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.
 

Sharp Objects (2018)

Yes, there is a twist at the end. No, the preceding episodes are not worth the payoff. The first six episodes are excruciatingly slow and uneventful. The last two episodes pick up, but it is already too late. All of the characters are unlikable creepy crazies. It is very dark. The whole rural southern gothic vibe is quite off-putting, as is the racism and homophobia and Confederacy paraphernalia. The twist is good but it's so last minute that we don't actually get enough explanation to be satisfied. We don't get her motivations, or how the cheerleader is involved, or how she's so freakishly strong.  The editing style was too quick for me. There are lots of hidden words that I missed. There are time jumps that are not clear cause Amy Adams looks exactly the same. There are short hallucinations that are easy to miss. We often don't know what we're seeing. It's all intentionally disorienting and I don't like being disoriented. The music choices are interesting. Why do they use the wistful Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a beautiful, colorful French musical? It doesn't fit at all.