The Night Of: Satisfyingly Unsatisfying?

*Spoilers for The Night Of*

A while back I had the experience of being underwhelmed by Jason Bourne and not even just a little underwhelmed, wholly underwhelmed. Normally it would annoy me a great deal knowing that I'd wasted two hours of my life but I'm glad I endured it because the film featured Riz Ahmed. I loved him in Shifty, Four Lions and much more and was glad that he was getting some love from Hollywood so I was eager to find out what else he was up to lately. Then I found it. The Night Of.

The Night Of follows Nasir "Naz" Khan (Ahmed), a Pakistani-American who is arrested for the brutal murder of Andrea Cornish (Sofia D'Elia). He spent the night with her but due to his drug addled state he has no recollection of the evenings events, making him the prime suspect in the eyes of the police. He may have had no priors, motive or blood on his person but he did have what could possibly be the murder weapon and that was apparently enough for the police to arrest him and not chase down other leads or suspects. John Stone (John Turtorro), an ambulance chaser-esque lawyer, stumbles upon him mistakenly believing he has been arrested for a minor offence, soon discovering that he has taken on more than he bargained for. Thrilling drama ensues.

Throughout the course of the eight episodes the series touches upon many story lines, the central arc being John's quest for Naz's freedom. In eight hours the audience witnesses John develop from an uncaring lawyer who only sees his clients as cash machines to an empathetic human being who strives to prove Naz's innocence despite the demons he is facing in his own life. Predictably John initially attempts to settle the case quickly by having Naz plead guilty and gain $50,000 for his troubles but the moment the family decide to go for another lawyer, Alison Crowe (Glenne Headly), the audience and John come to the realisation that John may not be the best or most honourable lawyer but he is the best that Naz will get. He then proceeds to gather witnesses and evidence that lead to other possible suspect, doing the police and prosecutions jobs for them and without being paid to do so.

The Night Of doesn't just explore the ignorance and corruption within the justice system, the series is several types of dramas all rolled into one. After Naz is taken into custody and sent to Rikers (which I believed was a fictional place) we have an Oz type prison drama. I say Oz but I may be completely incorrect as I've only watched the first few episodes (Amazon Instant Video, please bring it back). We watch Naz suffer at the hands of other inmates due to the crime he has supposedly committed, his race and the fact that he clearly doesn't belong there. He becomes a target for many as they attempt to break him but is taken under the protection of Freddy (Michael Kenneth Williams) which comes at a cost. As the episodes go on we witness Naz losing more and more of himself as he assimilates to life in prison including using and dealing drugs as well as attacking other prisoners. The most shocking part of this is that it's the norm there, even John acknowledges that it is something that must be done for Naz's survival.

Naz and John aren't the only ones to suffer during the trial but Naz's parents are just as punished as he is. They may not be in prison but they suffer persecution in the outside world from others, going from hard working individuals who are supporting their children's efforts to succeed in the world to losing their livelihoods during the ordeal. Naz's father, Salim Khan (Peyman Moaadi), strongly believes that his son did not commit the crime and that this is some sort of miscarriage of justice, but his mother Safar Khan (Poorna Jagannathan) has her doubts over his innocence which could prove to be the undoing of the family. The family are already outsiders in the community due to their race and social class and Nas' arrest only alienates them further.

Speaking of race (I seamlessly drifted onto the topic), as a person of Asian descent I loved the fact that Naz was a Muslim American-Pakistani to see how the wheels of justice work for someone who on the surface doesn't look like a typical American. Yes, the moment he starts speaking you can see he is an American through and through, just caught in between two cultures, but the jury don't see that, the prosecution don't see that and the press don't see that. Islamophobia is strife in the world we are living in right now and all they see is a Muslim man who carried out a senseless killing. It was interesting to see peoples attitudes toward him, how the trial was expedited because of his race and religion which hindered the whole case as they didn't have enough time to garner concrete evidence. The race angle added extra depth to the character and the story, but saying that the series wouldn't have faltered without it. At it's core The Night Of is a mini-series about a man who is the victim of great injustice and would have worked just as well if he were Caucasian, African-American or Hispanic.

Almost everything about the show is perfect, the casting, the direction, the layered plot but like I said, almost. I'm a female so being a feminist is part of my genetic make up *insert scientific research to back that up here* so I couldn't help but notice the female presence, or lack of, in the series. There were a few female characters who should have been prominent, a prime example being Safar. She has doubts over her son's innocence and slowly it is being revealed to her that she doesn't know her son as well as she thought. We only have a few silent scenes of her contemplation and I was waiting for that to be explored a little further but it wasn't. We have multiple scenes of Salim arguing with his friends about co-ownership of a yellow cab but we don't have more elaborate scenes of Naz's mother which seems like a pretty hefty oversight. Naz has a second lawyer, Chandra Kapoor (Amara Karan), who identifies with him because of their similar backgrounds. This character was starting to be built up as a strong and capable young lawyer but she ended up delving into idiocy, and that type of idiocy isn't uncommon for women on television. Finally we have Alison Crowe who's whole character arc was to be a heartless and ruthless lawyer. All the other characters evolved over the course of the series but she stayed constant. The females in the piece   were irksome.

The show almost makes up for ignoring the female characters because of the ending, the ending which has been toiling around in my brain for weeks now. The ending was open ended which always drives me completely insane because I can't stop thinking about it. I thought it would be easier once my friends had watched it so we could discuss whether we liked the ending or not but it didn't and I was still constantly thinking about it until writing this post. The ending was satisfyingly unsatisfying. A show with this premise can't wrap each and every story line up with a bow and have a happy ending for each character, the events that occurred have led to almost all of them going through a metamorphosis. Whether or not Naz was found guilty he would never be the same, he may no longer be a physically imprisoned but he is trapped in the new life he had to adapt to while in prison and trapped in the expectations that people now have of him. Not just Naz, all the characters lack closure and will have trouble readjusting to life after the trial, for better or worse their stories will continue but we will be unable to watch. This is probably the most realistic finale that the series could have.

So thank you Jason Bourne, if it wasn't for you it would probably have taken me a while to catch The Night Of. Thank you to everyone both behind and in front of the screens for providing me with this compelling drama. Thank you in advance for keeping my mind busy on occasion for the next several years when I wonder what Naz and the gang are up to now. Thank you for giving me opening sequence with theme music. Most of all, thank you for clearing up my bloggers block.

Live Long and Blog!