The Night Of (HBO) TV Show • Page 9

Man, guess I assumed too much that Freddie had footage of him smuggling in the drugs, not them kissing, and was going to take it the wrong way.

What are we to make of Freddie getting that footage? He sent it to Box himself?

 

Deserves an Emmy nom for sure, especially for the closing arguments.

 

The episode in its whole and ending felt very underwhelming

 

Nobodys ever happy with finales anymore. Ever lol.

 

When was the last good one? The Sopranos? FNL?

 

FNL for sure

 

I enjoyed it. A little too neat but definitely did not see a lot of it coming which is a good thing for me anymore. Sucks that it's all over but obviously it couldn't go on any longer.

 

Based on Twitter, a lot of people didn't like Episodes 2-8, weird -- wasn't getting that vibe at all. I really enjoyed the season, though I'll admit something felt flat tonight.

 

...Breaking Bad?

 

Yeah, BB was great. Im from the school of thought of I just appreciate it for what it is and never complain or set expectations. Im usually content with finales. Unless its fucking Dexter. Fuck that shows last season.

 

If HBO is going to continue with miniseries they need to cut the bullshit. 1 very well done intro ep, 5-6 eps of red herrings and then a lackluster finale.

I enjoyed this. The dialogue and acting were great, but the actual plot/pacing was bad when you break it down. The lawyer twists in the last two eps were godawful, the conclusion of the courtroom battle was very awkwardly presented, the reveal wasn't earned in the least bit.
Space some things out, lead the characters to the clues prior to the last episode. Pace yourself!!!!

 

Now I'm just ready for The Leftovers to come back.

 

Breaking Bad finale was silly, kind of highlighted the inconsistent parts of the show for me.

I thought the Mad Men finale was pretty good.

 

Thought the show was great, finale included. I don't like my shows wrapped up with a bow at the end. Also, the woman playing Naz's mom was fucking incredible.

 

Eastbound & Down

 

The "wrapped up with a bow" thing comes up a lot as a defense for poor endings. No one is asking for a happy ending, no one is asking for all questions to be answered. But introducing the actual perpetrator of the crime one time, randomly finding the mother of all evidence to put him away in 5 minutes during the last episode and then leaving it on a "let's get this motherfucker!" Is pretty weak to me, especially with all of the red herrings/meaningless storylines injected just to lead the audience astray from actual paths that they can't even see. Same problem I had with True Detective.

There is a very, very interesting story here. And there was one for True Detective as well, idk why they handled it in this way.

What do we know about Stone at the end of this? We know he has bad skin, we know people judge him immediately and he gets no respect. What else? What do we know of his relationship with his son? What happened to that storyline? His ex?

Was Naz's transformation earned? Was Chandra's downfall?

 

I didn't have a huge problem with the answer to who did it - as far as "twist" endings go, it felt pretty reasonable that it'd be a guy who had appeared before and whose motive was largely covered (via the suspicion cast on the stepdad for entirely related reasons). I don't think that's totally unearned. That said the smoking gun of the security camera images right before Andrea got in the cab really just highlighted how obnoxiously the case was not fully investigated.

But man, so much other stupid, and yeah, so little said about more of the characters than not. I was entertained the whole 9 hours so it's fine, but this was pretty silly when all was said and done.

 

First off, hopefully those who haven't watched the finale yet are avoiding this thread, but ya might wanna toss some spoilers up just in case. (I realize you didn't give away anything major, but some of that first paragraph stuff people would probably want to avoid seeing.)

And yeah, I totally agree that there were a lot of frustrating aspects to the finale. I think it just comes down to what we're looking for in the show and we're probably looking for different things. Here's a David Chase quote (The Sopranos creator) that stuck with me that I've been thinking about a lot while watching this.

"Network television is all talk. I think there should be visuals on a show, some sense of mystery to it, connections that don't add up. I think there should be dreams and music and dead air and stuff that goes nowhere. There should be, God forgive me, a little bit of poetry."

And what did you want to know about Stone? He didn't change just like the prosecutor didn't change. I think that was kind of the point. I think her taking off her work shoes and putting on her walking shoes before she even left the court room showed how little it all mattered, even though she did a great job making it seem like the most important thing in the world to her to the jury. She's done what she did dozens of times and will dozens more. Like Stone said, no one was thinking about Naz anymore after he was freed. I think the reason that we don't know anything more about Stone is because it wasn't his story. For Naz this was the most important event of his life, for Stone it was a job.

 

Spoilers Ahead

The finale was fitting for what the show was: a realistic, no-nonsense examination of the criminal justice system. We got an ending that suited that concept. The jury is hung and the prosecutor decides not to move forward because the case against Naz was more one of convenience and expediency rather than of actually trying to figure out who did it. There was so much reasonable doubt piled up by the end that, if Naz hadn't taken the stand like an idiot, there would've been no way he would have been convicted. She would have been foolish to bring in a new jury and try again, and that's even without Box discovering Ray's involvement.

And this ending is by no means wrapped up in a bow. Naz has been irrevocably changed as a result of his time in prison, which, I mean, right there the commentary on how the American prison system can turn regular people into hardened criminals was really well-done. Chandra's life/career is over. Even with the evidence against Ray, there's no guarantee that they're going to get a conviction because of all those other plausible suspects.

I don't know, I feel like this is another True Detective Season 1, where everyone was expecting some kind of shocking twist ending or whatever when in reality the show was never about that. At least with True Detective one could argue that the show built itself up to be more than what it ultimately wast; there is no such argument here whatsoever.

Anyway, this was an excellent miniseries and I am really disappointed there are no plans to return with a new case next year.

 

My wife and I definitely thought something might happen to him on his way out.

I liked this finale fine and I got enough out of the show to be glad I watched the miniseries. I don't think the actual murder mystery was the main point here, although I for sure wanted to figure out who did it. The flawed criminal justice system and the crazy shit that people experience during the whole process, whether they're innocent or guilty, are the stars of The Night Of.

There are plenty of people who could have committed this crime and certainly reason to doubt that Naz for sure did it, and yet his fate came down to the jury being unable to break away from their 6-6 conclusion and a detective going back and double-checking evidence he should've seen a long time ago. Meanwhile Naz has been smuggling drugs, is complicit in a prison murder, and is addicted to crack basically out of necessity to stay under Freddy's protection to stay alive in prison. Even when he gets out he's not past that experience and may never be. I'm sure Freddy will want Naz to do things that might land him right back in prison and I'm pretty sure crack isn't an easy habit to break.

I forget where I read about it, but there is a 16 year old who went to Rikers for three years for stealing a backpack without trial and spent two of his years in solitary confinement. After he got out he committed suicide at his parents' house because he couldn't get past his traumatic experience in prison. That's tragic and horrible and it was over a backpack. To me, that kid's story and stories like it is what The Night Of was about.

 

I think the British version handled this better. Obviously, I understand it is different and they're trying to relate how institutions, particularly those centered on justice and liberty, distort people. Naz's transformation never seemed earned and it was so total as to be actually unrealistic; in the original version, the character was more or less shattered, though still compliant with the criminal element, which seems more realistic and gives us insight as to how someone is broken down. There are still some more problematic archetypes in the show, namely Box as the cop who just can't get a case out of his head and the district attorney who learns morality. The commentary, in other words, does not mesh with the cultural materials they chose to use. But, that's just how I feel. All in all, I give the series run a B.

 

Stranger Things was, what, a month ago?

 

Not my takeaway from it at all. As to Box, he couldn't get the case out of his head because he just didn't want to retire. Not because he was purposely looking to exonerate Naz. I don't think for one second that Box ever cared if Naz was innocent, up until he was obsessively going back over the security footage and saw Andrea look over her shoulder. And even then, he was only hoping that he would be able to be the one who went after Ray if Weiss had decided to act on the evidence. Not exactly the way that particular trope is ever used in other crime procedurals.

And as for ADA Weiss, she didn't learn morality at all. In fact she couldn't have cared less who actually did it back when there was still a chance Naz would be convicted. The only reason she decided to send Box after Ray was because Naz got off. She was willing to completely look the other way when Box found someone who was the most plausible other suspect they'd seen so far (after seeing a parade of plausible other suspects during the defense's case). If Naz had been convicted, she never would've given Ray a second thought.

 

episode was basura. still enjoy a lot about this series but the decline in quality was pretty consistent throughout.

 

I disagree. There is a moral element to Box's actions, as evidenced by his storming out of the court. But, the trope in which a cop is certain, then figures out the truth and changes, is well-worn. Point taken about the district attorney, but some clarity would have been helpful and I think that relates to the conflicting relationship between the narrative they were telling and what tropes they chose to use.