'The Night Of' Is The Best TV HBO Has Released Since 'The Wire'

'The Night Of' Is The Best TV HBO Has Released Since 'The Wire'
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

If the names Frank Sobotka and Avon Barksdale mean anything to you, get ready to get excited. No, The Wire isn’t coming back to HBO, but with The Night Of, being hailed as the best American broadcast crime show since The Wire (the show that currently holds the title) viewers are in for a nuanced look at the criminal justice system. Richard Price, acclaimed writer and co-creator of The Wire is also behind The Night Of, along with Steven Zaillian, who adapted the BBC TV show (called Criminal Justice) for an eight-part limited series. (There are already rumors about The Night Of season two, due to the show’s popularity.)

Just as The Wire was more than a crime show about the drug game, political corruption, institutional ghettos, or a failing education system, The Night Of captivates because it is a character study of the inhabitants, who, like cogs on a wheel, each play a part in “the system.” And we can all agree that the system is doomed, or at least majorly rigged against people who lack privilege. In swing with cultural zeitgeist, The Night Of defines privilege in terms of race, ethnicity, money, reputation, and access to a decent podiatrist (metaphor for failing healthcare in the United States? I’m going to go with most definitely). With nods towards documentary series like Serial and Making Of A Murderer, The Night Of is also a case study of the criminal justice system, and its failings. But just as The Wire was so much more of a case study, The Night Of has a gripping narrative arc that demands viewers pay attention, and question each character’s every motive.

And did I mention John Turturro is at his finest as John Stone, a disillusioned criminal attorney with a severe case of dyshidrotic eczema that covers his feet and ankles. It’s a Biblical-style plague for Stone, who attends support groups for people with disfiguring skin conditions, and court in Teva sandals, his feet wrapped in Crisco and saran wrap (a doctor prescribed “remedy”). Just hand the Emmy over to Turturro, who is as soulful as he is morally questionable, as sincere as he is ironic, bringing to mind his excellent turn in the film he wrote, directed, and starred in, Fading Gigolo (2014).

John Turturro as John Stone
John Turturro as John Stone
Courtesy of HBO

*Warning: Spoilers ahead

Certainly, the material here is darker than usual for Turturro. Halfway through the series, at Episode Four, it’s pretty clear that the protagonist Nazir “Naz” Khan played by Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler) isn’t going back to calculus class anytime soon. Arrested on several charges, with rape-homicide leading the list of alleged crimes, it’s clear that the series will be focussed on what happens when a sheltered, naive, kid who doesn’t drink and has had sex twice (the second time with the girl he’s accused of stabbing multiple times) of Pakistani descent (born an American, he doesn’t even have a passport) is forced to survive life at Rikers.

Riz Ahmed as Nazir (Naz) Khan
Riz Ahmed as Nazir (Naz) Khan
Courtesy of HBO

Good thing he’s got Freddy, a former boxing champion turned inmate who rules the housing unit (and is played by Michael K. Williams) looking out for him. Why? That’s a fine question, and the answer (for now) seems to be that Freddy wants Naz to drop some intellectual wisdom on him. (Ironic, that this isn’t the first time Naz has schooled an African American for the status he can bestow on his reputation; Naz was a calculus tutor to his college’s number one player, a detail that in some ways, sealed Naz’s fate on the night of the murder.)

The relationship between Naz and Freddy intrigues, and not just because the two start a book club (on the reading list, Jack London’s Call Of The Wild, Sidney Sheldon’s The Other Side Of Midnight, and Sun Tzu’s The Art Of War). It’s a symbol of how two very different types of masculinity can complement each other, in order to survive the system, and perhaps beat, the system.

Michael Kenneth Williams as Freddy Knight
Michael Kenneth Williams as Freddy Knight
Courtesy of HBO

Women are not ignored in the series. Aside from the dead girl, whose name Naz didn’t even know until after her murder, Poorna Jagannathan gives an outstanding performance as Safar Khan’s, Naz’s mother. As the series intensifies, it will be interesting to chart her transformation as she must confront the role of being mother a young man accused of rape-murder. The scene when she finds condoms in Naz’s backpack subtly touched on the discoveries this ordeal is forcing upon her.

Poorna Jagannathan as Safar Khan
Poorna Jagannathan as Safar Khan
Courtesy of HBO

And Glenne Headly, as a high-profile criminal attorney who steals Naz (temporarily) from Stone uses her femininity and wealth as leverage, though you get the sense that her rise to prominence was a hard fight. Is she any more or less morally questionable as a criminal attorney that Stone, just because she wears a fancy suit and Louboutins?

Glenne Headly as Alison Crowe
Glenne Headly as Alison Crowe
Courtesy of HBO

The complexity of each character in The Night Of asks viewers to peel away at stereotypes of people involved in the criminal justice system, from correctional officers, to inmates, to judges. (Law & Order fans will be pleased to see Ned Eisenberg back in the robe, presiding over Naz’s case.)

Although I feel sympathetic towards Naz, who, made some really poor choices in Episode One, I’m rooting for Stone. Arguing this case for Naz is his comeuppance — finally, he will receive the reputation he deserves for a career of hard work. I’m rooting for Stone because he’s the character I identify with the most. And if that isn’t indicative of a major flaw in our criminal justice system, I don’t know what is.

The Night Of airs Sunday nights at 9 pm on HBO.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot