The Night of Mini-series 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:
The Night of is a solid slow burn. The first episode is simply amazing. While the rest of the show doesn't quite maintain that level of quality, it asks a lot of questions and provides a solid conclusion. It's a great show, but the first episode was really amazing.

It didn't quite live up to my expectations after the first episode. I thought it would explore the systemic racial problems a little harder, but it touches upon all aspects and lets you read between the lines. I can almost guarantee that if I watched this again, I'd have even fewer complaints. It doesn't spoon feed you anything.

I thought this was going to hit the police force hard, but it doesn't. It's a bleak look at how someone innocent can succumb to the horrors of prison. As Andy Dufresne said in The Shawshank Redemption (1994), he went to prison and become a criminal. This explores the plight of someone charged, but not convicted, in a detailed story. It's a harrowing and incredible look inside the justice system. It's only eight episodes long, and there won't be a second season. HBO is famous for it's quality and this is yet another occasion where they succeed spectacularly.
Watch it.


Review:
Check out my The Night of episode reviews!

The first episode felt a bit like the game Clue. I could pick out what would be evidence in future episodes, though there will be a few things you miss.

A silly decision to go to a party can turn into a lifelong mistake. Nas took his father's car, which happened to be a cab so that he could attend a party. What follows is calamity. It ends with him waking up in the apartment of a dead girl, his memory a blank.

Nas could have and should have made any number of decisions different from what he did, but in the moment, when confronted with a body and blood, you make terrible decisions. Nas does nearly everything wrong while trying to mitigate his involvement and escape the charges. His thought was self preservation, and since he had never been under this kind of stress, he buckles.

From college kid...

... to inmate.

The first episode creates an incredible amount of tension as Nas is in the police station, but no cops realize he's implicated in the murder.

As Detective Box tries to deceive him, I mean befriend him, you realize it's a charage. The detective wants a conviction, not a friend. The cops wants a conviction, Nas wants to escape or at least be declared innocent, and his lawyer, Stone, wants a pay day. No want wants to help Nas.
While he's been charged, he's supposed to be presumed innocent until his trial. His treatment is anything but cordial, unless the other person wants something from him. The main issue is the cops don't have time to linger. They have to quickly pick a suspect and begin gathering evidence to fit that story. When Box, in episode eight, casts a broader look at the case he finds details that lead him away from Nas.

A big shot lawyer swoops in, wanting to take the case for the publicity. Stone is a small time lawyer that wants his big time pay day. When Nas refuses to plea, the big shot lawyer doesn't want to waste her time on the case. She assigns a paralegal, Chandra, to work with Stone on it.

The judicial system has problems. It's clear that when a person is arrested, many people are affected. Nas's father owned the cab with two other men. Since this is a murder case, they will never get the cab back. Nas's parents pawn their belongings and work odd jobs to cover the costs. Nas's brother has to quit school to avoid the abuse.

Are the lawyers here for their client or for themselves?

While this explores Nas's lawyers too, it feels a bit contrived. Stone battles Eczema and a cat allergy throughout the season. The cat serves as an allegory for Nas and his situation. The cat's future is in limbo. Stone can't keep it due to his allergy, but the alternative is that it gets euthanized when it's not adopted.Chandra has a strange and unconvincing arc with Nas that compromises her future. It wasn't set up well, and it seemed crazy that she would risk everything on a case that she's expected to lose. Part of this is that the show doesn't do a good job of setting up the timeline. It can take a while before cases go to trial. If Chandra and Nas had spent more time together, or that was even implied, maybe  I could buy her poor decision but it still stretches credibility. You could cut out her part entirely and not lose much. Her arc adds some drama, but we don't need it. She's another example of how even lawyers are caught in the undertow.

Freddy is the king. If Nas is going to survive prison, it's through Freddy.

We don't know if Nas did it. We don't know what happened the night of. The show leaves it ambiguous, and you could easily argue both ways. While the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt Nas did it, the defense provided a couple of credible alternatives.
What Nas did, isn't the issue. The show explores how the judicial system can often fail those stuck in it. Nas should be innocent until proven guilty, but that's not the case. he's thrown in jail with convicts. How is that treating him innocent? He's offered protection from another inmate and takes it because he wants to live. His life is in danger. He ends up becoming a drug mule in prison. To survive he has to risk his freedom.
We see him transform from a naive, wide eyed college kid to a cold, hardened man. Riz Ahmed does a great job in this. We see him become a shell of man sixty minutes at a time.
While the tattoos he gets seem almost silly, especially since they are visible on his hands and neck, it serves to reinforced the transformation. Nas is different, mentally and visibly. Even if he gets out of jail, nothing will ever be the same, not with his parents and not when he walks down the street. I could see him getting arrested due to the drub problem he developed in jail. He's been compromised.

Nas is left broken and the prosecution just moves on. Nas isn't reimbursed or compensated for what befell him. He has to live with the fact that even he doesn't know what happened that night.