Critic Reviews

This is good, strong procedural television that respects the art form and commands our attention.

Through seven of its eight hours (HBO didn't give critics the finale in advance), it's vital and gripping. It's not an imitator dressing itself up in the trappings of a classic HBO drama, but the real deal.

This adaptation of a BBC series differentiates itself in enough ways to keep things fresh and riveting.

It is Agatha Christie meets "The Wire," and it's one of the best things on TV in an already-great year.

It's enthralling. The Night Of looks like this summer's TV obsession.

Unquestionably, though, the most significant contributing factor to the character’s [John Stone's] magnetic credibility is Turturro’s performance, a masterful assemblage of all those little details from the script, brought beautifully to shabby, world-weary life by Turturro’s finely honed skill. Ahmed is almost as good, and if he falls just shy of making Naz’s radical transformation inside Rikers fully credible, it’s really because the script fails him.

Looks as though the TV drama of the summer, perhaps of the year, has finally arrived. The Night Of is a remarkable piece of work, restoring meaning to overused adjectives such as “gripping” and “powerful.”

This is HBO’s best “limited series” since Angels in America, which in 2004 won all of the major Emmy awards in its category.

If the series were only about the doe-eyed and inscrutable Naz, it would be interesting enough. But it is bursting with other characters and heart-ripping portraits and morality playlets with a life of their own. The main attraction is the disheveled lawyer Jack Stone (John Turturro, in a mind-blowing performance).

As complicated and layered as life itself, The Night Of is an instant classic. [11-24 Jul 2016, p.16]