First, if not a
disclaimer, at least a mea culpa.
I’ve been a Richard Price fan for many decades, having read The Wanderers upon
its original release in 1974. Thus, the criticism I offer now is born of
disappointment, not closely-held malice. The
Night Of, Price’s relatively recent HBO miniseries, so fails any standard
of authenticity, I suspect that its creators held their viewers in literal contempt.
I could begin with the two zhlubs (superb
actors both) cast as prosecutor and defense attorney. Their like is not to be
found in a New York City courtroom. And that’s especially true of prosecutors
assigned to high-profile murder trials. These trials, by the way, are not
conducted in what appears to be the back room of a Long Island City warehouse.
Price had to know this.
Most commonly,
in works of this type, we know if the accused is guilty. Not here. The allure
of The Night Of rests on our not
being sure. We want to believe in Nasir Khan’s innocence, but the evidence
compiled by the prosecution is so overwhelming that his first lawyer recommends
he accept a deal. He’ll plead guilty to the crime of manslaughter and pass the
next fifteen years in a maximum-security prison. Price works this theme to the
very end. Even when the prosecution, after a hung jury, declines to re-try Naz,
we’re still not sure that he’s innocent. (Just as an aside, Price’s A.D.A makes
this decision a few minutes after the jury returns. No prosecutor has this
power. In a high-profile murder case, the District Attorney would make the
final decision after weighing all the political implications.)
Here’s the bad
news. Naz’s guilt or innocence should have been established at the time of his
arrest. The victim was stabbed more than twenty times. Each time a bloody knife
rises and falls, drops of blood are released. These drops, when they strike any
surface, including Naz’s body and clothing, leave distinctive patterns that can
easily be determined by forensic examiners. Did these patterns appear on Naz’s
body and clothing? The defendant’s clothing was bagged at the time of his arrest,
examination being the whole point, yet somehow the condition of his shirt and
pants, his shoes and socks, wasn’t raised at his trial, not by the prosecution
or the defense. There’s no wiggle room here. Andrea’s killer could no more
avoid the blood thrown off by the rising and falling knife than the bed and the
walls. If drops of Andrea’s blood were found on Naz’s clothes or body, he would
certainly be guilty. If not, he would be as certainly innocent. The issue
should have been determined, as I said, at the time of Naz’s arrest.
I’m used to a
very low level in authenticity from broadcast television. The courtroom
procedure in Law and Order, for
example, bore no resemblance to the procedure in a New York courtroom. In fact,
it was only slightly more authentic than the flying forensics in a typical CSI
episode. But that’s cool. As I’ve already said, my expectations, when it comes
to broadcast television, are minimal at best. I expected more, however, from
HBO, and especially from Ricard Price. I find his performance disappointing, of
course, but not as disappointing as the terrific ratings this show garnered on
websites like Rotten Tomatoes. I read many of the reviews posted on Rotten
Tomatoes, enough to be sure their authors hadn’t spotted this very obvious hole
in The Night Of’s plot. Did Price and
his partner, Steven Zaillian, cynically exploit viewer ignorance? Maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe not. But
Richard Price has put more than four decades of his life into the crime-and-punishment
game. He could not have missed something as obviously important as the
defendant’s body and clothing. The omission had to be deliberate. More the
shame in that.
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