The Night Of

What struck me after watching the first episode of "The Night Of" is that this is a story that has been told on countless iterations of "Law and Order". The difference is the luxury of not having to tell it in 40 minutes and the bringing to bear of HBO's prodigious production values combined with a first-rate cast of mostly little-known actors.

The portrayal of the police is unlike anything I've seen before: annoyance about working past the end of a shift, the passing of the buck so someone else gets a case that will doubtless go into the wee hours of the morning, the careless handling of evidence due to available manpower. Here the police are neither heroes nor villains, rather they're just working men and women doing a job.

The atmosphere of the precinct house in the middle of the night is palpable as is the overwhelming sense of helplessness felt by the naive lead character as his night goes from bad to worse. John Torturro's portrayal of a low rent defense attorney who stumbles onto a case much bigger than he imagined holds great promise for future episodes.

As I said at the beginning, it's hardly a story we've not seen before but we've never seen it told this well. I look forward to watching it develop.

Stunning, unpredictable, fresh, cynical. Perfect casting and sub plots. Scarily close to the bone on key social and religious tensions all around us. Authentic, gripping, binge-worthy

HBO's new crime drama 'The Night Of' has sucked me in right from the very beginning. The pilot starts up very slow but builds suspense as it starts to tell the story, and that's where it shines; in it's storytelling. It was dramatically convincing and had a pleasantly dark atmosphere.

The pilot was very long (1hr 20min) but it felt much shorter, it was tense from start to finish, in the sense of the story it was actually very predictable, but it was the acting and how the story was portrayed that made it so gripping and watchable. Not a second went by where my attention wasn't glued to the TV screen.

What really made me love the pilot was how REAL the story felt, there wasn't a moment that made me think that it was a stupid story, it felt REAL. The acting was superb by everyone, the cinematography was perfect with it's overall dark tone and lighting, and the music just set the scene playing in the background to the tone of the show.

The overall mood of the show has been set for the series, and if it stays at this standard for the rest of the series it will be an ultimate success. I look forward to where the rest of this series takes us! No complaints yet!

9/10

Really, really like this one. Right off I liked several of the characters, and as the first episode unfolded I was drawn more and more into the story line. The acting is very good, the dialogue intelligent, and the characters are real. The first episode has me anxiously awaiting the next one. As events unfolded and things got more and more complicated, I could almost put myself in his place and wondered what in the world would I do if this happened to me.

I have watched a lot of series over the years and this one is right up there with the best I have seen. Usually go for the hard hitting action series like Banshee, 24, Prison Break, Strike Back, Vikings, etc. This one is very much different from them, but I found myself drawn to it right from the opening scene.

Like most HBO shows, The Night Of was fantastic. The Night Of is full of suspense, drama, action, twists, turns, etc. But what makes this show so good is the performance of Riz Ahmed. He even won an Emmy for lead actor in a miniseries. The show itself has won a ton of awards and has an impressive 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Ahmed is the star here but he's not the only one to give a great performance. As always John Turturro and Michael Kenneth Williams were as terrific as always. They both were nominated for best supporting actors in a miniseries for their work here. I was hooked from the start. It will keep you guessing throughout the series. The show is best watched binged so make sure you give yourself enough time before starting it.