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The Night Of - new crime limited series - HBO Sundays - 90 on Metacritic

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
LOL @ the guy earlier in the thread who said this is some of the best TV he's ever watched.

It definitely started off extremely well. I was completely engrossed during the entire first episode. Couldn't keep my eyes off the screen. The show just didn't stick the landing for me.
 
Almost gave up because I didn't expect it to go to a prison setting but I'm glad I stuck around because it was solid series. Overall 7/10. Bring on more miniseries HBO! I love this format of TV.
 

Schattenjäger

Gabriel Knight
Finished the whole thing.... Was one of the best series I've seen in a long time

Yea some writing was suspect... But the characters and cinematography more than made up for it
 

Helmholtz

Member
Too much prison shit and not enough about the "who done it."
Pretty much. After the first episode or two I assumed the show would be an interesting mystery that would slowly get solved throughout the season. But unfortunately it wasn't that at all, and turned out to be a lot more generic and uninteresting.
 
Pretty much. After the first episode or two I assumed the show would be an interesting mystery that would slowly get solved throughout the season. But unfortunately it wasn't that at all, and turned out to be a lot more generic and uninteresting.

The straightforward mystery/whodunit would have been the generic take on it.
 

Korey

Member
The ending was like "here's 5 people that could've done it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, in fact we'll throw in 1 more suspect but other than that you have the same info you had from episode 1. end"
 
Since this has become a "review The Night Of" thread:

  • Amazing first episode. Amazing acting
  • Love that John Torturro will not just be known as The Jesus to me. He deserves all the awards he´ll surely win
  • Riz Ahmeds character is good.
  • The prison mentor guy did not surprise me as I thought he would
  • Loved that the show surprised me by not going for easy pay offs

Can´t wait for a new season if they do one
 
A few episodes in.

But fucking props to the writers for showing how Sikhs also suffer from the fall out of islamaphobia in America.

It was just a small scene, but thank you to the writers.
 

shoelacer

Banned
It's dope. As hooked up as Omar was, I don't think they were positing that he was so powerful that he could get away with cooking crack in prison.
 
Finally finished it. Really fuckin good. The first and last episode were some of the most painful episodes to watch (in a good way). Errybody makin some real bad choices. But that's life.

We got exactly the amount of resolution we needed.
 

shira

Member
Just started watching. The premise is really bad. I can't even comprehend how thirsty/desperate this guy is.
 
I didn't know where to post this but it somewhat tells us why Riz picked the role of Naz, This is an article from Riz Ahmed about roles he's offered, typecasting, and his personal struggles. It's a good read, and Riz comes off incredibly smart and sounds like an intellectual. Some choice quotes
As children in the 1980s, when my brother and I were stopped near our home by a skinhead who decided to put a knife to my brother’s throat, we were black. A decade later, the knife to my throat was held by another “Paki”, a label we wore with swagger in the Brit-Asian youth and gang culture of the 1990s. The next time I found myself as helplessly cornered, it was in a windowless room at Luton airport. My arm was in a painful wrist-lock and my collar pinned to the wall by British intelligence officers. It was “post 9/11”, and I was now labelled a Muslim.
As a minority, no sooner do you learn to polish and cherish one chip on your shoulder than it’s taken off you and swapped for another. The jewellery of your struggles is forever on loan, like the Koh-i-Noor diamond in the crown jewels. You are intermittently handed a necklace of labels to hang around your neck, neither of your choosing nor making, both constricting and decorative.

Part of the reason I became an actor was the promise that I might be able to help stretch these necklaces, and that the teenage version of myself might breathe a little easier as a result.

If the films I re-enacted as a kid could humanise mutants and aliens, maybe there was hope for us. But portrayals of ethnic minorities worked in stages, I realised, so I’d have to strap in for a long ride.
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Stage one is the two-dimensional stereotype – the minicab driver/terrorist/cornershop owner. It tightens the necklace.

Stage two is the subversive portrayal, taking place on “ethnic” terrain but aiming to challenge existing stereotypes. It loosens the necklace.
The reason for this is simple. America uses its stories to export a myth of itself, just like the UK. The reality of Britain is vibrant multiculturalism, but the myth we export is an all-white world of lords and ladies. Conversely, American society is pretty segregated, but the myth it exports is of a racial melting-pot, everyone solving crimes and fighting aliens side by side.

So America was where I headed. But it would not be an easy journey.
 
Great series.

If HBO has one great crime mini series every year, I am ok with True Detective not coming back.

The Chandra actress is probably a bit weak, she has a "Why the fuck am I here" expression permanently stuck on her face.

Turturro's feet are cured by the cat.
 
- Variety interview with HBO president Casey Bloys
Do you want another season of “The Night Of”?

Yes, absolutely. The only issue with doing another season is for them to come up with an idea that excites them. Steve [Zaillian] and Richard [Price] are talking and sharing ideas. I think it’ll be a longer process, probably. Both of them take their time and will only do something they’re really passionate and excited about. They’re not going to do another season just to do another season.

Would another season be just one case again?

I don’t know. My guess is, it would be [one case in a season]. I think they’re talking about a lot of different variations, so at this point, all I know is that they’re talking about it. They haven’t come to us with anything. They’re just trying to get themselves excited about a take.

Would it be with John Turturro again?

That would be my hope. I think that’s what they’re thinking. But all of it is speculation at this point.
 
Oh man, what a brutal episode. I'm excited for next week. As much as I believe he's innocent, he's becoming incredibly unlikable for me.
i just finished binging it, what did he do to make it unlikeable for you?
Nothing happens:The Show
pretty much.
Bingo.

I loved this show. Absolutely loved it.

It was never about wether Naz did it or did not do it as much as it was about here is how our current justice system works, especially for those deemed to be a minority, and even if they are found innocent, their lives are affected negatively, and that is just the reality of the situation.

It was primarily about the fact that there are flawed human beings behind the justice system, and that in turn means it is corrupt. There were so, so many smaller what appear to be at first glance insignificant scenes to reinforce this fact.

This series was never about closure for the case itself. It was meant to provide an truthful look at the justice system itself. Keeping this in mind I loved it. And I actually thought there was a decent amount of closure. My biggest critique is I felt they rushed the ending and it could have been another episode or two.
i mean as others have pointed out though, this show didn't portray perfectly how the judicial system works.

Very bland ending, for amount of suspense, build ups and loose ends.

8.5/10 for the show (if I pretended the final did not exist) 6.5/10 otherwise.

gonna have to agree with this
 
Quick comments from MK Williams on a potential second season:
Michael K. Williams has been an integral part of two long-running, critically acclaimed HBO series with The Wire and Boardwalk Empire. Now, the question is if he will go for the hat trick.

The actor returned to HBO this summer with The Night Of, originally intended to serve as a standalone miniseries. The buzz — and three Golden Globe nominations — for the crime drama has many wondering if the series could return and if the cast, including Williams, John Turturro, and Riz Ahmed, could follow suit.


“HBO would be deaf, dumb, and stupid to not want to do another season of this,” Williams said during a recent appearance on Entertainment Weekly: The Show. “However, from what I gather from [creators] Richard Price and Steven Zaillian, there is no amount of money that you can just throw at them to piece together a shabby excuse for a season 2 of what we created. If it didn’t fit, it ain’t happening.”
 

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
Just finished this and I have to say, so much of it was just not believable. I'm okay with people making bad choices but the level of stupid decisions was just too much for me to accept, especially with the young lawyer.

Another issue I had was the level of lawyering in the show. All of the lawyers missed such glaringly obvious holes in the evidence. It was frustrating to watch.

Overall it started great but ended poorly. 6/10.
 
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