'The Night Of' Review

You wouldn't think that a network that has led the rest of the field in Emmy nominations for so long that broadcast channels constantly considered it cheating would be having a problem with the quality of its programming. But for nearly five years, HBO has been struggling far more often then not to come up with a consistent solid dramatic performer. Sure, 'Game of Thrones' has led the field in Emmy nominations for three straight seasons, but that series will be over in two years. And its efforts to come up with anything resembling a consistent dramatic hit have been failing for quite some time, either with series that build-up a fanbase but don't last too long, (The Newsroom, The Leftovers) and series that start out like gangbusters and then completely collapse (True Detective). They're in slightly better shape with their comedies, but several of them are nearing their own expiration date.

And then, every once in a while, HBO will come with a product that reminds you why they were the network that brought us The Wire and Six Feet Under.  In this case, we are fortunate to get the series at all, because it was originally scheduled to be made in 2012 with James Gandolfini as the lead. Gandolfini passed away shortly after the Pilot was made, and the series was shelved. Eventually, creators Richard Price and Steven Zailian decided to do it as a limited series, and recast Gandolfini role with the equally talented John Turturro. And so this summer, we have granted the pleasure of The Night Of.

Nas Khan (Riz Ahmed) is a Muslim-American college student whose father is a cab driver. Desperate to go to a party one night, he 'borrows' his father's cab, and heads into the city. A woman gets into his cab, and tells him she wants to go to the beach. For reasons Nas can't explain even to himself, he lets her in, ends her apartment, and has a night of drinking, drugs, and sex. He passes out, and when he comes to, the girl, whose name he never got, has been stabbed to death. Frantic, he gets back into a cab, and is picked up by a police car for an unrelated offense. A series of events so bizarre they would seem to come out of a Price novel follow, and he finds himself in police custody being charged with the girl's murder.

At the precinct, attorney John Stone (Turturro) is there to see another client. For reasons that maybe not even he can explain, he goes into see Naz and tells him not to say anything to anybody, not knowing at the time that the case will be a high-profile murder. Part of it no doubt has to do with the adversarial relationship he has with Sgt. Box (Bill Camp) the detective who caught the case, and is convinced is the killer. Part of it is his cynical nature (unlike most attorneys on TV even now, he urges Naz not to tell him what happened), and part of it is his weariness with everything. (One of the subtler symbols is the fact that he is constantly wearing sandals because of psoriasis.)

Price, in additions to having a successful career as mystery writer, also was a staff writer on The Wire, and in many cases Night of is a continuation of many of the themes. We see the failings of the police system just in getting the crime investigated. Evidence chains are easily broken, cops would rather go home than tell their stories,  and no one wants to make sure they're handling things correctly. Also explored in this series are ideas that David Simon and his ilk never fully explored - the problems with prejudice even between black people and Muslims, how badly messed up the justice system is. And the performances are so good that by the end of the first episode, you find yourself sad that this case is the only one we're going to ever see Price and Zailian followed. If it were not for the extremely high quality of the limited series this year, this would be high of my top ten list; as it is, this is evidence that this is the direction HBO should be heading towards, not series like Westworld.

My score: 4.5 stars.