The Night Of

This show has received mixed reviews. Some have loved it. Some have hated it. I don't often leave reviews however I do often read reviews when deciding whether to watch something. I decided to write this review based on the poor reviews because I felt very strongly about this that I just had to put my opinion across. This show is amazing. It's draws you in, puts you in the main characters position and never lets go. The acting is fantastic, the mood, the music the visuals are also great. I watch a lot of shows, most of them are entertaining enough but not very often do I come across a show like this that gets you completely enthralled and then has you screaming at the screen as the end credits role because you cant stand the thought of having to wait 7 days for the next episode. Like I said at the beginning. Some people are slamming this show for being "unoriginal" "boring" "stupid". My reply to these are as follows:

Unoriginal? OK, so the premise is nothing new, its not earth shattering but trust me, you've never seen it told like this before! Boring? Absolutely not, this person must have the attention span of a 3 year old because I couldn't get enough of the suspense and drama. I just could not wait to find out what happens next and you genuinely care about the characters! And finally stupid? I'm sorry but this is very narrow minded. This is a naive young man who makes some pretty silly decisions under the influence of alcohol and drugs. We've all been there. Which is what makes this show so great. It resonates with us all. It's very real.

In closing I would just like to say. Watch the first episode. I think you will absolutely love it.

Let me start off by saying there are alot of positives to this show: acting(specifically John Turturro's plea for Nas near the end), suspense, drama, and Riz Ahmed's breakout role. However the ending was a bit underwhelming for me. It seemed like the show was building up to this grand finale and the ending was just anticlimactic. Thats about all I can say without giving anything away; but this show was neither bad nor great to me.

The Night Of is a great mini-series that won a bunch of awards including five Emmy's. This series will hook you from the start and keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the entire series. The twists and turns will keep you guessing and mesmerized until the very end. It has a great cast, led by Riz Ahmed and John Turturro, who are all just terrific in this. It's also beautifully written. It's about a college student who meets a girl and the next thing he knows he's in custody for murder. If you're looking for a great crime drama to pass the time then give this a chance. You won't be disappointed.

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

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.