Law & Order Meets Oz In HBO's 10/10 Crime Drama Based On A British Series
Zach Moser has been writing for ScreenRant since 2022, covering movies, classic TV, and streaming TV. His areas of expertise cover a wide range of genres with a particular interest in horror and drama, and the conversations around the TV and film industry. When he's not covering the latest film releases or chronicling the latest season of a new show, he's writing humor pieces for McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Slackjaw, and Points In Case or working on short stories and his second novel.
The slow, unfair grind of the legal system meets the punishing reality of the American prison system in HBO's incredible eight-episode crime drama, which is based on a British series of a different name. The list of great HBO miniseries seems endless. Pick any. Nine times out of ten, you'll be watching something amazing.
One of these amazing miniseries arrives in 2016, and combines the painfully complex and often unfair legalese of a show like Law & Order with the grim, survivalist lessons of a show like Oz. There are elements of both shows in this series, portrayed with dueling storylines that still run closely together.
The Night Of is the series in question, a crime drama starring Riz Ahmed as Nasir "Naz" Khan and John Turturro as John Stone. In The Night Of, shy, sweet, Pakistani-American college student Naz finds himself spending an amazing night with a kind, beautiful woman whom he's just met, only to wake up with her dead in the bed next to him.
The young, inexperienced man quickly implicates himself in the murder and, through the failings of the legal system, prejudice, and Naz's own mistakes, is eventually sent to Rikers Island while awaiting trial. As we watch Naz learn to survive in prison, we also watch his disillusioned lawyer, Stone, come around to believing his client may actually be innocent.
Filled with several HBO regulars including Bill Camp, Jeannie Berlin, and Michael Kenneth Williams, The Night Of is an astounding murder mystery and a dire critique of the systems of justice in America. While you may feel sickened as the series goes on, you'll find it difficult to stop watching until the very last moment.
The Night Of Is One Of The Best HBO Miniseries Of All Time
The Night Of gets forgotten about in casual discussions of HBO's greatest shows, but at least the awards circuit gave the series its due with three Golden Globe nominations and eight Emmy nominations, one of which earned Ahmed an Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie win.
It's a starling series, filmed gorgeously, in blue and purple colors outside Rikers Island, and in greens and whites inside the prison. Though the main characters are separated from each other for most of the runtime, Naz in jail and Stone outside, they are on the same path of redemption, both afflicted by forces seemingly outside their control.
It's the story of two outsiders, Naz to people his age in New York City, and Stone to the legal profession that considers him a lower class. The Night Of forces both characters to consider their outsider status and find ways to survive and push forward in the new world they now find themselves in. It's a shocking, startling, moving series that you will think of often long after it ends.
The Night Of Surpasses Its Source Show, Criminal Justice
A 10/10 miniseries though it may be, an original story it is not. The Night Of is an American adaptation of a British TV series that ran for two seasons, with each season following a different crime. In the first, Ben Whishaw plays a character very similar to Naz's, and the storylines follow similar paths. Season 2 features a different story involving domestic abuse.
While both seasons of the show are excellent in their own right, with fantastic performances from Pete Postlethwaite, Con O'Neill, Matthew Macfadyen, and Sophie Okonedo, The Night Of is better. It takes the themes of the show, injustice, guilt, and self-sabotage, and applies them to a wider, specifically American context. The Night Of explores American machismo, post-9/11 fear, and poverty, all while juggling the prison and legal systems, and the frightening, engrossing journey of a young man.
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