The Night Of: The Call of the Wild

August 28, 2016 8:01 PM - Season 1, Episode 8

A controversy surrounding the defense puts Stone in the spotlight as Naz's trial reaches its climax.
posted by komara (35 comments total)

Kitty!
posted by carmicha at 8:32 PM on August 28, 2016 [12 favorites]

Follow the money.
posted by bricksNmortar at 9:01 PM on August 28, 2016

No lawyer would *ever* put that defendant on the stand. I think the entire series has to lose at least one star on that basis alone.

In general it seemed to me like the end of the series went aggressively out of its way to discredit Chandra, for reasons that seem unmotivated by the earlier episodes.
posted by gerryblog at 9:04 PM on August 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

It also went out of its way to make me and my girlfriend think that Naz was going to get killed before he saw the outside again. Every second of his trip from his cell to freedom was agony.

The rest of the episode was ... uh ... disappointing, to be diplomatic. I mean okay I like that they engineered a way for him to get off and go free without anyone having to show up with a surprise witness, but that was about it.
posted by komara at 9:17 PM on August 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

Follow the money.

Seriously. The first thing John and Chandra should have done was dig into the victim's financials to try to find another suspect. That it took until the eighth episode for anyone to notice and look into the fact that this 22 year old lived alone in a brownstone is really bad lawyering. I suppose it's possible that the show was trying to illustrate what happens when you get less than the best legal representation, but based on the ham-fisted courtroom scenes I'm not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I sound angrier than I feel, it's more disappointment than anything else. I had such high hopes after the first episode.
posted by slmorri at 9:56 PM on August 28, 2016 [5 favorites]

So, how long was Nas in lockup, all in?
posted by blueberry at 10:58 PM on August 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

I really enjoyed the show overall. Acting was amazing.
posted by futz at 11:12 PM on August 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

The last 10 minutes... That was some amazing tv. And kitty!!! (And I'm not a cat person)
posted by pearlybob at 11:23 PM on August 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

The show loses a star for putting Naz on the stand, but it gains one back for the ASPCA commercial feels.
posted by dis_integration at 5:56 AM on August 29, 2016 [4 favorites]

it seemed to me like the end of the series went aggressively out of its way to discredit Chandra, for reasons that seem unmotivated by the earlier episodes.

Yeah, this remains my biggest beef with the show. I've never been inside a courtroom so I can't comment on the (un)realism of those parts, but the whole plotline with Chandra wasn't very well set up at all (as other commenters have noted, the one conversation about her breaking up with her boyfriend isn't really enough to justify her choosing to engage in gross misconduct and jeopardize her entire career multiple times) and for... no real believable reason, other than to move the plot in a certain direction.

I enjoyed it overall, particularly for the character moments/direction/cinematography like I've said in other threads, and the performances as well, but the whole thing doesn't quite hang together as more than the sum of its parts. It did definitely keep me guessing--until they started telegraphing the hung jury I didn't really know where it was going to go, and up until the very end I was in suspense that Naz would either get killed or do something to get thrown back in prison. I also have to wonder how it affects his life and his reputation in his community, his family relationships, etc., that he wasn't formally acquitted; since the series leaves off before any chance to see Halle get tried and convicted, you don't really know whether those will ever be repaired.

By the end I found it difficult to like virtually all of the characters, and honestly, in the end, I think the most satisfying arc for me was probably Box's, which I didn't expect. Still trying to figure out the symbolism of Stone's eczema going away and then coming back... at the end we've clearly returned to the status quo ante in some ways, even though he's been some measure of successful in doing the Right Thing as he sees it.
posted by Kosh at 6:15 AM on August 29, 2016

So, how long was Nas in lockup, all in?

The date on the camera footage of Chandra buying drugs was mid-February, so the whole thing took place over about four months. (Which is quick, isn't it, for a murder trial? I guess it could have been a year and four months, maybe?)

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. It was entertaining, but you'd think that with a stand-alone miniseries they'd do a better job of writing the entire thing as a comprehensive story. They don't need to worry about planning for a potential season 2, after all. But by the last few episodes it seemed very haphazardly thrown together, in a Last Season of Lost sort of way.

It also seems like whoever wrote it had a good story idea and the filmmakers were pretty competent, too, but nobody involved understood how the legal system worked and didn't bother to find out. The trial was just awful.
posted by something something at 6:40 AM on August 29, 2016 [4 favorites]

I was amused that Stone basically gave the thesis of the show in his closing arguments. "This is what happens when you put a kid in Rikers and expect him to survive." This show was so subtle I needed the defense lawyer to spell it out while bleaching the eczema off his body and then returning to his life of dull monotonous defense lawyering for people he knows are guilty.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:54 AM on August 29, 2016 [5 favorites]

I believe many of the issues we have with the show are due to the season being simply too short. When I found out this was the last episode, I was shocked, because it seemed like there was just too much still to address. So, in the end, everything was compressed, and much of the storytelling suffered for it.

This certainly also applies to Chandra's budding relationship with Naz. I think they did a pretty good job with it, however. She was totally not ready professionally to lead a case like this, and, just like Freddy, was truly compelled by his scent of innocence, and her own inexperience and innocence allowed the situation to get out of control.

Overall, the show deserves a lot of credit for the mystery and gritty suspense it delivered, and the acting was top-notch all around. If they had two or three more episodes to fully tell the story, it would have been spectacular.
posted by eas98 at 7:14 AM on August 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

If anyone is curious, there's a reddit thread with the differences between The Night Of and Criminal Justice, the British show from which it was adapted.
posted by bluecore at 8:06 AM on August 29, 2016 [5 favorites]

the acting was top-notch all around

Michael K. Williams deserves special praise for managing to bring a unique sense of character to Freddy, who he could've played as Omar Little or as Chalky White but who he played as a whole 'nother character. As someone who is basically typecast as ex-con gangsta with a high IQ, he manages to play each character as that character and not as just Michael K. Williams. I'd like to see him play a greatery variety of characters, ones that don't need his facial scar to do the casting for him.
posted by dis_integration at 8:09 AM on August 29, 2016 [13 favorites]

Michael K. Williams deserves special praise for managing to bring a unique sense of character to Freddy

Agree. I kind of think one of the lines he said to Nas was really him speaking to the audience: "What kind of cold hearted individual do you think I am?" That was meant for those of us who were sure Freddy was going to use Nas up and throw him away and that he could't possibly be genuinely interested in him as a person.

But while Freddy didn't use and dispose of Nas, the system sure the hell did. I don't see a road back for him. Not that he was a paragon of virtue to begin with, but damn. I see him paying a visit to Freddy at some point, since Freddy was the closest thing to a real friend he had in the entire show, and getting talked into helping Freddy out from outside the prison ("talked into" in an "Ow. My arm. You're twisting it." kind of way), never being able to leave the vortex, and probably ending up getting the talk from that intake officer again in the very near future.

And his poor mother. God.

I'm glad to see HBO avoided massive backlash and pitchforks and torches by showing us kitty at the very end.
posted by lord_wolf at 8:55 AM on August 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

They should've gotten Dick Wolf to consult on this. The whole time I was thinking how the Law & Order et al detectives and attorneys would've done things better. Great acting for the most part though.
posted by fuse theorem at 9:23 AM on August 29, 2016

I really dislike what they did with Chandra. There were so many places they could have gone with inexperienced legal counsel that wouldn't have been nonsensical and unrealistic. If they were committed to making Chandra fuck up her career for Nas, they needed to spend more time with her character and build up some reason for it.
I really thought they'd get Nas off without providing an actual culprit. I'm glad they didn't go that route, and I did like that Box was the one who finally did the work to figure it out. But, as mentioned by others, it seems odd that no one looked into Andrea's financials or her phone records or her movements before she met up with Nas that evening. That seems like a lot of ground to overlook.
Also, what happens to Box at the end? Does he rejoin the police force? Is he a private eye consulting for the DA?
I did enjoy this last episode more than I expected. I would have watched an entire episode of witnesses arguing legal points with the judge - the crazy religious hearse driver not wanting to answer a question because it would be heresy was excellent. This series was messy, but there were a lot of good performances and interesting scenes. Much better than the 2nd season of True Detective , anyway.
posted by the primroses were over at 10:46 AM on August 29, 2016 [6 favorites]

Are we to infer that Box did give John the DVD of the kiss as a means for a mistrial? Or did Freddy arrange it since he had access to it too? Box seemed genuinely confused about the DVD, so maybe his only rebellion was walking out from court?
posted by bluecore at 12:52 PM on August 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

I am fairly certain Freddy had the DVD of the kiss delivered to John's apartment. John naturally assumes it's Box because they've had lots of informal conversations about the trial and he suspects Box doesn't believe Naz is actually guilty.

I suppose Freddy had the DVD sent in order to force a mistrial because he genuinely felt for Naz, but for some reason I had this sense of dread about it, like he was trying to tank the case to keep Naz in jail. And if they had video of the kiss, they surely had video of the drug transfer (which I have no reason to believe that Chandra would actually agree to, wtf). I guess the kiss isn't a criminal offense?

Oh I see. I must have assumed that the video was of the drug transfer, and Naz had held out on Freddy, and so there was trouble a-brewin'. OK. Thanks for bearing with me while I worked that one out.
posted by m0nm0n at 2:14 PM on August 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

[T]he whole thing took place over about four months... I guess it could have been a year and four months, maybe?

I think it has to be four months, not sixteen, because the plot introduced the idea of Box's imminent retirement in one of the first few episodes.

I am fairly certain Freddy had the DVD of the kiss delivered to John's apartment.

I think so too; don't we see the crooked guard transferring the CD to Freddy? Freddy also has motivation not to include video of the drug transfer, since he doesn't want to increase scrutiny of how his supply gets into Rikers.

Questions:

Does Chandra know Naz approved the mistrial gambit that wrecks her career?

Do we know if Naz's family actually paid Stone?

When they show Naz sitting by the water, smoking heroin/crack/meth/whatever and looking at the bridge, he flashes on being there with Andrea. Is he just being nostalgic about the last happy time before his life turned to shit? Or are we to think he will (at least until the finance guy presumably goes to trial) also be corroded by wondering if he committed murder?

I know the above questions are possibly unknowable but... I want to know.
posted by carmicha at 3:40 PM on August 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

But while Freddy didn't use and dispose of Nas, the system sure the hell did. I don't see a road back for him. Not that he was a paragon of virtue to begin with, but damn. I see him paying a visit to Freddy at some point, since Freddy was the closest thing to a real friend he had in the entire show, and getting talked into helping Freddy out from outside the prison ("talked into" in an "Ow. My arm. You're twisting it." kind of way), never being able to leave the vortex, and probably ending up getting the talk from that intake officer again in the very near future.

We're never going to see the characters again, but I think the inference we're meant to draw is that Freddy has access to incriminating surveillance footage of Nas keistering the crack (it was crack, right?) and that could be leverage for having him be his man on the outside. Nas can't have very good job prospects at this point, so maybe that's even an appealing idea for him. His character essentially seemed to be buying into the fact that he'd be spending his life in jail, what with all of the tattoos.
posted by codacorolla at 7:05 PM on August 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

"(it was crack, right?)"

I took it for methdone, as it was in pill form. Naz knew he'd be hurting so he asked Chandra to bring him something, the thing that would be easiest for her to score. Hence the scene of her waiting across the street from the building that said 'clinic' or whatever, and scoring from the guy that came out.
posted by komara at 7:24 PM on August 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, yeah, that makes a lot more sense.
posted by codacorolla at 8:26 PM on August 29, 2016

OK the cat saved that episode for me.

Kosh-I think the significance of the eczema is that Stone gets miraculously better not because of the chinese herbs, but because he was revitalized by the case. He begins to really believe in something more than this monotonous grind. It's what he says in the closing speech, he sees in Naz the most precious thing, an innocent kid. Well innocent of murder. For all of Naz's flaws, Stone still believes in the system (and himself as part of it) to help this kid. What's interesting is what causes Stone's relapse is the judge's behavior. That's what totally sends him off. Naz getting off the hook isn't enough because he sees basically that this isn't a shining moment of redemption. Not for him and not for the legal system.

Basically this is kind of like a modern Bonfire of the Vanities. I wish they had done a better job because the last two eps are just awful. It went down hill super fast. And what makes it so bad is I can see how it wouldn't take much to fix it and make it really awesome.

Sigh.
posted by miss-lapin at 10:57 PM on August 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

My feeling, considering the series as a whole, is that as the viewers we're shown actions from nearly all the main characters which are never given clearly defined motivations, and asked to reconcile these actions as best we can with what we "know" of how detectives/lawyers/defendants would react. In some cases we can to a degree that may satisfy, but in many other cases (Naz's behavior, Box taking the inhaler from evidence, Chandra's behavior toward Naz) we are asked to accept these, and never given clear motivations.

I think this was absolutely intentional on the part of the writers. We may feel that Chandra's story was given short shrift, which leads to questioning how she could have been motivated to do what she did, but we are given no more clarity for the failings of the other very capable people we're shown.

I think there's also something to be said about how we can become trapped by previous decisions. Chandra started down a path with Naz, and was unable to see alternatives off that path, and that led to her to overestimating his ability to withstand cross, which ended up inadvertently sealing her fate.

Box was trapped by his assessment of Naz's guilt, but he was one who managed to see an alternate path. (If he were a younger detective, would he have?)

Would I have been happy with more details that led to clearer motivations for all of these characters? Sure, to the degree that I think we all are hard-wired to seek clarity and resolution when there are blank spaces. But we weren't given that clarity, and The Night Of would have been a completely different show if we had been given it. Could Chandra have been given more backstory or explicit motivation? And would it have improved the show? I can't really say.

I really loved it. The cinematography, the color (the color!) were exceptional. (The image of Box on the bleachers alone was something I'd frame and put on my wall.) The acting was top-notch, across the board. And the tale of Stone and the cat was just sublime.
posted by sutt at 8:11 AM on August 30, 2016 [8 favorites]

I think there's also something to be said about how we can become trapped by previous decisions. Chandra started down a path with Naz, and was unable to see alternatives off that path, and that led to her to overestimating his ability to withstand cross, which ended up inadvertently sealing her fate.

I think that's a good read of it. I would add that through seeing these unclearly motivated and flawed people bumble their way through a who-dunnit we're seeing how individual failures map onto systemic failures. The flawed investigator is a standard of mystery fiction (Nero Wolfe's lazy sensualism, Poirot's fussy exactness, any number of hard bitten cops with alcohol problems), but generally they have a keen eye for the truth, and they are technically super competent. The Night Of has a lot of those same beats, but without any of the super-heroism we tend to see in these stories. True Detective, for example, where Rust is an alcoholic nihilist, but hey, he always gets his man. I think that the poorly conveyed trial that takes up the last quarter of the season doesn't do the show any favors, however.
posted by codacorolla at 8:26 AM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

"I would add that through seeing these unclearly motivated and flawed people bumble their way through a who-dunnit we're seeing how individual failures map onto systemic failures."

Yes, this! Little short cuts and off-estimations just compound, to the detriment of all. And Naz is freed (but pretty much destroyed) more by virtue of luck than anything in the system that was an adequate check on these failures.
posted by sutt at 8:33 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

I think Stone's behavior vis-a-vis both the eczema and the cat are meant to model two related concepts: care for self and care for others. Clearly the cat works as a stand-in for Naz; both must adjust to living in grim, small enclosed spaces; the apartment bedroom, like the private cell, is a step up from the shelter and common ward, but still awful. Stone doesn't know how to care for the cat but does his best--he buys toys, tasty tuna and other things the cat requires--even at great cost to himself allegy-wise. As with Naz, Stone bounces back and forth about how much effort his wants to put into the situation but he sees that the cat and Naz are fundamentally good and he never gives up. Stone eventually chooses to give the cat a good life, freeing it from Rikers Island the animal shelter; we see the cat is more resilient than Naz.

Regarding the eczema, Stone also never gives up the idea that he can make himself better, just as he wants to do a good job as a lawyer in this case that is, as he admits, over his head. He gives in to scratching, sure, but he also seeks out all manner of medical care, plus going to the support group, buying different kinds of shoes, etc. He wants to be less repulsive to other people so he can improve his connections; when he's healed, his delight goes beyond his newly found comfort.

Stone tries to deliver these insights to Naz when they meet in the little neighborhood restaurant; he urges Naz to get out of the area and start over, not to let his life be defined/confined by this incident. Naz remains uncoachable, at least for the moment.

TLDR: We have to care for ourselves to do our best caring for others.
posted by carmicha at 7:08 PM on August 30, 2016 [8 favorites]

Wow.....well that was just....wow.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:35 PM on August 30, 2016

I'm just gonna say it, because I consider MF a safe space: I was sobbing with that last shot. Being a cat owner, I had gotten the impression from previous eps that at least one of the writers was a cat owner, too. (Stone was following the same path that my Dad, who never wanted cats, took to becoming a cat owner/fanatic.)

But they kept me hanging until the last possible moment, and I realized how much I had invested in that damn cat when I found myself crying like a baby.
posted by sutt at 6:09 AM on August 31, 2016 [6 favorites]

And since I'm in a confessional mood, the same thing happened (to a lesser degree) when in a previous episode Stone can be heard saying "But I don't wanna get rid of my cat." My cat. I knew he (Stone) was a goner, right there.
posted by sutt at 6:50 AM on August 31, 2016 [4 favorites]

I liked how they saved the cat. On the one hand, it was corny but it was done in such a way as to remind you of the woman who died, which is often strangely forgotten in these kinds of shows. And also, it wasn't shown as really being a solution to anything. He's got to put on his gloves again and he has this look of resignation. It reminds me of the ending in Umberto D. He's got his cat but everything's still going to shit.

The episode was a lot better than I expected and I may re-watch the series now.
posted by BibiRose at 11:25 AM on August 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

> we see the cat is more resilient than Naz

But what we don't see is that after that jaunt of freedom, the cat went back to comfortable confinement in the room it knows and huffed catnip.

Seriously, I was glad he got the cat back, but I didn't like it dandering up his whole apartment. They had a system-- why not stick with it?
posted by morganw at 9:07 PM on September 3, 2016

I haven't felt this conflicted about a show since the last season of Lost. So many great things (the acting, cinematography, different stories) marred by WTF plot moves (the tattoos, Chandra's kiss and moving of drugs) that made no sense for the characters.

Much better than the 2nd season of True Detective , anyway.

Agreed but that's a pretty low bar there.
posted by saul wright at 8:25 AM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]