I Am the Night feels like a True Detective knockoff stuck from the 2014 Peak TV era

Rolling Stone

The Patty Jenkins/Chris Pine TNT limited series collaboration feels "like a show from another time, and not because the mystery limited series takes place in 1965 Los Angeles," says Alan Sepinwall. "Rather, it seems a throwback to five years ago, when the television business was racing to copy the success of True Detective Season One with a variety of anthological crime stories, often set in the past and/or featuring movie stars not known for working on the small screen. In Peak TV, five years is an eternity, enough time for the True Detective phenomenon to have cratered, then resumed at a more modest level with a long-delayed third season that premiered only a few weeks ago. Ryan Murphy’s various anthologies are still being made, but the other shows from this mini-boom are either on long delays of their own (Fargo, which probably won’t be back until sometime next year) or canceled (RIP, ABC’s American Crime). But even if a time machine could deliver the six episodes of I Am the Night ... back to the spring of 2014, they would still be disappointing. It boasts a terrific lead performance from Chris Pine — in a Wonder Woman reunion with Patty Jenkins, who directs the first two episodes, and Connie Nielsen, who plays a supporting role — but the story’s much too slow to get going and doesn’t deliver enough payoff to merit the wait."

ALSO:

• I Am the Night has all the makings of greatness -- but it has too many clichés from movies you’ve seen before, with little new to add
• I Am the Night is filled with period atmosphere but little sense of narrative purpose or identity
• Every once in a while, I Am the Night clicks into a propulsive and exciting gear
• It’s a tale full of intrigue, scandal, and murder, presented with a middlebrow prestige-sleaze gloss that should really hit the spot for Twin Peaks fans
• Chris Pine's involvement was on the condition that Patty Jenkins would direct
• Jenkins on filming in the real Sowden House: "This is the most intense experience"