The Night Of

[TomLeeMC]

Enjoyed how it ended and enjoyed the series overall.

[Mike F]

Show started with an amazing pilot and very good second episode, but never reached those levels again, even in the finale.

I really liked Naz's personal arc, getting ground up in prison and turned into the type of person who will likely commit a serious crime before too long. But the scenes involving the trial itself were a mess and lacked any realism whatsoever, Chandra's choices, in particular her drug smuggling, weren't in line with anything her character showed beforehand, and Box's sudden decision to start seriously following up other leads was way too convenient.

Decent show, but wasted the potential it showed early on.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Enjoyed the show, but have to agree with Mike F a bit.
The pilot blew me away;I can't remember being that excited by a pilot in some time. After that, things were a notch below.
Still good, but not great.

[Kybosh]

I also liked it a lot but was annoyed by:

Spoiler!

1) How such minimal, prompting in my eyes, caused Naz to basically become who he became.
2) The investigator looking into things way after when he likely would have in real life.
3) How the lawyer smuggled drugs in for Naz with such minimal prompting.

[Da_Chief]

I think there was a huge flaw to start the story, which led to everything.

Why was the cab even parked at home? 3 owners, busiest city in the world, on a Friday night and the cab wasn't being used to pull in revenue? Nothing happens if the cab was working like it should've been.

On to the actual show. I think it was decently done but the ending was not entertaining. It was a let down the way it ended.

The judicial process is slow so I'm going to think few months definitely pass for he transforms. I think the key was the hot water incident, that's when he realized he needs to change/have protection to survive.

Also, it was quite racist imo to basically have a colored jail and none of them were smart enough to carry a conversation with Freddie. That is quite the assumption.

On to season 2, I think he will be tried again once they figure out Hallie didn't do it and some other evidence comes up. He now "belongs" with Freddie.

[Agamemnon]

Show started with a really great premise, essentially good kid is wrong place/wrong time and it looks like he committed a murder he didn't. Insert cool courtroom/evidence gathering story arc and could have been a great show, even series.

Instead they rammed the story through insanely quickly, and Naz story arc seemed fairly unbelievable. The tattoos, drug use, etc. seemed too contrived, especially with Omar in the main prison role. He's a good actor but a bit typecast and not exactly displaying range.

Everything about the story just seemed to develop too quickly, too disjointedly. HBO is usually good at making a scene seem 'normal' and non-contrived, but I felt the opposite with many scenes/story. Going in I thought it would be an all-time great, but by ep. 3-4 I saw it as an interesting story but not a classic at all. 7/10.

[Finger Cookin]

The story went too quickly for you? It was a 40-ish minute long Law&Order episode decompressed to last over 8.5 hours.

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

The story went too quickly for you? It was a 40-ish minute long Law&Order episode decompressed to last over 8.5 hours.

Yeah for sure it seemed rushed. They had a fine story for 8 episodes with just the miscarriage of justice angle. 1 ep for the Night Of, 2-3 eps on initial incarceration shock, 2-3 eps on gathering evidence/courtroom procedure, final ep for cool summation and maybe some new evidence. Might have been a better show if they focused a bit more on a single story arc.

This could have been Making a Murderer / Serial in fiction-drama form, which would have been insanely good.

[Strange Brew]

Interesting comments about how the changes in Naz seem rushed. I suppose the question is whether he really changed. We didn't know much about him going in. Was that his true character being revealed in prison?

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Da_Chief

On to season 2, I think he will be tried again once they figure out Hallie didn't do it and some other evidence comes up. He now "belongs" with Freddie.

Season 2? I thought this was it for the series?

[Finger Cookin]

There are no plans for a season 2. One and done.

[fatso]

Finally finished this. Was entertaining and worth the time, even if it was unnecessarily slow at points.

I agree with Mike F's criticisms above - some character choices were inconsistent, and I thought the murder mystery portion ending was a little convenient. I think it would have been cool to leave it more open-ended as to 'who done it?' as I think that would have had more thematic resonance and forced the viewer to confront the questions about the criminal justice system the show raised (very well, I might add).

The acting was really good I thought. Naz's parents did a great job. I thought Turturro started strong but ended up hamming it up a little at points. Wiliams was great as always. Also, the cinematography was phenomenal.

[zamler]

Finished watching this, show started very strong then really fell short the last few episodes.

Spoiler!

I can't get over how callous and reckless the prosecutors office was, they nearly ruined a mans life (well they did in many ways) then realized ooops guess it wasn't Naz we'll go after the next suspect instead.

Overall can't recommend.

[Wastedyouth]

It was dumb. Piss poor ending.

[MoneyGuy]

Liked the show but hated the ending. I wanted it resolved.

[bubbsy]

finished the show last night. It was engaging though slow over the 8 episodes. I'd love to know the breakdown of screen time dedicated to police work, courtroom/legal mumbo-jumbo, nasir's time in the slammer, versus the lawyer's feet/skin issues and his relationship with the frigin cat.

Overall, the overall trajectory of the show's plot, characters, etc, were all sub par for me, and generally disappointing given that it's on HBO. Would i recommend? Sure, it's watchable and somewhat entertaining in parts, but overall, not all that satisfying a journey in the end.

If there was any concept of a second season, things would have to be mighty bleak as far as other options go, for us to indulge....