Ripley (2024)

The Steven Zaillian miniseries adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley is stunning. Shot in crisp black and white, it looks unlike anything else Netflix has ever made. Cinematography Robert Elswit deserves his Emmy for this. He has an Oscar for There Will Be Blood, and was nominated for another black-and-white project Good Night, and Good Luck. Zaillian also won an Emmy for directing. He does an incredible job at building suspense. The interesting shots and the mise-en-scene say so much without words. And the production design (and location scouting) is phenomenal. From episode 1 in 1960s New York to Roma and Atrani and Napoli and Palermo and Venezia, we are completely transported.  Those palazzi are to die for. The old American Express travel offices take you to a past when international travel was limited to the wealthy--who knew all the random services they used to offer!

I like the Anthony Minghella adaptation, but this is arguably better, perhaps with the lone exception of Dickie and Marge. I don't think Johnny Flynn nor Dakota Fanning are very compelling. They don't ooze the pretty boy allure of Jude Law. Andrew Scott makes the Ripley character his own. His Italian is very passable. I watched the first 6 episodes without subtitles, not realizing that there should've been subtitles. I thought I was supposed to be in Ripley's head not understanding the language, but as his Italian got a lot better, the subtitles still weren't appearing. I actually understood probably 75% of the Italian anyways; I at least got the gist of it. It wasn't until episode 6, which is almost entirely in Italian, that started to get more complex for my skill level. The real standout for me is Maurizio Lombardi, who plays Inspector Ravini. His Italian-accented English is so good. And his Italian is spoken so clearly, I could follow everything he was saying.

I think this version sort of de-emphasizes the themes of homosexuality and class and race. And I don't mind that. This is just a totally different standalone adaptation. It's slow, dragging out for 8 episodes whereas the movie runs just over 2 hours. It luxuriates in its slowness, building suspense and allowing all the consequences to unfold. It's funny at times, though subtle. And though it went over my head a little at first, I liked the Caravaggio analogy. His signature chiaroscuro is a clear inspiration for the look of the show. 

The Night Of (2016)

The word that immediately comes to mind is harrowing. It's just absolutely devastating. The first episode is especially tense. My fists were clenched the whole episode in dread and anticipation. The brilliance of The Night Of is that despite the mood of impending doom that pervades the whole series, there are moments of levity. Morgan drew a good comparison to the Good Wife, with its eccentric cast of recurring lawyers and judges (John Turturro is great fun).  I think the obvious comparison is to When They See Us, also about the false accusation of a young man of color in the murder of a white woman and an ensuing look at the New York criminal justice system. He is first prosecuted in the media, and then he is forced to learn to adapt to prison life. Riz Ahmed is transformative as Nasir. He's one of the most exciting young actors today. The standard of proof in a criminal case is beyond a reasonable doubt. To me, there was plenty of room for doubt, but I was sure the jury wouldn't see it (Though the mystery is resolved by the end, it's never really about who did it. It's about whether the system will punish him anyways). I was expecting that kind of devastating ending. I was so relieved when the jury declared a mistrial and the prosecutor did the right thing. Her closing statement was rife with tension, unsure if she'd follow through on what she knew to be wrong. That said, the trial seemed unrealistic, but better for TV. It seemed like a lot of the discovery was unreasonably late, and the direct examinations sounded more like cross.