'The Night Of' Series Finale Review

Image from Vice

By Darian Scalamoni

            HBO has done it again. With the miniseries produced by the late, great James Gandolfini and the wonderful Steven Zaillian, The Night Of has been a revelation and amazing television for the premium network since Game of Thrones most recent season ended. The series finale of the 8-part miniseries aired last Sunday and it was a doozy. The legal drama was an acting showcase over the last 8 weeks for leads Naz (Riz Ahmed) and his attorney, John Stone (John Turturro).

            It’s amazing to know that Chandra was in case Naz’s attorney until she hooked up with her own client within his visiting cell that Stone was then told by the judge that he would have to be the one to provide the jury with the closing argument for his client that was being charged with murder. Along with many of the watching audience though, people were concerned with the cat that Stone had taken earlier in the season from the house where the young girl was murdered. The cat played a direct metaphor for the young man, Naz in prison. When Stone brought the cat to the shelter, he thought to himself that it would be imprisoned, until the day it died. He was giving up on the cat, and similarly, it seemed like he was giving up on Naz and the justice, hope and salvation of his client.

            The trend of the show all series long was how the legal system favors convenience over the truth, it’s interesting to note just how perfectly The Night Of ended for the characters. Naz was set free due to the jury being completely split and refusing to move forward. John Stone was given praise by his peers for his efforts on the trial, even the cat made out okay! The series was so dark in nature, especially seeing the transformation of Naz throughout that it seemed natural to balance it out with light at the end of the tunnel.

            I do appreciate though, how Naz is last shown within the series. He is distraught with his mother because he doesn’t believe that she thinks that he is innocent. This leads to him going to the same place under the bridge in which he spent time with Andrea before she was murdered. He seems distressed as which he should since the last time he was on the stand, he claimed that he did not know if he murdered the young woman after being so positive for months that there was no way he did the crime he was being prosecuted for.

            Unfortunately, the fact that Naz was let go means the show loses some of its bite that was seen throughout the darkness of the series. It satisfies many casual audiences and we still get to see how his time behind bars leaves scars for him forever. The Night Of was an absolute triumph of a series and though I personally believe the series should’ve finished on a different note, it has been one of my favorite shows of the year by far.

8.9/10