Warning: This post contains spoilers for season 1, and potentially season 2, of the HBO limited series The Night Of.
With the final episode of The Night Of behind us, we're already missing it. There are few shows that touch on so many different aspects of the justice system. If you're totally at a loss looking any show that could possibly compare to the brilliance of The Night Of, then don't worry. We have a plan for you. In our attempts to find a suitable series to consider, we decided to look back at the original BBC program, Criminal Justice, that inspired The Night Of's plot and characters. Writers Steve Zaillian and Richard Price followed the pacing, the characters' narratives, and the ending of the series pretty closely. The victim, the drugs, the eczema — it's all there. And guess what? There's also a second season that was released in October of 2009. The plot of Criminal Justice season 2 is completely different than season 1, and it may even indicate the direction that writers of The Night Of may go, considering BBC brought the series back as an anthology. This makes it the BBC version the perfect option to fill that Nasir Khan-shaped hole in your life. Having only watched tidbits of season 2, it looks (dare I say) even more interesting than Naz's intense trials and tribulations. The second season follows Juliet Miller, a pregnant mother and wife who stabs her husband, Joe Miller, a prominent lawyer, in their home. It's unclear why Juliet would do such a thing; in a clip, even her daughter asks why she'd do it. Joe eventually dies from his wounds, and his wife is charged with murder. I won't give away the ending, but twists and turns are reminiscent of Naz's case. Where The Night Of touched on racism and classism, this female-focused narrative exposes a new type of victim and villain. It looks at what it means to be a woman in an abusive relationship, stifled financially and physically by a seemingly happy life that is everything but. The dynamic of a woman's prison, too, is extremely different than Naz's time in Rikers. Fingers crossed this gets the HBO treatment, too. Check out the trailer below, and stream it on Hulu or BBC, and get to bingeing.
With the final episode of The Night Of behind us, we're already missing it. There are few shows that touch on so many different aspects of the justice system. If you're totally at a loss looking any show that could possibly compare to the brilliance of The Night Of, then don't worry. We have a plan for you. In our attempts to find a suitable series to consider, we decided to look back at the original BBC program, Criminal Justice, that inspired The Night Of's plot and characters. Writers Steve Zaillian and Richard Price followed the pacing, the characters' narratives, and the ending of the series pretty closely. The victim, the drugs, the eczema — it's all there. And guess what? There's also a second season that was released in October of 2009. The plot of Criminal Justice season 2 is completely different than season 1, and it may even indicate the direction that writers of The Night Of may go, considering BBC brought the series back as an anthology. This makes it the BBC version the perfect option to fill that Nasir Khan-shaped hole in your life. Having only watched tidbits of season 2, it looks (dare I say) even more interesting than Naz's intense trials and tribulations. The second season follows Juliet Miller, a pregnant mother and wife who stabs her husband, Joe Miller, a prominent lawyer, in their home. It's unclear why Juliet would do such a thing; in a clip, even her daughter asks why she'd do it. Joe eventually dies from his wounds, and his wife is charged with murder. I won't give away the ending, but twists and turns are reminiscent of Naz's case. Where The Night Of touched on racism and classism, this female-focused narrative exposes a new type of victim and villain. It looks at what it means to be a woman in an abusive relationship, stifled financially and physically by a seemingly happy life that is everything but. The dynamic of a woman's prison, too, is extremely different than Naz's time in Rikers. Fingers crossed this gets the HBO treatment, too. Check out the trailer below, and stream it on Hulu or BBC, and get to bingeing.