The Night Of

[AkydefGoldberg]

Anyone watch the first episode last week in the UK? No spoilers for those in the States who have seen it.

But I was gripped by it. Riz Ahmed is one of my favourite actors to watch and his performance so far has been captivating. To such an extent I visualised myself in his shoes, making his decisions, thinking fuck I'd have been blubbering and shitting myself had I been in his shoes.

It's got good reviews in America so looking forward to seeing how it pans out

[PorkChop]

I saw the trailer just now and it looks quite decent. I'll give it a watch.

[PorkChop]

So I finished this last night. Spoilers, obviously.

It's quite a good series, but frustrating at times. The writing was unbelievably good, and bad, throughout. When Stone went to find Duane and ended up in that dark alley, they gave us a cliffhanger and never resumed it. We don't see Duane again until he's in court 2 episodes later. What happened? Show us the confrontation, don't start something and then just pretend it never happened. Very frustrating, almost as bad as The Walking Dead when it comes to cliffhangers.

I'm a bit annoyed that Nas became such an unlikeable guy towards the end of the series. I understand that prison changed him, but a kid as smart as Nas getting tattoos on his neck and knuckles whilst still on trial? Would somebody as clean-cut as him really want to do that? I hated his evolution from a nice and normal kid into a stereotypical vest-wearing, prison-tattoo covered bald criminal. He seemed to make decisions along the way which nobody in his position would make.

After Nas stabs Andrea in the hand while playing that game, he's too drugged up to care about the fact that she's bleeding quite profusely. He doesn't forget to take his inhaler before shagging her though. What? Wouldn't you be more concerned with the fact that she's bleeding everywhere rather than your cat allergy?

Overall, I thought it was good but not great. Very frustrating and tedious viewing at times. The seemingly meaningless storyline about Stone's foot eczema probably took up over 2 hours of screen time. I'll give series 2 a watch but I wouldn't lose any sleep if I didn't see another episode again.

[Viazon]

A friend at work told me about this. He said it was really good and that I should check it out. Now I hear about it everywhere. I was a bit confused at first when I tried to look it up because when he told be about it, I thought it was The Night Off. Now I am aware of it I am going to give it a watch.

[AkydefGoldberg]

I'll post in this thread once I've seen it all with Porky's spoilers in here.

But second episode really pushing the feelings of Nas and who he should trust. Box is a dude you would be uneasy trusting (but he plays the listening ear well) but even doubts creep in over the lawyer.

[AkydefGoldberg]

Now, having watched the series finale last night, I can only say I thoroughly enjoyed it and the aforementioned errors that Porky mentioned didn't take away my enjoyment although I'm probably not as clinical when watching programmes to notice them as much I guess!

Nas' evolution into a prison hard-nut was probably a tad predictable - maybe showing the opposite route such as turning down Freddy's help consistently and being scared would have been more beneficial to the point that when he was found innocent and freed that rather than becoming a street hustler, he'd be a nervous wreck showing how much it had destroyed him. That would have been more impactful.

One thing I enjoyed was you did end up thinking of the intentions of the characters from Stone (was it all about his genuine interest in Naz, or money?), the financial advisor, Amelia's step-father, Box's turn at the end when he looked more forensically at the case than slamming it through for an easy conviction.

Turturro's performance as Stone was enjoyable, the court speech was emotive and you felt in a way it was his defining moment just as much as it was for Nas.

Not sure how they'd pull a second series from it tbh but I'd watch it.