodel, the author of Shorts memoir, and her investigation of the murder. Although the show is based off of the murder case, a lot of the details are not accurate and are exaggerated for television purposes. For example Fauna Hodel, played by India Eisley, did not go through the whole process of discovering her adoption but she had known a young age, and Chris Pine’s character, Jay Singletary is entirely made up to make the show more interesting/thrilling.

The real events that took place surrounding Short’s murder on January 15, 1947 were described by local cops. The cops detailed finding her body in Leimert Park in Los Angeles, cut in half, nude, posed, drained of blood, and scrubbed clean. The scandal immediately graced the cover of the news and stayed that way for two months. The numerous amounts of false reports and murder confessions left investigators grasping for any information they could find. Unfortunately, the only thing witnesses reported seeing was a black sedan the morning of her murder, but the trail stopped there. In 2013, the case reopened with incriminating evidence against Hodel’s father, Dr. George Hill Hodel. The evidence, however, had never been confirmed as facts so the case remains full of suspects and anybody’s guess.

Although not all the facts are true, the show is currently ranked at 74% on Rotten Tomatoes. “The Hollywood Reporter” reports that the show encompasses the scenes very well but the plot is difficult to keep up with. The show consists of six episodes which began on January 28 and is extending throughout the month of February, but there is not a specific day that it is shown.

When students were asked about how much the show engaged them, there were mixed responses. Bailey Puebla seems the show would be interesting, saying that she “would watch the show to see how the producers decided to interpret the murder, and how it differs from the actual events.” On the other side, Cameron Isherwood commented that she “wouldn’t watch it because since this seems to be a big case, I don’t think they should bend the truth, I think they should restate what happened so that they can get the truth across more accurately.” Throughout the mixed reviews, the people involved still hope that people will continue to watch the show to find out who possibly was the real killer of the Black Dahlia.