The Night Of

Like many a modern “limited series”, this spreads itself a little too thin, adding twists that become murkier and murkier and tend to function more as wheel-spinning than adding to the narrative – there’s a much tighter and more impactful 4 episode version of this that would climb to masterpiece territory. But so much about this works so well and is so well realised that it feels churlish to complain: crackerjack performances all round from a cast of very specific types; I would never dream of casting Berlin as a chief prosecutor, but her dry and completely off-kilter style and delivery make her mesmerising, especially as locked in an almost unspoken battle with Turturro’s equally nutty attorney gone to seed – I would never dream of casting Turturro to evoke memories of Paul Newman, but there are echoes of THE VERDICT throughout his tough and steely character who is always on the precipice of collapse, and then Ahmed’s almost chillingly impassive lead pretty much steals the show, injecting enough ambiguity into his performance that the viewer doubts him all the way, even through essentially being a witness to the crime at hand! It’s lack of a follow-through (and clear moment of victory or defeat) is an interesting note to leave on, but it does give the series a slight hollowness at its core.