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

J

Jeels

Member
scosher said:
My early guess is the killer is someone the girl knows, since a stabbing like that has to be a crime of passion. Maybe an ex-boyfriend she just broke up with, since she was acting peculiar in her opening scene, giving Nasir no real destination to drive to.
Click to expand...

Honestly (episode 1 speculation)
it crossed my mind several times that maybe it really was Nasir and he doesn't remember. The girl was into kinky stabbing shit and maybe they took it several steps too far after taking more drugs
 
Z

Zousi

Member
- Sepinwall has seen 7 episodes: Review: 'The Night Of' is the great drama HBO very badly needs right now

On paper, The Night Of seems emblematic of HBO's recent difficulties: stuck in development forever, plus credits full of names from vintage HBO successes (The Wire alum Richard Price co-created it with Steve Zaillian, and the sprawling cast includes actors from The Wire, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Angels in America, and The Leftovers, among others). But the limited series doesn't feel like a middle-aged man desperately clinging to his youth with a leather jacket and a convertible. 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.
Click to expand...
 
A

Arkeband

Banned
Jeels said:
Honestly (episode 1 speculation)
it crossed my mind several times that maybe it really was Nasir and he doesn't remember. The girl was into kinky stabbing shit and maybe they took it several steps too far after taking more drugs
Click to expand...

He's
virtually bloodless, there's no way.
 
Bitanator

Bitanator

Member
Did anybody else find the final scene with his dad running outside to notice his cab gone a bit silly? Don't you think he would have looked out the window before, or at least his other son notice and mention it? It is nothing really but it bugged me for how good the overall episode was.

I'm excited for the other episodes
 
J

jcutner

Member
Bitanator said:
Did anybody else find the final scene with his dad running outside to notice his cab gone a bit silly? Don't you think he would have looked out the window before, or at least his other son notice and mention it? It is nothing really but it bugged me for how good the overall episode was.

I'm excited for the other episodes
Click to expand...

Yea, that was a bit off. If it was in a parking lot, or way down the street - fair enough, but it's literally opposite the house.
 
J

Jonm1010

Banned
C

Cornballer

Member
Lots of reviews up now and they're universally positive. Metacritic currently has it at a 90.

A few highlights:

- Matt Zoller Seitz review for NY Mag
This is not an especially innovative series: It’s based on the British mini-series Criminal Justice, created by Peter Moffat, and 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. Like Price’s novels Clockers and Freedomland, which gave deeply unglamorous crimes the Dostoyevsky treatment, this one draws equally on 19th-century fiction and the kinds of stories that cops, lawyers, and social workers tell each other in bars after work.
Click to expand...

- Deadline: ‘The Night Of’ Review: HBO Miniseries Delivers The Procedural Goods
In the manner of the best of upmarket procedurals and like a thick thriller paperback, Richard Price and Steve Zaillian’s eight-parter based on the UK series Criminal Justice might, as I say in my video review above, prove a perfect summer distraction.
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- IndieWire review
For now, it’s a tight, tempting tale walking a tight-rope between truly great TV and off-target exploitation. Considering the pedigree, it’s hard to imagine “The Night Of” succumbing to the latter, but it would be criminal not to note the possibility.

Grade: B+
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- Onion A|V Club review
Everything that HBO has wanted out of a drama since True Detective sparked then fizzled is available in spades in The Night Of. Zaillian’s direction is never less than confident and doesn’t feel obtrusive even at its showiest. And not enough can be said about the ensemble cast, which is stacked to the rafters with ringers; elite character actors fill even the most thankless roles. (A drinking game could be made of spotting the familiar faces that pop up for glorified walk-on roles.) But no actor is wasted, because no character is wasted. Each moment and every exchange are pieces of a misshapen puzzle that may or may not come together by the end of the eight-episode run. 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.

Grade: A-
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C

Clipjoint

Member
Excellent pilot. I loved everything about it. Some speculation on my end of things that will work in his favor:

They mentioned a couple of times that the knife may have been serrated. My guess is that it was, which proves his knife was not the murder weapon.
The guy driving the hearse said something like "you want to be my next passenger?" - creepy thing to say when you drive a hearse. It might be the way it was shot, but it looked like he followed them after. I know it's because she flicked her cigarette in a gas station, but still. Suspicious.
The witness lying about another person being there. That dude must have a bad history, and he definitely gave them the death stare.
Something will be questionable about the timeline, which will be established by the parking ticket he got for parking in front of a fire hydrant.

I loved the parallels between both Naz and the lawyer hesitating before turning around and getting involved in the events of that night. Really well done.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Saw this episode on Wednesday. Great cast, good drama even knowing how the random encounter and initial arrest was gonna end. So many questions. Turturro's character is actually a lot more subdued than I'm used to seeing him. Looking forward to the twists and turns.
 
Q

questionmark

Member
Finally got around to watching this. Loved it. Only issue I have is that it's been up on hbonordic for a while so I was expecting at least a second episode to be available as well. Can't believe I have to wait a whole week for the 2nd episode.
 
C

carlsojo

Member
Arkeband said:
He's
virtually bloodless, there's no way.
Click to expand...

Yeah but
he was naked, so it's plausible he stabbed her, showered afterwards, then gotten partially dressed before coming out of his "fugue state" at the kitchen table.


All in all I wasn't that impressed with the premiere. The "mystery" is hardly compelling.
 
B

blainethemono

Member
Clipjoint said:
Excellent pilot. I loved everything about it. Some speculation on my end of things that will work in his favor:

They mentioned a couple of times that the knife may have been serrated. My guess is that it was, which proves his knife was not the murder weapon.
The guy driving the hearse said something like "you want to be my next passenger?" - creepy thing to say when you drive a hearse. It might be the way it was shot, but it looked like he followed them after. I know it's because she flicked her cigarette in a gas station, but still. Suspicious.
The witness lying about another person being there. That dude must have a bad history, and he definitely gave them the death stare.
Something will be questionable about the timeline, which will be established by the parking ticket he got for parking in front of a fire hydrant.

I loved the parallels between both Naz and the lawyer hesitating before turning around and getting involved in the events of that night. Really well done.
Click to expand...

all of these details stood out to me as well, plus:

they took the time to establish that there was a second entrance that she let her cat out through, aside from the main entrance which locked behind Naz after he tried to leave for the first time. also, the final shot of the episode with a cat crossing the street

at the same time, it feels like there's also a lot of set up for a potential scenario for Naz being guilty - they spend a bunch of time building up the idea that he feels like he's always "doing whatever people tell him to do" which culminates in him stabbing her in the hand. from the beginning she seemed depressed - my initial reading was that she wanted to get to a body of water so that she could drown herself - but the whole "i can't be alone tonight" thing kinda confirmed to me that she was feeling suicidal, and from there it's not too hard to imagine her eventually pushing him into killing her

really does remind me of The Wire in that it feels like a ton of little details have been set up that are probably going to surface again later. it's gonna be hard to stop thinking about this now. i usually don't feel this type of urgency for shows anymore, but if i could just binge this whole season right now i think i wouldn't stop until it was done
 
B

BeeDog

Member
Really liked the first episode, had me hooked all the way through. What surprised me a lot was that the episode felt quite subdued, especially for an HBO production. Barely any cursing, not that much gore or violence (aside from that one scene though) and the general pace. They usually go balls to the wall when setting up new shows.

Also glad to hear critics saying the show keeps up the quality.
 
T

TheOctodad

Member
Any chance it was the begin or the called The cops in the first place? What if he's a creep that watches her all the time and this was the final straw of his jealousy? There's a lot of questions though. What was going on with the girl before she got in the cab? What did she mean when she wanted to go to the beach? Do those first two guys that try to get in the cab have anything to do with it?
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
I think the biggest problem now for me is imagining Gandolfini in the title role. I could absolutely see him hitting it out of the park as a down on his luck attorney.
 
D

Dosia

Member
I think it was one of the black dudes since he lied during the witness interview. Shady

Anyways, I was really into the first ep and wish I could blow through the season.
 
T

Turin Turambar

Member
BeeDog said:
Really liked the first episode, had me hooked all the way through. What surprised me a lot was that the episode felt quite subdued, especially for an HBO production. Barely any cursing, not that much gore or violence (aside from that one scene though) and the general pace. They usually go balls to the wall when setting up new shows.

Also glad to hear critics saying the show keeps up the quality.
Click to expand...

Lol, HBO isn't only Game of Thrones, or True Blood. It's also Show me a Hero or Treme.
 
G

GorillaJu

Member
Watched the first episode and found myself wishing I could just binge on the whole thing.

I don't think it's going to be that much of a "who done it" mystery, I have a feeling given the writing staff that it'll spend time delving into bigger topics like the legal system, the justice system, racism, and that we the audience might find out relatively soon who the real killer was. I mean the neighbor who made the call is pretty suspicious right away, and there seemed to be some foreshadowing when he says to the detective "do I look like the type who's going to Europe any time soon?" Could just be a red herring, but there's also the the dude with Body who looked for a long time at the girl's house as they went in, that wasn't with Body when he returned and was suspiciously omitted from the telling of events.
 
C

Clipjoint

Member
blainethemono said:
all of these details stood out to me as well, plus:

they took the time to establish that there was a second entrance that she let her cat out through, aside from the main entrance which locked behind Naz after he tried to leave for the first time. also, the final shot of the episode with a cat crossing the street

at the same time, it feels like there's also a lot of set up for a potential scenario for Naz being guilty - they spend a bunch of time building up the idea that he feels like he's always "doing whatever people tell him to do" which culminates in him stabbing her in the hand. from the beginning she seemed depressed - my initial reading was that she wanted to get to a body of water so that she could drown herself - but the whole "i can't be alone tonight" thing kinda confirmed to me that she was feeling suicidal, and from there it's not too hard to imagine her eventually pushing him into killing her

really does remind me of The Wire in that it feels like a ton of little details have been set up that are probably going to surface again later. it's gonna be hard to stop thinking about this now. i usually don't feel this type of urgency for shows anymore, but if i could just binge this whole season right now i think i wouldn't stop until it was done
Click to expand...

Good point I didn't even think of that detail. That's a big one.
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
Thanks, HBO.

You released the episode online weeks ago. Now on the night of its premiere, you have the first episode airing from 9PM - 12AM.

No time to air the second episode! None whatsoever.
 
Vire

Vire

Member
I'm so anxious watching this... It's really good but I'm only halfway through the first episode and this shit is too tense.
 
1

120v

Member
Sanjuro said:
Thanks, HBO.

You released the episode online weeks ago. Now on the night of its premiere, you have the first episode airing from 9PM - 12AM.

No time to air the second episode! None whatsoever.
Click to expand...

yeah... that's some bull shizzle. i was under the impression it premiered last week (i watch all HBO shows on HBO Now) and i'd be getting a new episode tonight.

i... i have to wait a week?? #firstworldproblems
 
Vire

Vire

Member
Wow that was excellent, love the credits music as well.

Did that remind anyone else of Michael Mann's Collateral?
 
C

cLOUDo

Member
great premiere, this guy is fucked
there is no other suspect or anything in favor of naz
the only one can i think is the
the other guy who saw Naz and the girl
 
G

Gattsu25

Banned
Amazing premiere. Naz did everything in his power to make himself look guilty, like...damn.

Loved the way this looks. Seriously.

Acting seems great from every actor.

John Turturro is secretly one of my favorite actors, nice seeing him in this role.
 
G

Gattsu25

Banned
Arkeband said:
I haven't seen the British version, but supposedly it's practically a shot for shot remake. Dunno if they'll diverge, so I'm just avoiding reading about that one altogether.
Click to expand...

No, it's based on the BBC show Criminal Justice (which I haven't seen), not Serial (which I haven't listened to).
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Nasir Khan

That was a great opening. It's going to be tough waiting a week for each episode, especially in these doldrums of summer TV.
 
T

torre_avenue

Banned
>Lives in Queens, New York
>Named Nasir, nickname Naz.
>Not even one reference to Nas made in the pilot.

0/10 realism broken gg Zaillian you tried.

Seriously though, I thought it was a terrific pilot. The way that every scene just ratchets up the tension and slowly tightens the noose around Naz was great and made the pilot hard-to-watch at times. I like how in-depth this is going so far in terms of the discovery phase of the crime. However, it also seems like the only person we can really trust in this story is Naz. The way Stone reacts when he hears Box is the detective attached makes me think the guy is going to turn out to be a major impediment to Naz going free.

The one major thing I caught in the pilot was the way the CSU guys said the chain of evidence was broken when examining Naz's personal items. Stone is definitely going to use that at some point to throw some doubt into the veracity of the findings from them.
 
holygeesus

holygeesus

Banned
Really enjoyed this, but one scene felt out of place to me, or poorly edited - when his
brother wakes up to find him missing and subsequently wakes the father, it feels like morning. It then cuts back to the scene where it is still the middle of the nigh/early morning.

Just seemed to be in the wrong place.
 
C

CopperPuppy

Member
carlsojo said:
Yeah but
he was naked, so it's plausible he stabbed her, showered afterwards, then gotten partially dressed before coming out of his "fugue state" at the kitchen table.


All in all I wasn't that impressed with the premiere. The "mystery" is hardly compelling.
Click to expand...

Your explanation is also a non-starter, as he still had the dried blood on his hand from the failed knife trick. Given how extraordinarily bloody the murder site was, I don't see any way around the fact that he wakes up virtually bloodless.
 
R

rugioh

Banned
There has to be something to
that dude in the hearse at the gas station. That scene had to have more significance than they gave it. The dude with Bodie walking seems to be too obvious of a lead to go anywhere imo.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
One quick note: since the premiere has aired now on HBO, there's no need to spoiler tag discussion of the first episode. The only things that need tags are discussion of the preview, cast interviews or another info about future episodes, or if you want to talk about plot points from the BBC series (Criminal Justice) that it's based on. Thank you.
 
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