The Night Of | HBO Miniseries

I feel bad for Chandra though. She made a huge mistake, sure, but Stone pretty much f***ed her career.

That is true. She did a stupid and unethical thing though. Aside from Stone telling, that would have been grounds for disbarment anyway. Plus, that camera had her buying those drugs. That's another case against her. She would have gone down eventually anyway.

Still, I feel bad for her. She had a great arc.
 
Yeah. It's funny though... Deadspin ran an article today that talked about how pretty much every main character did a ton of stupid sh** in this show that often came out of the blue and was really only thrown in to move the narrative forward. For example, Chandra suddenly lusting after Nas and turning into a drug mule was all a convenient way to set Stone up as the one who had to deliver the closing argument.

Don't get me wrong, it doesn't ruin the show but after reading it, I kinda had to agree that a lot of the show hinged on human stupidity.
 
Coincidences and stupidity driving a (neo) noir or just a film or TV show in general is nothing new, really. I always find it bizarre that people treat this stuff as if it's always going to be ultra-realistic, and write whole articles about it.

I thought that Naz's actions in the premiere were only stupid from our perspective because we're the audience and we're not exactly drugged up and totally in the moment with him. People do irrational things in these situations.

The Chandra kiss doesn't totally sit well with me, but the circumstances positioned around that plotline were well written enough that I can let it go. There was probably a better way to position Stone to deliver the closing (say, by just having him want to do it) than destroying Chandra, but I appreciate the difficult position that it put Stone (and Naz) in in terms of having to throw Chandra under the bus. In other words, it added to the dramatic tension, even if it wasn't the best circumstance to port over from the UK version.
 
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Yeah, I know, but this show really did have a LOT of them. Box is supposedly this brilliant, dedicated detective and yet he really didn't even entertain the idea that it could be anybody but Nas. Stone is this really sharp guy, yet does stupid things like spying on the stepdad in his gym and chasing after Duane Reade. Gifted lawyer Chandra does the stuff I already mentioned. Nas himself did EVERY stupid thing possible after the murder (though I suppose you could excuse that as him being in a panic).

It's still a really good show but there was a lot of stupidity going around.
 
Well, with regard to Box, the idea that the police will go for the first suspect and no one else has many, many, many precedents in real-life cases. It may be "dumb," but it happens much more in real life than we'd think or like it to. For example, I don't know if you've listened to Serial, but that certainly comes to mind.

The stuff with Stone I chalk up to him being a little too street-smart for his own good. Chandra, I can't really excuse - for me, that's the one significant narrative misstep. For Naz, the drugs and the panic make it ok for me.

I won't disagree that the characters did some dumb things or even that Naz's transformation wasn't a little bit rushed (though I guess you could chalk that up to him not being quite as much of a "good boy" as everybody presumed), but none of this fell outside the realm of suspension of disbelief for me either.
 
Yeah, I know, but this show really did have a LOT of them. Box is supposedly this brilliant, dedicated detective and yet he really didn't even entertain the idea that it could be anybody but Nas. Stone is this really sharp guy, yet does stupid things like spying on the stepdad in his gym and chasing after Duane Reade. Gifted lawyer Chandra does the stuff I already mentioned. Nas himself did EVERY stupid thing possible after the murder (though I suppose you could excuse that as him being in a panic).

It's still a really good show but there was a lot of stupidity going around.


At the end of the day, though, the same can be said of "real life". Stupidity and ineptitude running rampant, with many people (both good and bad) falling victim to it at some point or in some way.
 
Yeah, I know, but this show really did have a LOT of them. Box is supposedly this brilliant, dedicated detective and yet he really didn't even entertain the idea that it could be anybody but Nas. Stone is this really sharp guy, yet does stupid things like spying on the stepdad in his gym and chasing after Duane Reade. Gifted lawyer Chandra does the stuff I already mentioned. Nas himself did EVERY stupid thing possible after the murder (though I suppose you could excuse that as him being in a panic).

It's still a really good show but there was a lot of stupidity going around.

Yeah a lot of people in this show are very very stupid.

And usually that'd really bother me, but I was still enthralled beginning to end with this show. As you said it's a really good show with a lot of stupidity

Especially with Chandra, I have no idea why they did what they did with her character
 
Yeah, I know, but this show really did have a LOT of them. Box is supposedly this brilliant, dedicated detective and yet he really didn't even entertain the idea that it could be anybody but Nas. Stone is this really sharp guy, yet does stupid things like spying on the stepdad in his gym and chasing after Duane Reade. Gifted lawyer Chandra does the stuff I already mentioned. Nas himself did EVERY stupid thing possible after the murder (though I suppose you could excuse that as him being in a panic).

It's still a really good show but there was a lot of stupidity going around.
Just like real life, no one is perfect.

Police liking a suspect and not bothering to investigate anyone else is pretty common. There have been numerous cases through out history with wrongful convictions eventually being overturned because the cops made up their mind they had the perpetrator and steered the investigation competently to that person.

Stone chasing after Duane Reade and stalking the Stepdad was dumb. Stone is someone streetwise but he was shown to also to lack a little self awareness at times.

Chandra was naive. Naz panicked and made a series of dumb decisions.
 
Because she's human.

that's a really silly argument, statement, or whatever

Even characters that are "human" do stuff with good writing backing it. All of the sudden showing sexual attraction to Naz and then smuggling drugs for no apparent reason doesn't pass the "she human" test to me. It was just lazy writing in otherwise great show. Her putting Naz on the stand? It's a mistake but ok, every stupid thing about the show at least seemed rooted in good writing. But Chandra's drug smuggling which was just random and the kiss which came was out of nowhere were just stupid.

And just because "she's a human" doesn't mean I have to agree with how they handled the character

Just like real life, no one is perfect.

Police liking a suspect and not bothering to investigate anyone else is pretty common. There have been numerous cases through out history with wrongful convictions eventually being overturned because the cops made up their mind they had the perpetrator and steered the investigation competently to that person.

Stone chasing after Duane Reade and stalking the Stepdad was dumb. Stone is someone streetwise but he was shown to also to lack a little self awareness at times.

Chandra was naive. Naz panicked and made a series of dumb decisions.

See I can buy why Stone was reckless, why the prosecutor wanted to go after Naz despite new evidence, why Vox missed huge parts of the case, or Naz's transformation just fine.
The Chandra things, other than putting Naz on the stand, were more than being naive. It was just sloppy writing. All the other stupid things, while still stupid at least had reason behind them. Chandra was never really shown to have attraction to Naz or that she's reckless/easily enamored like that. The only reason I got for why she kissed Naz was when she mentioned her boyfriend broke up with her. And then the only reason the drug smuggling thing kinda made sense was because she kissed Naz which didn't even make sense in the first place. The kiss seemed to happen just to a) give Chandra a downbeat ending b) somehow give a reason for Stone to give the closing arguments

In a show where, even the actions I thought were stupid or I didn't like, had reason behind them I can't just chalk up Chandra's stuff as "she's human." It just comes off as weak writing in an otherwise phenomenal show.
 
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I feel bad for Chandra though. She made a huge mistake, sure, but Stone pretty much f***ed her career.

I'm confused about that part. Was she ok with Stone turning her in? I thought she was sort of offering herself up as a sacrificial lamb to get a hung jury, to save Naz but then things didn't go as planned....
 
great ender to the story... very satisfying... and also...

the funniest exchange in the episode between John and his pharmacist...

pharmacist: "oh, by the way, your Viagara finally came in"

John: "I don't give a ****"

pharmacist: "that's funny"...:funny:
 
GOtta rewatch this before my HBO NOW free trial goes away :ninja:
 
oh, for god's sake... this whole limited series was perfection, with the exception of a few minor things... let's not make this an ongoing series now BECAUSE it got rave reviews... something gets touted as a limited series, it does phenomenally well, and what do the PTB have to do?... they just HAVE to go back on the original intent of a limited series and capitalize on it with a second season... let it stand on it's own, not squeeze as much as they can out of it... I'm deadset AGAINST a new season, despite my LOVING this LIMITED series...
 
I'd be fine with an anthology if they really continue.
 
‘The Night Of’ & ‘True Detective’: HBO Boss “Hopeful” About New Seasons http://deadline.com/2017/01/the-night-of-season-2-true-detective-season-3-hbo-1201887067?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter …

We are nowhere near a green light or even a script for new installments of The Night Of and True Detective but both are moving in the right direction.

At TCA on Saturday, HBO president of programming Casey Bloys said he was “hopeful” because in both cases the creators “are closing in on ideas that they are excited about.”
 
That's good news considering that I thought this was all over for good. :)
 

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