The Night Of.

[jimmer]

So I am three episodes into HBO's eight episode limited series, 'The Night Of'.  So far, this is outstanding.  The performances by the actors, the depth of the story, makes this such an intriguing show.  I highly recommend it.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Thanks for reminding me it exists. I saw the pilot on Now about a month ago but I had no interest in watching a single episode.

[jimmer]

 

Thanks for reminding me it exists. I saw the pilot on Now about a month ago but I had no interest in watching a single episode.

It's excellent. Interesting note, this is based off a British show called Criminal Justice and was a passion project for James Gandolfini. He was going to play John Turturro's role before he died and is credited as a Executive Producer. 

[TheLeviathan]

I like it, but some parts of it are moving a bit slowly for my liking.  It feels like the last two episodes could have been condensed to one IMO.

[DaveW]

It's funny you mention that Lev.

 

The show thus far has followed the British version (Criminal justice) rather closely (with a few minor tweaks), that season was 5 episodes long, where this one is 7 or 8 I believe, so things will drag a bit more. But the British version was just so freaking good!

 

I'm impressed so far, the casting has been on point, Michael K Williams as the "God" in the prison is going to be a power house performance.

 

Also I never want to goto Rikers.

[TheLeviathan]

Casting has been very good.  I'm invested, I just feel like there hasn't been enough for me to slide up from "good" to "great".

[DaveW]

Casting has been very good. I'm invested, I just feel like there hasn't been enough for me to slide up from "good" to "great".

I hear ya, I think it has had its missteps, one of which being spending wayyyyyy to much time on the whole feet issue thing. It's borderline Quentin Tarantino fetish at this stage. They seem to beat us over the head with a few things like that....and that the kids parents don't have a lot of money, are a working lower/middle class family. Some of that time could have been better spent IMO.

[TheLeviathan]

I love John Turturro, he's one of the main reasons I'm watching, but I'm very much with you Dave.  Between the cat and his feet we could've probably cut 40 minutes of screen time already.  

 

I'm hoping these things factor in at the end some how so that the time invested pays off, but it's getting harder to believe that the more time spent on it.  

 

I am going to hold off recommending it to anyone yet because this thing could still go The Killing on me and completely fizzle despite a couple strong acting performances I'm already impressed with.

[DaveW]

Good episode again tonight, **** is really going to get started next episode me thinks. Again, way too much focus on Stone and his feet (and his bored hooker sex....that whole scene was weird) it just seems like overkill at this stage, we get it, Stone is a down on his luck, low level lawyer who has all sorts of confidence issues and other issues. Him fighting for Naz is like him fighting for his own life, we get it guys!

 

Other than that, very nice episode.

[TheLeviathan]

Last two episodes should have been condensed to one.

[DaveW]

 

Last two episodes should have been condensed to one.

Again, I agree 100% it looks obvious that they are taking a 5 episode series (Criminal Justice) and trying to stretch it out to 8 episodes.

Thus far the series has mimicked the BBC one step by step.

[DaveW]

The only way I could see the whole foot/saran wrap thing paying off is if the lawyer somehow smuggles something into the prison for Naz, however this would be a terrible direction to take his character IMO, Stone doesn't seem like the guy who would actively smuggle something in (knowing the full consequences of his actions) and if he did so it would ruin the character (of the under-dog scrappy lawyer)

[TheLeviathan]

Yay!  Actual plot can be mixed in!

[jimmer]

I enjoyed this series and enjoyed the end a lot.  We didn't really get any closure.  We don't know for sure if Naz did or didn't kill the girl.  We have a few people who certainly could have done it and we got one new suspect in the last episode.  I find it refreshing that it ended like this, because unlike these one hour crime shows, you sometimes just never find out who the killer is.

 

It's like 'The Killing'.  The first season ended without knowing who the killer was.  Didn't find out till the next season.  I wish more shows did that.  Let's say a show knows it's going to be on for awhile.  Do like 'The Killing' where we don't find out who the killer is at the end of season one, but then switch it up even more and maybe three or four episodes into season two we get closure on that case.  Then a new case starts during season two and so on.  Then you never know when the reveal is going to happen.  Would make it far more interesting.

[TheLeviathan]

We agree on a lot jimmer, but your taste in these shows couldn't be any more opposite mine.  The Killing is easily the largest waste of time I've ever invested in television.

 

I thought The Night Of was pretty "meh".  Some strong acting performances, but nothing particularly inspiring about the show.

[jimmer]

 

We agree on a lot jimmer, but your taste in these shows couldn't be any more opposite mine.  The Killing is easily the largest waste of time I've ever invested in television.

 

I thought The Night Of was pretty "meh".  Some strong acting performances, but nothing particularly inspiring about the show.

That's the great thing about television today.  Can't remember there being a wider variety of types of shows available.

 

BTW, my favorite show ever, 'The West Wing'.  Some of my other favorites: 'Broadchurch', 'Game of Thrones', 'Deadwood'  and 'Season one of True Detective'. My tastes vary :-)

[TheLeviathan]

Broadchurch was outstanding, it felt like what the Night Of was trying to be and didn't match.  Love Thrones and season one of TD was very good, but the ending sucked horribly for me.  Total let down.  

 

But seriously, I hate The Killing, worst pile of Red Herrings ever.

[jimmer]

 

Broadchurch was outstanding, it felt like what the Night Of was trying to be and didn't match.  Love Thrones and season one of TD was very good, but the ending sucked horribly for me.  Total let down.  

 

But seriously, I hate The Killing, worst pile of Red Herrings ever.

I can't remember one singular season of any show being better than Season One of Broadchurch.  Not just the story, but the performances.  Though I am a David Tennant fan (which is why I tried it), Olivia Colman's performance was just perfect.

[TheLeviathan]

 

I can't remember one singular season of any show being better than Season One of Broadchurch.  Not just the story, but the performances.  Though I am a David Tennant fan (which is why I tried it), Olivia Colman's performance was just perfect.

 

I have a hard time disagreeing with you, that show was absolutely phenomenal.  And I'm also a big fan of Tennant.  He was brilliant in Jessica Jones too.

[biggentleben]

I enjoyed the entire story line. I also liked that it was short-run so that I wasn't 13 episodes into a season waiting for things to finally work out.

[jimmer]

 

I enjoyed the entire story line. I also liked that it was short-run so that I wasn't 13 episodes into a season waiting for things to finally work out.

For clarification, you're talking about 'The Night Of'? :-)

[biggentleben]

 

For clarification, you're talking about 'The Night Of'? :-)

 

Yes. While I appreciate Netflix series, I also find that they often are stuck on their 13 episode format, and there are usually 3-4 throw away episodes that I could just as easily do without. This stretched for sure and could have been an extremely fast-paced 5-6 episode series, but the 8 episodes was a solid format to me.

[jimmer]

 

Yes. While I appreciate Netflix series, I also find that they often are stuck on their 13 episode format, and there are usually 3-4 throw away episodes that I could just as easily do without. This stretched for sure and could have been an extremely fast-paced 5-6 episode series, but the 8 episodes was a solid format to me.

I enjoyed it a lot too.  Glad to see I wasn't the only one. 

 

As far as Netflix original series go, I've liked some, haven't liked others.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Yes. While I appreciate Netflix series, I also find that they often are stuck on their 13 episode format, and there are usually 3-4 throw away episodes that I could just as easily do without. This stretched for sure and could have been an extremely fast-paced 5-6 episode series, but the 8 episodes was a solid format to me.

 

I agree with you, shows shouldn't get stuck into any certain number of episodes.  Tell your story in the time it takes to tell your story.

 

The Night Of definitely could have been 5 episodes, 6 maybe.  True Detective may have actually benefited from being longer. (the first season, not the second.  More of the second would have been a crime against humanity)  Maybe if we had a little bit more of Rust and Marty we wouldn't have had that cute, easy mystery solve with the green paint and spaghetti monster.  It could have felt, I don't know, like a real thing.

[DaveW]

British series was better.

 

This one was pretty good though, no huge complaints I guess.