The Night Of
Foxtel, Sundays, 8pm
“THE Night Of” is an excoriating, dark vision of the justice system of a flawed superpower.
In a drab, washed out, colourless grey palette, it takes you into the dirty cells, the crumbling courthouses and the crowded precincts of urban America.
It follows a Pakistani Muslim youth who, driving a cab in New York one night, finds himself in the frame for a young woman’s murder.
He is sucked into a vortex of cuffs, court and custody, pursued equally by an amiable cop and a driven, ambulance-chasing lawyer.
His parents are bystanders to the process.
The fear being exploited here is that it could happen to any of us – and that’s what makes it more than a police procedural.
It’s early days, but you can just sense that our wide-eyed young Muslim friend is going to bump into a great many rocks in the stream of life before this thing is over.
And it’s a reminder that when it comes to justice, there’s just us.
– Jason Beck
