The Night Of: DVD + Digital HD

This show is amazing! It's easily one of the best mini series I've ever watched. From the first episode on it kept my wife and I glued to the TV. We binge watched the whole thing in 3 nights on HBO. The story is very well written. As far as a crime story goes it's kind of typical. There is a crime committed. Someone is accused. His lawyers spend the series defending him and developing a defense while the prosecutors develop a case against him. So that part isn't new or unique.But the characters are what sells the show. Every character has depth that just sucked you into the story. It's like you are there in the show with them because everyone seems to real. For example (extremely minor and unimportant spoiler alert...the next line contained info that occurs in the first episode. It's not critical to the plot and will not ruin anything fro you I swear) there are two cops in the first episode. They are New York City beat cops who have very minor roles in the series. Basically someone has to make an arrest so they wrote in these two cops to do it. Yet despite their very minor status and limited screen time you learn a lot about them as individual people. They become very three dimensional even though they probably don't really need to be for story telling purposes.You see the same thing with all the characters. One of the main characters has a skin disorder. Why? It's not integral to the plot. The story could easily survive without this element. But it makes the character more robust and makes him feel more real to the audience. Another character always listens to opera when driving. Why? Again...this adds nothing to the story, but adds a lot of depth to the character. It makes him different. Every character has something like that. Each cop has different personality and quirks that prevent them from all looking like generic background characters. Same goes for the prisoners in the jail scenes. (That's not a spoiler. It's a legal drama. You have to expect jail scenes)Then there is the attention to detail of the legal proceedings and jail scenes. They are a little modified for entertainment purposes. (The jail is a little scarier than actual jails, but not much. I speak from experience having worked in and toured numerous jails and prisons, thankfully always as an observer and not a resident. The court scenes are a little more streamlined to make them go faster. Real court is the single most boring thing on the planet with tons and tons of procedure and document exchanges and such. It has to be sped up and streamlined a bit to make it a watchable drama.) But the overall accuracy showing how police work is conducted and what a crime scene unit does and how prosecutors care about the politics of a case and how mistakes get made, etc etc.. It's all very believable.The writing keeps you guessing. It does not spoon feed you what actually happened in the crime up front. It leads you down many possible paths of the crime so you keep guessing. That keeps it interesting. It's not like they tell you the main character is guilty and show how he defends himself, nor does it show you the main character is innocent and then shows you how he tried exonerate himself. This one tells you the results of the crime, not the details. The rest of the series is about getting that figured out. You don't know who to believe / trust / or suspect.Then there is the acting. Holy cow this is where the show just goes to another level. There is not a single bad actor on the show. And by 'not bad' I mean they are all fabulous. There are a few familiar faces from The Wire, including Michael Williams (Omar Little from The Wire). He is an absolutely fantastic actor. He gets type cast into a lot of roles of criminals because he's a mean looking dude due to a big scar across his face. For a non criminal role he is in a show called Hap and Leonard where he plays a southern country bumpkin type and nails it. The man can flat out act.John Tuturro is amazing in anything he does. And I do mean anything. From The Jesus in The Big Lebowski to a goofy role like he had in the Transformers series. Here he has a very dramatic role that he brings to life. His character has so many odd quirks that it's amazing he can keep it consistent. But he does it perfectly.Riz Ahmed is the central character of the show. I can't say too much about how he makes his character perfect without giving away important plot details. But the short version is that he makes his character grow substantially in both good and bad ways between the beginning and end of the show. Becoming a character is tough enough for an actor. Becoming a character then appropriately developing that character in response to the story so he changes with the plot is REALLY hard. Ahmed is perfect at it.The bottom line is that this show is incredible. I had never heard of it until my wife said "Let's watch this" three days ago. Now I'm done the series. I didn't even find that it left you wanting more. It's just a well scripted 8 episodes that entertains you and stops when it should.

One of those RARE movies or series you wish you hadn't seen so you can see it all over again as if for the first time.I'm giving The Night Of 5 Stars [rare rating for me] because the riveting plot is not quite anything we've seen, a tense suspenseful thriller in a rare original idea. A deep study of life, of misfortune born out of a seemingly minor infraction that took on a life of its own~~the wrong choice at the wrong time, people and places [that regrettably happens to us all]. I'm so eager to see Season 2 I'm deflated it's not already on Amazon for viewing and will have to wait a year. Checking online it appears there WILL be a Season 2 which I HIGHLY LOOK FORWARD to. LUCKY is the viewer who gets to watch Seasons 1 and 2 back to back.The actors, acting, directing are superb, the quality and true-to-life texture of the scenes, characters and filming~ A+. I could and would very much like to go into greater detail but do not wish to steal your thrill by outing any of the plot or of revealing how Season 1 ends.Enjoy !!

- Kudos to HBO for attracting such amazing talent time and time again!!!! How can they continue to spit out gems in the likes of The Wire, The Sopranos, The Pacific, The Boardwalk Empire, Deadwood, True Detective (Season #1), Westworld, etc....? Now with Big Lies, and The Night Of, they have done it again!!!! This series was such a treat! The writing, the plot, the acting, directing, and editing.... everything! Riz Ahmed was incredible - you cannot take your eyes off of him. His Emmy win was well deserved! John Turturro - what a treat his understated character was! It provided us with such humanity and much needed humor relief in this dark drama. Loved his fight with eczema and his love for the stray cat, in the midst of a brutal murder trial. Such writing genius! Michael K. Williams has a nose for good series. Who can forget him from the Wire or The Boardwalk Empire?! What a great actor he is! The icing on the cake is that this series was also produced by the unforgettable James Gandolfini! Top series!!!!!! Loved every minute of it.

Working within law this was a pleasure to watch. It can be nail biting, infuriating, saddening, and outright thought provoking that will make you question what truly happened The Night Of.Coming from shows such as Breaking Bad, GoT, and Homeland just to name a few, The Night Of still holds my favorite pilot episode. During the whole watch, from a CSI perspective, clues can be seen throughout the episode that may not be deemed obvious but play a crucial role later in the show. Production did a fantastic job and the actors put their all into it.The Night Of compared to other crime shows did an excellent job on investigative details and process. It shows the justice system in it's raw from an investigative standpoint, within the courtroom, and within the confines of imprisonment.With such realism and emotion provoking narrative packed in 8 episodes, it's a show that I recommend to everyone.

Cinematography is exceptional. The story line made sense up to the last couple of episodes. Then it got a little far fetched because the investigation became a little too "pat". However, it was excellent entertainment. I think it was somewhat pricey particularly because we are permanent members of Amazon Prime.