The Night Of - HBO (1 Viewer)

[MarkMel]

So far another good HBO show. A detective/whodoneit.

One and a half episodes in and I'm hooked!

 

[MarkMel]

Killer show, pun intended!

 

[Johnny Angell]

I like this show though it can be a bit depressing. While I have no direct experience, the portrayal of prison life seems spot-on. It shames me that this is the way we incarcerate people. America has it's own Gulag.

There's no chewing of scenery here. Very understated but excellent performances.

 

[MarkMel]

This show continues to be the one that I most look forward to each week!

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Wasn't expecting to go for this, but it's a great novel on television with some of the same writer and cast DNA as "The Wire."

 

[Chad Erickson]

Really enjoying the show so far. John Turturro has been great as Stone and i'm having a hard time envisioning James Gandolfini in that role now. I'm sure he would have pulled it off, but Turturro seems perfect for the role.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

This most recent episode took a turn into bad cliche mode. Specifically, is it really in Stone's character to, when confronting a scary ass possible alternate suspect than his client, jump off pursuing him in his sandals in feet jumping fences and grabbing a rod to confront? Just don't buy it. If he got the suspect's name, that's enough to get authorities to root him out. But for this character to suddenly pull a cliche Magnum P.I. move just to provide the episode a more action-oriented cliffhanger... Not buying it. Disappointed. Didn't need to go there.

And Naz sure is getting desensitized in prison a bit rapidly. He shaves head (NOT good for court appearance), and then goes postal on the guy who burned him. What's up with that. And after pounding him repeatedly with his right fist... no bruising or damage to hand. And of course Freddie now sees him as fully capable of the murder. And maybe that's what we're all supposed to gather from this, and his denial of taking amphetamines.

But, overall, it just like this episode abandoned some of its thoughtful and deliberate progressions and just jumped into more standard cop drama formula. Let's hope it gets back on track next week.

 

[Stan]

Looking forward to this. Have the first four episodes on the DVR, figured since I'm halfway there, I'd just wait until I've got all eight and do a nice binge watch marathon.

Never cared for Turturro, but I'll tolerate him with this. Looks like mostly positive reviews from what I've been reading.

 

[MarkMel]

Overall a good mini-series. The finale that really didn't need the extra length wrapped things up nicely. Regardless of the outcome of the case, Naz's life is still ruined.

 

[Paul D G]

I've been recording the entire series and just watched the first episode last night. Loved it! I do have some criticism.

Spoiler Warning for those who've not watched, but since it's a 3 month old episode I'm not going to block it.

This is one of those cases where if the character just called the police right away everything probably would have been fine. There was no real motivation for him to run apart from panic. He had no blood on him and his hair wasn't wet from an apparent shower during his blackout. The knife on the table I immediately recognized as not being the murder weapon because it's where they left it after getting it on. I could understand him discarding the drugs, but they would have found drugs in her system so they'd find out anyway. I guess if there was some maternal pressure on drinking and drugs earlier I could understand the fearing the wrath of his father.

Continuity error where he throws the knife on the floor of the cab, but later he has it in his jacket. The knife being on him was supposed to be a surprise to the audience and to increase the tension, but it feel flat to me how it was presented. He should have just pulled it off the dash quickly. (i could be mis-remembering what he did in the cab).

I also felt it went on a little too long. I was expecting a cliffhanger ending where the cop finds the knife and her eyes grow wide but it kept going for another 20 minutes. Maybe that would have come off as cheap but the remainder of the episode kind of deflated after being on the edge of my seat for the last 40 minutes.

I have to wonder if he had been able to sneak out if anyone would have even remembered him.

I'm planning on watching an episode a night all week.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Since Paul's on the thread watching I'll hold my comments on the finale, but keep in mind the whole series rests on the mistakes Naz made the 'night of,' so don't apply too much logic to his actions. People do dumb things when they're scared. Like actually consider unqualified a-holes for high office because they talk tough.

 

[John Lee_275604]

People do dumb things when they're scared. Like actually consider unqualified a-holes for high office because they talk tough.

Really? I thought this site frowned on this shit

 

[Stan]

Way behind on things, all episodes on the DVR for a binge watch. Thanks for the spoiler warning Paul.

But a quick question. Is this worth watching? Fell behind and never got started. Keep it or zap it and clear up DVR space?

Did the same thing with "The Night Manager". Saved all the episodes up. But two episodes into it and I gave up. Delete, delete, delete....

Also dumped "Ripper Street" this season. With BBCA, it's like that Statue of Liberty phrase, "the wretched refuse of your teaming shore".

 

[John Lee_275604]

But a quick question. Is this worth watching? Fell behind and never got started. Keep it or zap it and clear up DVR space?

Depends on what you are looking for. I think a lot of people saw excellent performances, but glaringly unmet expectations.

In the age post-CSI, post Law and Order, heck post-Matlock, we have expectations of competence and dogged investigation with resources and procedures galore, followed by impassioned advocacy, perhaps even a last minute reveal, out of our criminal procedurals.

This is a story more about how life and human limitations impinge on our ideals of justice. The system is uncaring. The investigators get lazy. The attorneys weigh their prospects. The accused and their supporters flag in their optimism. Opportunities are missed and optics get blurred. The stresses of advocating for the innocence, and concomitant right to freedom with the presumption of said innocence weighs on the advocates resulting in fractures and bad decisions.

It's a messy story with a lot of holes [but the holes are part of the story]. However, there's a verisimilitude that runs through it nonetheless. More importantly, you'll see a number of [often subtle] things about criminal justice that don't get attention or haven't been presented quite this way before.

Is it perfect? No. Does it jibe with our usual narrative? No. Is it worth it? Overall, I think so.

 

[Stan]

Depends on what you are looking for. I think a lot of people saw excellent performances, but glaringly unmet expectations.

In the age post-CSI, post Law and Order, heck post-Matlock, we have expectations of competence and dogged investigation with resources and procedures galore, followed by impassioned advocacy, perhaps even a last minute reveal, out of our criminal procedurals.

This is a story more about how life and human limitations impinge on our ideals of justice. The system is uncaring. The investigators get lazy. The attorneys weigh their prospects. The accused and their supporters flag in their optimism. Opportunities are missed and optics get blurred. The stresses of advocating for the innocence, and concomitant right to freedom with the presumption of said innocence weighs on the advocates resulting in fractures and bad decisions.

It's a messy story with a lot of holes [but the holes are part of the story]. However, there's a verisimilitude that runs through it nonetheless. More importantly, you'll see a number of [often subtle] things about criminal justice that don't get attention or haven't been presented quite this way before.

Is it perfect? No. Does it jibe with our usual narrative? No. Is it worth it? Overall, I think so.

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll go through with this one.

A minor warning for binge watchers that like to save up these short season shows and do it all at once. Make sure you get all the episodes! I recorded something with a similar name "The Night Manager" ?, I forget, but it had Hugh Laurie in it.

Got all episodes except the last one, which kind of ruins everything when you don't get the ending. Miss one in the middle, probably okay, but the finale? Ugh....

I suppose I could have found it online, but watching something through my laptop, even with an HDMI connection to my TV, kind of spoils the experience.

 

[Charlie Campisi]

I enjoyed it but it did not live up to the promise of the premiere which was by far the best ep of the series. It could have been a lot better and I questioned all along what the point was. After the finale, I'm still not sure I know, but maybe just seeing what happened was enough.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I enjoyed it but it did not live up to the promise of the premiere which was by far the best ep of the series. It could have been a lot better and I questioned all along what the point was. After the finale, I'm still not sure I know, but maybe just seeing what happened was enough.

For me the point was no one wins and life isn't fair. We're shown a justice system this isn't perfect (oh brother, it's not perfect), a defendant who's heart isn't as pure as the driven snow, a prison system that must rival Russia's gulag. That last thing bothered me the most. We should be putting people in prison for their crimes and striving to release people who are better than when they went in, but we aren't. As for the justice system, the lesson from the story is that for the prosecution, winning is more important than justice.

There was one uplifting moment:

Spoiler

in the last scene we see the attorney has permanently adopted the cat.

 

[Stan]

Not even following my own advice, looks like I accidentally missed the last episode. I hope it repeats somewhere or I can get it online. Seven episodes all ready to go for a nice binge viewing and I somehow screw up #8

I'm cursed or maybe if a mini-series has the word "Night" in it, I'm not allowed to watch. Goofed up the final episode of "The Night Manager" and now this one. Ugh........

 

[Paul D G]

I went to watch Ep 3 last night and it had recorded Bill Maher instead. Fortunately every episode was available on On Demand.

 

[John Lee_275604]

Not even following my own advice, looks like I accidentally missed the last episode. I hope it repeats somewhere or I can get it online. Seven episodes all ready to go for a nice binge viewing and I somehow screw up #8

I'm cursed or maybe if a mini-series has the word "Night" in it, I'm not allowed to watch. Goofed up the final episode of "The Night Manager" and now this one. Ugh........

The last episode doesn't redeem everything, but it was by far a highlight of the series, easily rivaling the opening. Before the finale, I was tempted to not even finish it, I was rolling my eyes so aggressively at the apparent missed narratives and loose threads.

It doesn't fix everything, but it fixes a lot, and makes what it doesn't fix wane in importance compared to the strength of the story actually told.