HBO's The Night Of: 8 Reasons It's The New True Detective
5. Location, Location, Location
One of the key players in making the first season of True Detective work so well was the Louisiana setting. Fukunaga captured it perfectly, and it served almost like a part of the supporting cast, not just a backdrop to the events but an intrinsic, living part of them. Season 2 didn't quite make as much of its Los Angeles setting, but there were moments where it impressively showed its litany of highways and dark underbelly.
The Night Of does something similar with New York, using it as more than just the setting by allowing it to help shape and form the narrative and its characters.
The show was shot entirely in New York, and the people who fill it are all very much New Yorkers. We journey through its grid of streets, take a ride on the subway, sit underneath the George Washington Bridge. It examines the New York justice system, and it takes a look at the various layers of the city and its divisions, through race, class, and power. It's a crime story, but it's also very much a New York one.