The Night Of

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.

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.

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.

A stunning fusion of style and story. The Night Of is noir to its very soul.

As complicated and layered as life itself, The Night Of is an instant classic. [11-24 Jul 2016, p.16]

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).

This is HBO’s best “limited series” since Angels in America, which in 2004 won all of the major Emmy awards in its category.

Looks as though the TV drama of the summer, perhaps of the year, has finally arrived. The Night Of is a remarkable piece of work, restoring meaning to overused adjectives such as “gripping” and “powerful.”

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.

It's enthralling. The Night Of looks like this summer's TV obsession.

It is Agatha Christie meets "The Wire," and it's one of the best things on TV in an already-great year.

This adaptation of a BBC series differentiates itself in enough ways to keep things fresh and riveting.

Through seven of its eight hours (HBO didn't give critics the finale in advance), it's vital and gripping. It's not an imitator dressing itself up in the trappings of a classic HBO drama, but the real deal.

This is good, strong procedural television that respects the art form and commands our attention.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The performances, in fact, are so uniformly strong and the direction so deft that it's possible to overlook a plot that, like The Killing (and Netflix's new thriller Marcella) introduces a few too many Law & Order-like plot twists to be totally believable.

HBO's next great drama has arrived; The Night Of is a relentlessly dark and devastating look at the U.S. criminal justice system that feels eerily tailored to our consummately conflicted, painfully divided times.

Yes, all of this has been done before. But at every turn, Price’s writerly flourishes give The Night Of’s characters more depth than the usual stock figures. The result is surprisingly invigorating.

The writing for three episodes I’ve seen of The Night Of dazzle through extreme competence: clean cause-and-effect narratives, crisp dialogue, and just the right amount of shading in characters’ backstories and quirks.

The Night Of is compulsively watchable and extraordinarily rewarding, a brilliant and addictive mystery that inspires the viewer to go back and watch the same scenes again, looking for subtler character beats and hidden clues.

[A] tense and exquisite limited series on HBO. ... The later episodes become a more conventional legal story, as Stone patches together a defense, and the case becomes Nancy Grace-ified in the media. There are nods to TV legal series throughout.

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.

A completely engrossing murder mystery, courtroom drama, and family saga.

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.

There are times, it's true, when a little more narrative urgency might have been nice. Still, in a summer where few series seem to have captured the viewing public’s imagination, speed may not be too much to sacrifice. So go slow. This Night is worth it.

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.

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.

Deliberately paced but never dull, The Night Of offers a serialized criminal story that’s more interested in the characters and the criminal justice system’s process than in the crime itself.

It doesn’t break any new ground, but unlike most crime procedurals, it’s neither facile nor jokey. Whether in the end Naz is guilty or innocent may not matter. The series ultimately succeeds on its mystery and as a provocative trip through the justice system.

As a crime drama in the vein of a more sprawling Law & Order or a less philosophical True Detective, The Night Of succeeds wildly.

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).

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.

Apparent familiarity doesn’t make The Night Of any less involving, though, in large part because of Ahmed’s charismatic and sympathetic performance as Naz.

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.