Just finished HBO's the night of, here are some thoughts.
Overall it's a good, not great show. Probably around an 8/10. Something certainly worth watching with few bad moments but not a must watch either. The pilot is probably in top 5 episodes of TV, so much tension and thrills but the rest of the series is much slower and mostly a lot less satisfying.
I found the prison plot to be uninteresting for the most part. It felt like a different show where Nas was some tough prison guy who no longer cared about the trial and really didn't even maintain his innocence. Freddy was fine but also didn't make much of an impact. Take him out and the show barely changes for me.
I also find the whole tough guy "drug runner" Naz really hard to believe. Part of the reason the early portions of the show are so captivating is that we're watching an innocent guy make all these horrible mistakes that link him with the crime. It's exciting and hard to watch since we know he is a good guy who is the wrong place and has long odds against beating the charge. Yet, almost every episode after the first few, Naz does not appear to be a good guy. He has no problem getting people beat to death or even killed in prison, and even enjoy beating up people themselves. I could understand the peer pressure of doing drugs, but he gets addicted and continues them at the end. And a violent past is shown where he pushed kids down the stairs with no remorse. The vast majority of this is not very believable given the character we're originally shown and ultimately it makes Naz not especially likeable. At the end when he gets out, it's almost a lot less of a victory as we know he is not a great person. The way his character arc goes was really disappointing to me. I understand he had to make some of the decisions he made in prison (befriending freddy, allowing the gay guy to be killed, smuggling drugs), but he turns from a hardworking college student into a drug addict, a drug dealer, someone who despises his mother, and someone with seriously messed up violent tendencies who absolutely could kill someone down the road.
However, I thought his support characters were all excellent. John Stone is a great character, a genuinely good guy who simply usually doesn't represent innocent clients. He puts everything into Naz's cases to set him free, even when Naz shows extremely questionable morals. I also thought Chandra was a good person and her dedication to believing in Naz is really impressive. Naz's parents are great character's as well, especially his Dad who clearly has extremely strong family values and supports his son no matter what.
I had mixed feelings on some of the other characters. Andrea was obviously a very flawed individual, and it is also hard for me to believe Naz would get involved with her. Even if he did, it seems crazy he would do all the drugs he did. I really didn't like Det. Box, he knew he thought Naz was innocent, yet charged him anyway and only came around at the end because he called out for being a terrible cop. One good deed, even if it was what set him free at the end, does not redeem a lifetime of bad behavior. The prosecutor was also a bit of an a-hole as she was going to convict Naz even when she knew he was innocent. I also depised alison crowe, who was an awful person.
