Ranking Every HBO Miniseries From Worst To Best
5. The Night Of
The heartbreakingly open face of Riz Ahmed has rarely been put to better use than it is here, in this 2016 adaptation of British series Criminal Justice. Ahmed plays Naz Khan, a student accused of murder after waking up to find the woman he went home with stabbed to death.
From there, it descends into the stuff of nightmares. Khan is quickly arrested, and finds the legal system a cruel and terrifying beast against which to contend. As a Pakistani-American, there are racial and religious tensions bubbling from the off. John Turturro plays Khan’s lawyer, but the situation often appears untenable.
To make matters worse for us, the audience, we’re never sure precisely where we’re headed, exactly who to believe. Naz Khan protests his innocence, tells us a story we want to believe, but there are inconsistencies, facts that never quite add up.
Ahmed’s Emmy for his leading role was more than deserved, and the most poignantly gripping part of the series is watching him deteriorate as he passes through the system, waiting for answers of one kind or another. It’s a legal drama that turns into more of a horror story.