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The Night Of - new crime limited series - HBO Sundays - 90 on Metacritic

A

antispin

Member
Everyone should adapt the Netflix format of episode dumping. Makes for good binging. Want to watch the remainder eps now!
 
S

Sirpopopop

Member
Honestly?

This was brutal. This was real. This was suspenseful. This has me hooked.

It's not like True Detective. This series isn't infused with a sense of magic realism like that series.

Yet, I see those comparisons coming.
 
P

Pachimari

Member
Gonna watch this tonight, can't wait! Just 2 hours more. Might also start up Outcast if it is still of an okay high standard.
 
P

Prompto

Banned
That was good. That was damn good. It was sad seeing Gandolfini in the credits and learning he was originally the lead though. Would have been great seeing him in that kind of role. Still, Turturro should be great as well.
 
A

Anton Sugar

Member
shadow_shogun said:
Insanely fantastic first episode. Number one suspect is the black guy that the victim almost killed at the petrol station.
Click to expand...

I think Bodie's friend has more against him.

-He gives a creepy stare at her/them before he turns to leave w/Bodie
-He knows where they live and she didn't lock her back door after letting the cat out
-Bodie told the detective that he was alone when he saw Naz and the girl go inside
 
N

Net_Wrecker

Member
Well that was a fantastic first episode and I'm really looking forward to see how this unfolds. I like the late night "everyone's tired and over it" realism to the performances and writing. Nothing was overplayed or big, just a lot of people living their life/doing their jobs who just want to get home.

Vire said:
Did that remind anyone else of Michael Mann's Collateral?
Click to expand...

A little bit because of the cab angles and nighttime shooting, but the use of light/color/handheld isn't too similar. Collateral glows, letting a lot more light into the shots, while The Night Of is more desaturated, bordering on Fincher's palette.
 
D

Dalek

Member
I've watched half of the first episode and we had to stop for now. It's just too nerve wracking.
Will resume tomorrow.
 
N

NumberTwo

Paper or plastic?
It's one of the officers who originally pulled him over. Calling it. Probably the male officer who was so eager to let him go.

EDIT: Scratch that. I lost track of the murder weapon.
 
G

GRIP

Member
Regarding the question "if he did it, why didn't he have any blood on him?"- why did he not have any blood on him regardless? He had just shoved a knife through the girls hand and they went right to fucking after that. How the hell was he not covered in her blood just from the wound on her hand? Even when he has to strip at the police station, the only blood on him is from the cut on his hand.

I'm not sure that I believe Nas actually did it, but that seems like a really big detail for the show to just gloss over.
 
T

Tugatrix

Member
GRIP said:
Regarding the question "if he did it, why didn't he have any blood on him?"- why did he not have any blood on him regardless? He had just shoved a knife through the girls hand and they went right to fucking after that. How the hell was he not covered in her blood just from the wound on her hand? Even when he has to strip at the police station, the only blood on him is from the cut on his hand.

I'm not sure that I believe Nas actually did it, but that seems like a really big detail for the show to just gloss over.
Click to expand...

This is damn good television...

It's not uncommon to have a killer free of blood, It all depend of the wounds, I knew from two cases of stabbing, I studied under my thesis , in one the killer was cover feet to head from blood when was detained, the wounds he inflicted were directed to the neck spraying blood all over. The other was a stab to the chest that cause almost no bleeding(the blood concentrated inside the chest cavity), at the first the police was inclined to consider it a suicide, but then the killer confessed, he was with no trace of blood on him.

I believe that if was him the killer he did it without knowing, influenced by the drugs, the absence of blood can be explained by the nature of the wounds. But being this a tv show he is innocent. But If I was a cop this would be a clear case for me, most of the evidences are against him
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Via Sepinwall, someone noticed this ad on the subway:

rmPq88a.jpg
Click to expand...
 
G

GRIP

Member
Tugatrix said:
This is damn good television...

It's not uncommon to have a killer free of blood, It all depend of the wounds, I knew from two cases of stabbing, I studied under my thesis , in one the killer was cover feet to head from blood when was detained, the wounds he inflicted were directed to the neck spraying blood all over. The other was a stab to the chest that cause almost no bleeding(the blood concentrated inside the chest cavity), at the first the police was inclined to consider it a suicide, but then the killer confessed, he was with no trace of blood on him.

I believe that if was him the killer he did it without knowing, influenced by the drugs, the absence of blood can be explained by the nature of the wounds. But being this a tv show he is innocent. But If I was a cop this would be a clear case for me, most of the evidences are against him
Click to expand...

I don't think you were really following what I was saying. My question was why didn't he have blood on him from the wound on her hand? Her hand was pouring blood and then they started having sex...
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
The way this was shot with the deliberate focus on random witnesses and tiny mistakes made me certain at first this was going to be based on a true story. Clever way to shoot it, mimiced the way a lot of true crime type stories are shot.
 
M

MikeHaggar

Member
was the cat that ran across the street at the end of the episode the same cat that the girl left out of her place the night before due to naz's allergies?
 
Vire

Vire

Member
Net_Wrecker said:
Well that was a fantastic first episode and I'm really looking forward to see how this unfolds. I like the late night "everyone's tired and over it" realism to the performances and writing. Nothing was overplayed or big, just a lot of people living their life/doing their jobs who just want to get home.



A little bit because of the cab angles and nighttime shooting, but the use of light/color/handheld isn't too similar. Collateral glows, letting a lot more light into the shots, while The Night Of is more desaturated, bordering on Fincher's palette.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I definitely can see the Fincher comparison especially when referring to the interior police department shots.

The cab angles, nighttime shooting and tense buildup is more of what I was referring to when comparing to Collateral.

Either-way, very good first episode.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
Fantastic episode. Makes me a bit sad too because I just know gandolfini would have absolutely killed this.

If it keeps up consistently throughout the series this could be one of the best things on tv this year easy.
 
T

torre_avenue

Banned
TimeEffect said:
So this is a limited series? A single season? 9 episodes?

Or will it be a multi-season TV series?
Click to expand...

Limited series, I believe. It might turn anthology style or be multi-season if it does amazing numbers or becomes a phenomenon a la "True Detective.".

But for now, I'd assume the 8 episodes we're getting are the only ones.
 
S

sir_kevith

Member
I loved that first episode. I think Nas is an interesting character. He seems a bit off, really eager to please, and obviously really paranoid. I really loved how they emphasized all of the different people staring at him in the police station. It reminded me of being sent to the principle's office back in elementary school and feeling my soul judged every time a teacher/adult walked in and gave me a glare.
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
sir_kevith said:
I loved that first episode. I think Nas is an interesting character. He seems a bit off, really eager to please, and obviously really paranoid. I really loved how they emphasized all of the different people staring at him in the police station. It reminded me of being sent to the principle's office back in elementary school and feeling my soul judged every time a teacher/adult walked in and gave me a glare.
Click to expand...

I just watched the first episode and I just cant watch any more. I can't help but feel incredibly anxious knowing that an innocent person is made to be guilty, it just really bothers me lol. The wait is going to be too hard for me.

Please tell me everything ends up okay for him. I really hated the interrogation scene. Anyways, I want to assume that even that FBI/investigator guy believed the sex was at least consensual, going off the scratches.

I loved this actor in Nightcrawler, it's good to see a dude like him get some roles.
 
T

torre_avenue

Banned
TimeEffect said:
I just watched the first episode and I just cant watch any more. I can't help but feel incredibly anxious knowing that an innocent person is made to be guilty, it just really bothers me lol. The wait is going to be too hard for me.

Please tell me everything ends up okay for him. I really hated the interrogation scene. Anyways, I want to assume that even that FBI/investigator guy believed the sex was at least consensual, going off the scratches.

I loved this actor in Nightcrawler, it's good to see a dude like him get some roles.
Click to expand...

The pilot became really hard to watch, personally speaking. Every moment Naz fucks up or does something to make him look guilty, you can practically feel the noose tightening around him. It's so stressful just to see and forecast how everything he does is going to haunt him or likely be the thing that sends him away for life. It's amazing how invested you become in Naz to feel this sort of thing towards him. Zaillian and co. definitely made the right pick in Riz. Hopefully he gets to do some good stuff in Rogue One.

As for whether everything turns out okay, I honestly don't know if everything will. Either end for the story would be great, but a bad end would be something that would really resonate with audiences and critics and be a great opportunity for some commentary.
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
My only little annoyance so far is that I find the whole setup hard to believe. Cute girl gets into car, has a good time with her shy driver, and bangs him.

She's also perfectly mysterious and sexy and super intriguing. I guess it was a little hard to buy, but whatever.

I have to assume the angry and intense black guy hanging out with Bodie was an obvious red herring.

I wonder if his Muslim background is going to play a role in any of this. If it's just used to make the main character unique, then that's cool. I think it's so very interesting to have the main character be from such a background. Had to laugh at the parents disapproving of the "black party" and how he lives at home.
 
smokeymicpot

smokeymicpot

Beat EviLore at pool.
TimeEffect said:
My only little annoyance so far is that I find the whole setup hard to believe. Cute girl gets into car, has a good time with her shy driver, and bangs him.

She's also perfectly mysterious and sexy and super intriguing. I guess it was a little hard to buy, but whatever.

I have to assume the angry and intense black guy hanging out with Bodie was an obvious red herring. We also know the door was left open when she let the cat out, right?

I wonder if his Muslim background is going to play a role in any of this. If it's just used to make the main character unique, then that's cool. I think it's so very interesting to have the main character be from such a background. Had to laugh at the parents disapproving of the "black party" and how he lives at home.
Click to expand...

His Muslim background will be in play very much so I think. It was already in play when Bodie was describing him.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
smokeymicpot said:
His Muslim background will be in play very much so I think. It was already in play when Bodie was describing him.
Click to expand...
They talk a little about that in the Variety article I posted earlier:
Variety said:
The other key creative choice was casting Ahmed. In the British version, his character is Caucasian. Although the change was made for reasons of verisimilitude — New York cab drivers are rarely white — it opened up rich avenues of storytelling about prejudice in a post-9/11 world. “That one little decision — it’s actually a very big decision, but it didn’t seem like it at the time,” says Zaillian. “It informs almost every part of the story.”

As Naz’s case unfolds, it’s not hard to imagine what fate befalls him. The series takes an unflinching look at the criminal justice system, and Zaillian and his team conducted painstaking research throughout every level of the process. “Your average person, all they know is maybe what they see on TV. But to actually go into the tombs it’s something you never could imagine,” he says. “You don’t want to get arrested, let me put it that way.”

The series also spends ample time exploring the Pakistani-American community in Queens and the fallout for Naz’s family members as they struggle to defend themselves within the media spotlight. Zaillian says his goal was to present events in a straightforward manner, without attempting to send a broader message.

“What I was trying to do was make a fictional film but do it in a very realistic way; and not to have the usual kind of things in it that you think you need, like heroes and villains,” he says. “All the characters basically are pretty good. They’re just doing their job the best that they can. This is how the story unfolds when everybody is just doing what they do.”

Ahmed — who’s filming the Star Wars movie “Rogue One” — also sees the story as a nuanced narrative. “It’s just very unflinchingly authentic, very uncompromising in its authenticity,” he says. “A lot of people talk about the wider themes of it, whether it’s the criminal justice system or Islamophobia. But I have to say I think that the intention of the writers is to just tell a compelling story.”
Click to expand...
 
M

mileS

Member
What a fantastic show! Like others here I can't wait for the next episode. Any idea how long the others episodes are going to run?
*edit* flipped back a page and seen this ". Through seven of its eight hours"
 
D

Dalek

Member
ShooterMcGavin said:
Re-watching right now. I love the moment when Naz turns the lamp on, and then off again in complete disbelief.
Click to expand...

Yeah my wife saw the blood on the lamp before he turned it on.

Just finished tonight-absolutely brilliant show. I would watch every episode now if I could.
 
B

Baroquemantic

Member
Just finished part 1. Damn that was good, but boy was it hard to watch. I felt so bad for Naz. I seriously believe he's innocent, and I hope this show is about proving his innocence rather than some twist that has Naz actually being some killer who hides his true intentions being a shy face.
 
S

Solo

Member
That was a really solid, intense pilot. Probably HBO's best since the True Detective pilot. Hard to say if it will hit the heights of True Detective (S1), but if it gets anywhere close, we're in for a hell of a ride.
 
pr0cs

pr0cs

Member
Watched this last night on a whim, very impressed. Happy that it's also available direct from HBO too, hopefully that attracts more viewers.
Curious if the quality is consistent for the rest of the episodes but I'm excited to see the next ep
 
R

RustyNails

Member
That was a solid premiere. The sense of anxiety and fear was palpable. Riz was expertly cast as Nasir Khan, and the guy has acting chops. For real.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
The first 10ish minutes were stilted and felt artificial to me, but I thought the rest of the episode was great. Very tense.

Also, I can definitely picture James Gandolfini in Turturro's role. He would have been great but at the same time so will Turturro, I think.
 
P

Palmer_v1

Member
After watching the first episode, I kind of hope that it does end with him being wrongfully imprisoned for the crime. I'm afraid that anything else will feel like a cop out.

It's such a riveting show. You guys aren't lying about it making you feel very tense as you watch him do these little things that will come back to haunt him.

The absolute best shot for me was the cop's dawning realization as the witness clarifies the comment about the taxi as she searches the suspect, then finds the knife.
 
U

uncblue

Member
I know first episodes are typically full of red herrings but something about the motorcycle guy was off. I'm going to have to rewatch and see if he draws the attention of the first cops so that they pull over Naz.
 
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