SPOILERS: The Night Of is Over!

And I’m okay with that.

If you haven’t checked out 'The Night Of', and you are a fan of the shows The Wire and/or Boardwalk Empire, I would highly recommend tuning in.

I want to first discuss what I enjoyed about the finale and what I didn’t like. The performances of John Turturro (Jack Stone), Bill Camp (Detective Sergeant Dennis Box), and Jeannie Berlin (Helen) were all exceptional. I enjoyed Turturro’s closing defense and his resigned acceptance to his fate. He thought this case would be a ticket out of his life - which, spoilers, it wasn’t. However he seemed to have come to terms with that. This was displayed exceptionally in the conversation that he had with Naz (portrayed by Riz Ahmed) in the coffee shop. I also liked the quasi-interrogation that Bill Camp has with the suspected killer Ray, (portrayed by Paulo Costanzo) - it was excellent and done in a very unique way. He even commented on the fact that it wasn’t like a standard interrogation that we have seen before, as he didn’t arrest him afterwards and literally told him to leave. Finally, I loved Helen’s cross examination of Naz as it seemed truly realistic. She seemed at home in that court room and really wanted to slam dunk this case with this cross.

I would of liked to have included Amara Karan (Chandra) as one of my favorite characters as well but the character was forced down a path that I sometimes didn't enjoy. I did not like the choices that both Naz and Chandra made throughout the finale and in nearly every other episode leading up to the finale. She was a rookie attorney, I completed understand that, but that did not explain why the kiss happened, we as the audience saw very little interaction between these two individuals, and why she was so enamored with him she felt the need to smuggle in drugs for him. On that note, why didn’t Naz check with Freddy (portrayed by Michael K. Williams) about the location of cameras. He assumed that there were none in that room, given the kiss and the drug smuggling, presumably, Freddy would have known about them.

The ineptitude of the police department really brought me out of this show as well. Nobody thought until the final hour that it was important to determine who owned the building and where Andrea (Sofia Black-D'Elia) was coming from? Really? I felt like they were so caught up with Naz to just want to make sure they had a perfectly sealed case - why would they still want to determine the whereabouts of the victim prior to her death?

I also had a problem with the portrayal of the prison setting, which appeared to be a place in time where those who were already convicted were mingling amongst those who had an open court case with freedom to move about. Typically, this is not the case at Riker’s Island. Individuals who are sentenced, typically, move upstate, especially if they are sentenced to a felony with a lot of time. They wouldn’t be hanging out with those who were in their for minor drug trafficking charges unless everyone had an open court case, which Freddy did not seem to have.

So, in summary, I’m glad the show is over. I’m glad it was only 8 episodes and while it began on a strong note it ended on a much lower one. I would say if you haven’t seen Boardwalk Empire or The Wire, then check those out first before getting into The Night Of.