The Night of Episode 3 Review

The Night of (2016)
Mini-series: 8 episodes (2016)

Written by: Richard Price, Steven Zaillian, Peter Moffat (based on the novel by)
Starring: John Turturro, Riz Ahmed, Michael K. Williams

Plot: 
This HBO mini-series features Nas (Riz Ahmed), a Pakistani-American, with no recollection of what happened the previous night, accused of murder. Jack Stone (John Turturro) is his lawyer.

Verdict:
In this episode everybody wants something, the lawyers, cops, family, and Nas. Everybody wants to further their own interest, and Nas is the one unable to do anything as he's restrained by prison. The only question is what Freddy (Michael K. Williams) wants. He's an inmate in Rikers with many special privileges over the regular inmates. He's offered Nas protection.
This episode focuses on Nas at Rikers. Any minute, you think he could get attacked, but until Freddy's role is fleshed out, Freddy seems a bit contrived as a guardian angel. It's another solid episode, and I liked it better than the second. This is going to be a slow burn mini-series, but with episodes like this that's just fine.

Review:
Check out my The Night of episode reviews!
This is about tactics between lawyers and cops. It's not about the accused, it's about positioning yourself for the win.

Box wants the reports right from the traffic  cops that stopped Nas just right. Include the part wheere one cop vomited. Forsake pride for the case. Box wants to fight the sympathy the jury will have for Nas. Nas doesn't look like a criminal so the jury will wonder if he could have done it. I don't blame cops for being mechanical and wanting a conviction. It's how the system is designed and Nas looks guilty. With so many murders, and so little time you have to go with your gut instinct. It's the lawyer's responsibility to fight the charge.

Stone pitches his fee to Nas's parents. It's business for him and he comes across as someone pitching a new car as he keeps lowering his price. No one sees Nas as a human being other than his parents, but its hard to change that.

Michael K. Williams is Freddy, a former boxer now a convict. He has his own cell with a television and a guard that smuggles drugs in for him. We keep seeing Freddy looking at Nas and even giving him shoes, but why does Freddy want to help Nas? This seems contrived for a show that is painstakingly creating a realistic experience.

With every scene of Nas in prison,  you wonder not if but when he'll be attacked. I don't expect the show to kill him, at least not this early in.
Another inmate gives him a few tips, the chief being don't talk. The inmate then asks him what he's in for and Nas begins to tell him before being rebuked. You don't talk.
Nas's bed is positioned in the common area with a dozen other guys. He doesn't even have the safety of a cell.

Stone is talking plea bargain with the district attorney after having just told Nas's parents he wouldn't accept a plea. The D.A. refuses to even consider a deal. There are three parties and each one is out for themselves, the judicial system,  the lawyer, and the accused.

Nas's parents endure invasive searches just to see him. The two other men that own the cab with Nas's father are told they may never get the cab back as it was used to commit a crime. Nas's father is told that since Nas didn't have permission to use the cab. If father sues son, that is their out to avoid a civil suit since they own a car involved in a murder. The cop gives them John Stone's card.

The press conference does it's best to make Nas seem guilty, stating they are looking into his foreign ties and investigating his criminal past. The DA and cops know he has no connections, but it's posturing. They want to make him look guilty, and since they can't say it, they just insinuate. Just mentioning the fact they are investigating his criminal past makes it sound like he has a criminal past when he doesn't.

Nas is woken up in the middle of the night by a few guys asking him if he raped the girl, they walk off and Freddy sends a guard with shoes "for traction." We see Nas in the shower during the next scene and wonder if he'll be attacked. He isn't.

Stone visits the crime scene. He feeds the deceased's cat and later takes it to the pound. Less than coincidence the cat is being led into the back as dogs bark. Fed to the dogs, just like Nas.

A lawyer from a larger firm, Alison Crowe, zeroes in on Nas's parents, sensing a big case after seeing it on television. This lawyer insults and denigrates Stone, she too is just out for her self and out for publicity. She's willing to do it pro bono because her firm allows her the ability and freedom to do it and publicity is worth it when you can afford it. She even takes a paralegal that speaks a bit of Hindi just to get Nas's parents to change their minds.

Nas's father tells Nas about the new lawyer, and Nas replies that he likes Stone. Nas then breaks the news to Stone during visitation. Stone visits Crowe, who dodges him. Stone asks the paralegal if she was used as a lawyer or a prop. As the character Omar Little played by Michael K. Williams in The Wire (2002-08) said, "It's all part of the game."

Freddy sends a guard to fetch Nas. In an episode about everybody wanting something, what does Freddy want? Freddy tells Nas he's a celebrity because he raped and killed a girl. The truth doesn't matter, the inmates have already decided, but Freddy will provide protection. Does Freddy just want a part in everything? He doesn't seem like the compassionate type.
When Nas has his bed lit on fire he reconsiders and take Freddy's help.

How does this end. Being convicted seems too harsh, but being released feels much too upbeat for this show. With only five episodes left, will we get a time jump and have Nas get out on an appeal after originally being convicted? This seems like the most authentic direction the story could take.