Loved Stephen Graham in Adolescence? This new thriller is his victory lap

Filmed shortly after Adolescence rattled the world, Nocturne is a victory lap for Stephen Graham, who elevates Apple TV’s latest indistinct thriller into a worthy watch with his menacing portrayal of a manipulative, meticulous serial killer. Renowned for raw portrayals of men at the brink of collapse long before co-creating and starring in Adolescence (This Is England, Boiling Point), the British actor tempers decades of raw energy into Jurek Walter – a psychopath who presents as diabolically relaxed and controlled.

Locked away in a psychiatric facility after unleashing terror on a small Pennsylvanian town, Walter relishes his powers of manipulation. In Nocturne’s opening scene, he successfully taunts – using just words – a neighbouring inmate into an act of self-harm.

For that reason, he’s not supposed to talk to anyone, though he breaks out a giggle and creepy childish voice to lure in new nurse Karl (Rory Culkin, the younger brother of Macaulay and Kieran). Karl is immediately identified as an easy target, the sunken sadness in his eyes giving away a weakness: an empathy not yet eroded by the job.

Where a lesser actor might have pushed harder on the creepy voice without reason, Graham uses it only how Walter would: as a trap. Walter’s hackneyed stereotype of a patient needing help proves catnip for a do-gooder like Karl.

Graham’s magnetism wouldn’t work without Nocturne’s steady reveal of Walter’s masterplan, the audience discovering puzzle pieces as investigators do. Creators Rowan Joffé (Tin Star) and John Hlavin (Shooter) clearly have a great sense for pacing, never relying on the Scandi-noir gloom of the show’s source material – Swedish novel series Joona Linna – to provide suspense alone.

What is immediately clear, both to viewers and gristled ex-cop Jonah (Liev Schreiber), is that nothing is by chance. When a missing boy suspected to be one of Walter’s victims walks out emaciated from a Pensylvannia forest three years after Walter was imprisoned, Jonah and the audience both know that it’s the first move of a bloody chess game.

He and his goddaughter FBI agent Saga (Zazie Beetz, Joker) volunteer to help find the boy’s sister, kidnapped at the same time. Both scarred by Walter’s crimes, the two regularly break protocol to follow their instinct, including Saga going undercover as a patient at Walter’s asylum.

Like many Apple TV shows, Nocturne is solid but unassuming. It doesn’t puff up its importance with prestige flair, nor is it insultingly twist-led or designed for second-screen viewing. Across the seven of 10 episodes available for review, Nocturne’s cop cliches and clunkier moments were easy to forgive, with Graham and the cast – including Chrissy Metz (This Is Us) as the returning boy’s mother – firing on all fronts.

Nocturne is streaming on Apple TV from October 30.

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