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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
38
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Jul 11, 2016
Season 1 Review:
How Naz's religion (he's the American-born son of Pakistani immigrants) becomes a factor in the case is a natural part of the narrative but never feels like a polemic--The Night Of is too subtle for that. Its brilliance is in the way, thanks to the moody, unrushed direction and pointed, spare dialogue, everything feels freighted with meaning.
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Jul 8, 2016
Season 1 Review:
The Night Of doesn’t break new ground so much as it showcases a group of actors, writers and directors working at an exceptionally high level, merging potentially familiar genres into a thoroughly absorbing study of disparate characters brought together by a murder whose perpetrator remains a mystery.
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Jul 8, 2016
Season 1 Review:
It sings. Mournfully, triumphantly, poignantly, of failed dreams and second chances; of the simple mistakes that accumulate into tragedy, of the cold calculations required by redemption. But mostly it sings of itself, an anthem to television’s unique power to turn a series of understated performances into sustained magnificence.
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TV Guide MagazineJul 8, 2016
Season 1 Review:
As complicated and layered as life itself, The Night Of is an instant classic. [11-24 Jul 2016, p.16]
Jul 7, 2016
Season 1 Review:
If the series were only about the doe-eyed and inscrutable Naz, it would be interesting enough. But it is bursting with other characters and heart-ripping portraits and morality playlets with a life of their own. The main attraction is the disheveled lawyer Jack Stone (John Turturro, in a mind-blowing performance).
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Jul 7, 2016
Season 1 Review:
Unquestionably, though, the most significant contributing factor to the character’s [John Stone's] magnetic credibility is Turturro’s performance, a masterful assemblage of all those little details from the script, brought beautifully to shabby, world-weary life by Turturro’s finely honed skill. Ahmed is almost as good, and if he falls just shy of making Naz’s radical transformation inside Rikers fully credible, it’s really because the script fails him.
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IndieWireJul 7, 2016
Season 1 Review:
[Naz's] journey just transitions from active to passive, becoming more about the limited series’ overall message, while John’s is designed to pick up the torch for the personal perspective established by Naz in the premiere. It’s in this transition that The Night Of flexes its subtly brilliant powers of seductive storytelling.
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Jul 7, 2016
Season 1 Review:
The series never quite convincingly establishes what could have been a powerful undercurrent-- whether Naz and by association the rest of New York’s Muslim community had been tried and convicted based on their Muslim faith alone. That’s OK. Everything else--and everyone else--cclicks just about perfectly.
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Jul 7, 2016
Season 1 Review:
Thanks to the grounded performances, The Night Of, like the similarly themed Serial, will have audiences ready to render their own verdicts, convinced they know the characters well enough to telegraph their actions. The only glaring flaw with The Night Of comes from Price’s efforts to humanize each character with novelistic quirks.
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Jul 6, 2016
Season 1 Review:
These powerfully acted investigations drive a narrative that meticulously tracks the procedures, language, and culture of the actors’ work. In doing so, The Night Of produces endless richness and sobering meanings about the degrading cost of a flawed justice system.
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The Daily BeastJul 11, 2016
Season 1 Review:
Though its title screams Christmas flick, HBO’s absorbing new miniseries is a pitch-black procedural that combines the system-is-broken outrage of Making a Murderer, the menacing atmosphere of Oz, and the shameless topicality and plot twists of Law & Order: SVU. And the first of its eight hour-long chapters plays like an elegant, extended version of the first three minutes of SVU.
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Jul 11, 2016
Jul 7, 2016
Season 1 Review:
With its first episode, The Night Of tears out of the driveway, scary and thrilling, like a muscle car. But just as it’s about to open up and do 100, it slows down, unwilling to become a joyride. Instead of proving Naz’s innocence, future episodes take in the scope of his circumstance. For all that The Night Of shares with Serial and Making a Murderer, it shares as much with The Wire, a series about the omnipotence of dysfunctional power structures.
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Jun 24, 2016
Season 1 Review:
It follows the Slow TV template recently perfected by the likes of American Crime and The People vs. O.J. Simpson, giving each scene maximum space to breathe, often more than it needs. But the net effect is hypnotic, like reading a fat crime novel filled with memorable characters and atmospheric details.
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Jul 7, 2016
Jul 7, 2016
Season 1 Review:
The narrative's broad strokes are compelling, particularly as defensive attorney Jack Stone (John Turturro) begins to uncover the murder suspects who detective Dennis Box (Bill Camp) couldn't be bothered to dig up, but it's the textural flourishes that distinguish The Night Of from more formulaic courtroom fare, such as the continuing emphasis that Zaillian and Price place on the notion of ritual as cultural currency.
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Jul 8, 2016
Season 1 Review:
Turturro bites into the role with bitter humor and wounded idealism. Still, it’s Ahmed, at times resembling a young Andy Garcia, who is at the heart of this series, with his innocence being stripped away as the slow wheels of justice threaten to grind his soul. It’s powerful, and timely, stuff.
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Jul 8, 2016
ColliderJul 7, 2016
Season 1 Review:
Stone’s uncertainty (but desperate desire) in trying a murder case at all gives The Night Of the boost it needs to make it interesting, since the show itself isn’t as interested in the events of that night so much as how they are perceived by others (the police, the community, the jury).
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Jul 6, 2016
Season 1 Review:
Great care has been taken in almost every aspect of bringing the former Gandolfini passion project to TV. That care may peak early with a premiere that should be in Emmy consideration at this time next year, but subsequent episodes still hold an elevated, pulpy crime novel feel, dampened only slightly as contrivances begin to settle in.
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Jul 7, 2016
Season 1 Review:
The show frequently loses sight of the murder mystery, introducing alternate suspects who then disappear for multiple episodes. Khan himself is a bit of a cipher, which might be necessary in order to keep the audience guessing as to his guilt, but makes him less interesting to watch as the series progresses. Stone, however, is fascinating, even if the show sometimes spends too much time on overly symbolic details of his life.
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