Rent The Night Of (2016)

Wonderfully memorable, 5 star entertainment. - The Night Of review by DW

A respectable young man "borrows" his dad's car & we're treated to a domino-effect drama that involves the forces of crime, drugs, police, prison & the legal profession. Despite being an outstandingly good work of fiction, the realism accent is very strong. Even so, the final scene should raise a smile!

PS. This is said to be a re-make of a BBC effort called "Criminal Justice", typical wishy-washy BBC cop "drama". It seems this far superior American series was a collaboration with a BBC Worldwide arm & HBO in the States. Pity the BBC don't do this more often, I would then get better value for my licence fee.

Brilliant - The Night Of review by EL

Absolutely superb and riveting, I thoroughly enjoyed this limited series and was hooked. Ahmed and Turturro really stood out and I was saddened to hear Gandolfi was cast in Turturro's role and, due to his sudden death was replaced. Ahmed truly shone due to the metamorphosis of his character, he wholly deserves his Emmy ward for his betrayal in The Night of. The casting was excellent, there was one obvious fact the defense missed, I wonder if you can spot it? Sadly, no reprise or second run thanks to HBO confirmed its cancellation. I hope it is picked up and continued by another streaming service, however, it would need a new storyline. Brilliant, do watch it and enjoy.

Decent-enough but overlong remake of a UK TV crime drama - The Night Of review by PV

this is a US remake of the 2007 UK crime TV drama CRIMINAL JUSTICE starring the great Ben Wishaw. Peter Moffat and producer jane Tranter went to the USA so this happened.. I have not watched CRIMINAL JUSTICE but will, and compare.

In general, this is overlong - could have been 4 episodes. It rambles esp in later episodes. The initial episode is great and the next, esp the first contact with police and the cell, the shock of the suspect, the sudden horror of a night spinning out of control.

The Muslim family is portrayed as SO angelic it's a wonder they did not sprout wings - I disliked that 2 dimensional portrayal (watch FOUR LIONS to see how many are in the UK). FYI the USA does not have many Pakistani Muslim immigrants compared to the Uk and most in USA are middle class and educated; most who came to the UK came from villages and are often lower socio-economic class village farmers so not educated or in professional jobs, A real difference.

And it is not good, i do not like Riz Ahmed much as an actor - the same doe-eyed act, puppy dog eyes all innocence - the upper class regular Asian features no doubt help his acting career, He is from a very posh privately-educated background, dad a shipping broker, grandad a SHAH so royal. Hardly council estate material or disadvantaged at all.

Michael K Williams here aged 50 is brilliant - he was dead at 54 from a drugs overdone, heroin and fentanyl (the latter the opioid that has killed 100,000 in the USA incl Prince of course).

Shocking of course these US prison scenes, I had no idea there were dorms in US prisons like this. The story itself is fairly unlikely.

Not sure if I like or dislike the shambling lawyer, all very Columbo scruff but reminds me of OCD TV detective Monk too. The tiresome illness theme is probably supposed to be a metaphor of a sick society and sick criminal justice system but....

4 stars JUST. A flawed drama that could have been better and shorter.

Ponderously slow and not engaging - The Night Of review by Alz

Managed to get about halfway through the first episode before deciding life is too short to wait for something engaging to happen. I guess the director was trying to build a tense picture slowly but I really didn't care about the characters. It was fairly obvious what was going to happen and the narrative direction the series was going to take, but I couldn't be bothered to watch it play out.