“The Night Of” Review Brings Criminal Justice and Criminal Defense Problems to Light

  • SPOILERS OF “The NIGHT OF” IN THE TEXT -YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!

 

New Feature; Television and Film Reviews featuring Criiminal Justice.

Guest Review by; Jake Morask

Ok so I just finally got around to watching the premiere of HBO’s The Night Of, and my first reaction to it is that it was a fantastic hour of television that had me glued to the screen. It was tense from the first minute and the horrible sense that something was going to go horribly wrong ate at me constantly. The episode follows a young Pakistani American living in New York City by the name of Nasir Khan. Nasir is an intelligent young man, a tutor for at least one of the best players on his schools basketball team. He has a loving relationship with his parents, and seems an overall good kid. His father drives a taxi for a living and it’s obvious that they are stricken with poverty. Enter an invite from a sympathetic player on the team pointing out that Nasir’s tutoring has allowed one of their best players to be able to play, and the horror story begins.

Naz was supposed to go with his friend, who had the car, but his buddy dropped out and left him with only a few options. Stay home, or steal his dad’s cab. Sadly he chose the latter. On his way into the city to get to the party he has some trouble with rejecting passengers since his on duty light was still on. Two passengers got into his car but with the help of the police Naz got them out of the cab, but then the mysterious beautiful young women comes into play. Her name was revealed to be Andrea, but Naz didn’t even know this most of the time, adding to the mysterious element behind this girl. She talks about wanting to go to the beach and that she can’t be alone tonight. Naz, being a young man who hasn’t had a lot of experience with women, decides to take her to wherever she wants. After they share an intimate experience near a lake,(including some sort of drug, maybe LSD) they head back to her place. Naz notes how nice it is and that it has to be expensive. After a racist comment by an African American man walking past them with his buddy(who gives Naz a very interesting look) they enter the place. I hate to do this step by step recalling of the plot but every detail is important here, and plays to Nasir’s plight.

They play a tequila knife game(always a good idea) and after a decent amount of hesitation Naz goes along with the game, stabbing the space between his fingers and missing his hand. Andrea wants him now to do this to her hand and after even bigger hesitation he eventually succumbs. This time the knife stabs her right through her hand and blood seeps out while Naz looks horrified. Andrea though seems turned on by it(ok) and they proceed to go upstairs and have sex. Next morning while it’s still dark Naz is leaning over the kitchen table, goes upstairs to grab his jacket and tell Andrea he’s heading home. Only Andrea has been brutally murdered to Nasir’s complete horror and shock. What follows is a face palming scene of Naz running out the door without his fathers car keys and the bloody knife in his pocket. Of course he needs the keys to drive, but naturally locked himself out of Andrea’s house after running out. He proceeded to break the glass door, enter back inside, grab the keys and run like hell to his cab all while a neighbor watched. After leaving in the cab terrified, Naz gets stopped for an illegal left turn and arrested for a DUI.(goddammit Naz)

The worst part of this is that he’s taken back to the crime scene since the cops need to investigate it. After Detective Box evaluates the scene and talks to the racist dude who has returned back to the house (without his buddy) Naz is taken to the station. After some horribly nerve wracking moments it looks like he’s about to be cut loose. However on a pat down the knife is found in his jacket, right as Box describes the knife they should be looking for. It’s an incredibly well done scene, and a great pay off to Nasir’s mistakes. Naz sadly tries to run, not realizing truly how bad this has gotten and gets taken down and thrown into custody.

This is where some of the most realistic parts of the show come into play.  Detective Box is a good detective but his “I’m trying to help you” spiel to Naz is almost certainly just manipulating him to closing the case efficiently as possible. He pressures Naz to talk to him without a lawyer present and takes a blood test that Naz for which Naz should have never given permission.  Watching a poverty stricken kid getting manipulated by fake sympathetic detectives to damn themselves is an all too familiar thing. Naz would have likely have had to use a public defender if not for a sympathetic lawyer who notices Nasir’s big scared eyes and determines this kid can’t be that violent.

So that’s mainly the episode, there are some more important details to the mystery but my main focus was on the realism and sadness of Nasir’s plight. Yes I will admit I have zero idea if he did it or not but I feel for him anyway. He draws compassion with his sensitivity, intelligence, and fear. Not to mention it’s hard to imagine a person like him brutally murdering a young women. But besides that, Naz is poor, and he’s a member of a group of people that are constantly targeted with prejudice and vicious accusations. The man walking with his friend past Naz disgustingly referred to him as Mustafa and talked about him hiding bombs. The comment obviously got to Naz, probably being used to jackass comments like that. The fact of Nasir’s race and economic status is obviously extremely important to the story. Also,  just looking at the basic summary of the case will most definitely lead to a discriminating bias in media, police investigation, and public opinion. This is a Muslim Pakistani man being accused of murdering a rich white beautiful college aged women. His lawyer John Stone recognizes this fact, asking him how he views America and what his beliefs are.

The show reflects the reality of the criminal justice scene better than almost any shows to date- the steady churn of poor, disaffected, minorities and both petty and vicious criminals coming through the “21” precinct in New York. Without the help of a sympathetic lawyer it’s very likely Naz would have received an over worked Public defender who would have seen no shot at him being innocent in all likelihood. Naz would have been gone then for life without even a chance. We should squirm at that notion. “The Night Of” makes you squirm a lot! No matter what your belief system, its a harsh, unvarnished glimpse into the criminal defense system.

 


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