The Night Of

[Daze]

HBO's new New York crime drama miniseries. Anyone else watching this?

I'm up to episode four or five. I think it's fantastic. It's written by Richard Price, who at this point I would imagine could write New York cop dramas of this caliber in his sleep. The performances and direction are top notch too. The only problem I've had is that it's very oddly paced, and doesn't at all follow the regular beats of the whodunnit it sets itself up as initially. It's not necessarily an easy watch in that way.

With this, Stranger Things, Preacher and Mr.Robot all on at the same time and firing on all cylinders it's proving to be a pretty good summer for TV. Nice contrast to the dreadful spring/summer movies we've been served this year too.

[jason voorhees]

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I have it, but haven't seen it yet. Happy to see Richard Price get involved. If only Elmore Leonard was a decade younger.

Been loving Mr. Robot as well.

[Incandenza]

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Have them saved on my DVR. I'll get around to them someday, probably after I finally finish the OJ documentary.

[Amor de Cosmos]

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We've been watching. I was brought to it by the Richard Price connection too. Certainly worth your time, Turturro's great, and the prison scenes are especially effective. The consistently dark values of the cinematography are impressive too. It's the best looking series I've seen in some time.

[WOM]

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We're two episodes in, but I think it's terrific. Turturro's excellent as usual.

[danielmak]

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I skipped ahead to avoid spoilers. I'm 3/4 way through the first episode but started it late at night and the opening was just way too intense to watch when I was ready to crash out. Basically from the time he runs out of the woman's house to him being taken to the police station, I can't remember something as suspenseful as this. I'll finish tonight and keep moving on but wanted to comment that the writing and cinematography are top notch in this first episode.

[danielmak]

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I'm not caught up. It's definitely a slow moving affair but that's a huge part of the plot. It seems to me that this is 1970s filmmaking (Taxi Driver, Saturday Night Fever) shot with more contemporary David Fincher-style aesthetics.

I think the story is gripping and has turned in interesting ways (most notably what seemed like a frame job becomes a bit less set in stone as the story unfolds). Finally, I'll add to my post above and say that this is some of the more suspenseful TV I have seen in a while. It's not a series that I would rank as high as True Detective's first 6 or 7 episodes but really good. Hopefully it will end with a more logical plotline than True Detective.

[Amor de Cosmos]

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The final, almost two-hour episode, is this Sunday. Even given the length there's a fair-few plot threads to tie-up, unless there's another season planned(?)

No spoilers but, there's been a couple of WhyTF moments lately to break what was a meticulously laid out drama. One this past weekend seriously p.o'd lot of people and seemed very off-key to me too.

[WOM]

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I have no idea how or why it will wrap up so quickly. The pacing and depth have been wonderful. I hope it doesn't wrap up with some unpredictable douchy twist.

[VTTBoscombe]

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Not on Netflix France yet, mph!

[danielmak]

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VTTBoscombe wrote: Not on Netflix France yet, mph!

I'd pay a visit to that pirateship in Sweden if it looks like Netflix FR is going to take a long time.

[Slightly Brown]

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It's fantastic television. As has been mentioned, it's gripping and creates doubt through nice little details. John Turturro is ace in a Columbo sort of way.

Spoilers***********************

Amor: do you mean the moment with the lawyer in the cell? That was like it came from a different show. I thought it was a wank-bank moment while he was in his cell. But no.

Posited theory***********

He will be exonerated due to the evidence bungle, but will do something in jail that makes him murder. Making of a murderer, if you will.

[Amor de Cosmos]

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Yes, that's the one.

[danielmak]

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A lot of very interesting twists in this final episode.

***************SPOILERS BELOW********************

Turturo was really amazing in this show and the guy who played Box was superb as well. I really liked Turturo's closing statement: Nas was guilty of 6 things but not murder but it's the time in Rikers that made him the man we see at the end.

***********************************************

I didn't realize that this was remake of a BBC show. Should have known, but I was pulled in by the writer. I assume a lot was changed, but who knows. How did the Criminal Justice series stack up if anyone has seen that one.

[Slightly Brown]

The Night Of

danielmak wrote:

***************SPOILERS BELOW********************

Turturo was really amazing in this show and the guy who played Box was superb as well. I really liked Turturo's closing statement: Nas was guilty of 6 things but not murder but it's the time in Rikers that made him the man we see at the end.

More spoilers************************

Yeah, I wondered how they were going to do the closing statement but I thought that worked really well: it was a great summation of the show in that regard.

The lawyer dalliance/drugs-in-the-johnny still didn't ring true, but the cast were uniformly good (although I thought the great Moaadi was underused) and the entire thing had that slow-burn narcotic feel that made it both constantly edgy and entirely unmissable. The red-herring count was also enjoyably high.

[Posty Webber]

The Night Of

Really enjoyed this. For me, the best of the 3 recent great shows (Stranger Things and Mr Robot being the others).

I thought the lesser of the incidents involving Chandra in the cell was believable but the other was a disappointing bit of writing for me.

Check this out for an overview of what parts of the procedural aspects to the show were realistic (or not):
http://www.vulture.com/2016/08/night-of-got-right-and-wrong.html

[Haddock]

The Night Of

SPOILERS BELOW

The best thing I've seen on TV this year but a slightly disappointing final episode. Chandra's behaviour was clearly supposed to mirror Naz's good-kid-gone-bad descent but there just wasn't enough backstory for her for it to be believable.
Couple of articles I've read suggest a second series is a possibility, with either Box and the DA after the financial adviser real culprit or a True Detective-type reset (gulp) with different characters and following another defendant through the system. If there is a second series it surely has to be with Richard Price on board. Clockers, The Wire, Freedomland, The Whites, The Night Of, all the way back to The Wanderers. He's a brilliant, serious writer.

[danielmak]

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Posty Webber wrote: Really enjoyed this. For me, the best of the 3 recent great shows (Stranger Things and Mr Robot being the others).

I thought the lesser of the incidents involving Chandra in the cell was believable but the other was a disappointing bit of writing for me.

Check this out for an overview of what parts of the procedural aspects to the show were realistic (or not):
http://www.vulture.com/2016/08/night-of-got-right-and-wrong.html

Thanks for sharing that link. That was an interesting piece.

I really dug Mr. Robot but I couldn't get into the second season. I was 3/4 of the way through the premier/double episode and it just seemed so flat. I figured I'd come back via on demand but am not there yet. Instead, I got pulled into The Night Of and Marcella. And then started Marseille on Netflix.

[garcia]

The Night Of

really enjoyed this, though a lot of it was silly nonsense. as is laid out in the piece posty linked to, i thought it was ridiculous how little actual investigation was done into the case until the trial was practically over - her phone records would have seemed an obvious thing to look at, the fact that somebody stood to gain millions of dollars by her death, etc. obviously they thought they already had the killer, but establishing the basic details of her life, her personal and economic relationships - those things seemed like they should be investigative formalities.

[WOM]

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Yup. Backward looking, a few obvious flaws. But as it rolled, very good indeed. I'm satisfied with the ending, too, which is sometimes rare. And the very, very final 'walk across'.....perfect.

[Amor de Cosmos]

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Spoilers•Spoilers•Spoilers•Spoilers•Spoilers•

Yeah. The fact Naz wasn't covered in blood was a massive plot-hole — on par with the buried airplane in The English Patient.

But the good stuff diminished even a flaw that big. I thought it did best with atmospherics and timing. One of best sequences was Naz leaving prison — door after door, wall after wall. It managed to create unexpected tension... would he actually get out?

It's not a flaw, but the dialogue was very spare, which left a lot for the actors and director to reveal in other ways. Mostly they rose to the challenge admirably, a look, an eye movement, a twist of the mouth, suggested all we needed. I do think however an exception was Amara Karan as Chandra. I've seen her in other productions and she tends to play the same part, keen but naive non-white woman in a white world doing as she's told. She needed to convey what was underneath that somehow, because it wasn't in the script. Unfortunately she didn't and it left question marks all over her character.

[WOM]

The Night Of

Amor de Cosmos wrote: Spoilers•Spoilers•Spoilers•Spoilers•Spoilers•

Yeah. The fact Naz wasn't covered in blood was a massive plot-hole — on par with the buried airplane in The English Patient.

I dunno. I just accepted it as part of the idea that he was face down on the kitchen table while the killing was being done upstairs.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Night Of

Yes, but why didn't any of the cops think that? It was clearly the most obvious reason why he couldn't have done it. There's no way it could have been overlooked either by them or — even more — his defence counsel, yet it never once came up. That's why it's a significant writing/production gaffe.

[garcia]

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would you necessarily be covered in blood if you stabbed someone to death with that sort of knife? i mean, does it shoot out everywhere? i don't know, i've never stabbed anybody. once cut my index finger pretty badly when my knife skipped as i was cutting up a piece of bread. the blood did indeed leap from the finger in a hot looping arc. but that presumably only happens if you hit an artery.

they made sure he got some of her blood on him with the hand game so i guess they figured they had solved that plot problem.

[WOM]

The Night Of

Did you see what the bed looked like? I think he'd have blood on him.