HBO's "The Night Of" vs. BBC's "Criminal Justice"

[Drogo]

A place to discuss similarities and differences between HBO's series and the BBC series it was adapted from!

[Margherita Erdman]

Thanks Drogo! Now I guess we'll see if I'm alone talking to myself in here ;p

Random thoughts I have had since the first episode but which didn't fit the discussion absent a thread like this:

I think it's interesting that they've flipped the script on the racial dynamic between victim and accused, as well as played with age and social class — UK version, Criminal Justice, the girl was a person of color and the accused really was a boy, a naïve white boy in secondary school... Both were working class.

Stone seemed less opportunistic and more compassionate toward his client in the original — although totally pragmatic when it came to trial strategy — which is what holds the two versions together I think. Without the natural device of requiring both barrister and solicitor, I wonder how The Night Of will manage to incorporate the additional legal representation for Naz that is needed to move the plot forward — or if it will find some other way to free him besides the claim of legal malpractice because he has an affair with his young and beautiful lawyer?

For those wondering whether Criminal Justice provided an answer to whodunit — it absolutely did — in an extremely tightly plotted way entwined with the time spent in prison and the relationships developed there.

Dying to know who will assume the Pete Postlethwaite role in this version — really hope they won't do away with that character altogether!

Wishing the David Harewood character could have been played by — David Harewood.

[molshoop]

I've seen the original.  It is amazing what they did with just 5 episodes.  So, when I watch this show I'm almost timing

the atmospheric shots and interesting (meh) visuals.  I think a lot of it could be cut down.

 

Both versions certainly chose actors who had large, dark expressive eyes.

As a side note:  I've loved Ben Wishaw in everything I've seen him in.  I could, however, have done without seeing him naked.

 

I'm still not sure how the murderer managed to follow them to her home.

What do you think about the difference in the number of stab wounds?  One stab to the heart shows an efficient kill

to eliminate a witness.  The kind of overkill used in this show usually means it's personal and she knew her killer.

 

I've started to watch season two of Criminal Justice.  The first episode was a real mind bender.

[Margherita Erdman]

I've been wondering about the stabbing overkill in this one too and if that means they're going in a different direction with the resolution of the mystery. I do hope that this series follows the tone and general direction of the first in defying our natural desire for a conventional murder mystery/crime procedural (it's interesting to me how much this is already being debated in the regular episode threads).

It's been long enough I don't remember exactly how the killer identified the girl when he didn't catch her right after she witnessed the hit — I think either someone told him who she was (being that they were all mobbed up) or he caught sight of her returning with Ben Whishaw to her house that night — or maybe I just fanwanked it :)

I agree the atmospherics are slowing the pace, and I hope the cinematography on its own doesn't account for stretching the series length from 5 episodes to 8! I also hope that it doesn't mean a whole lot more time spent in the prison storyline (although I guess it's hard to imagine how it wouldn't), because as brilliantly as I thought all of that was done, it was a rough watch and constantly reminded me of Oz

iI haven't watched the 2nd series of Criminal Justice, though I'll get to it —  when I saw the first one it was the only one available on Netflix

Edited July 19, 2016 by Margherita Erdman
edited to clarify

[FemmyV]

On 7/19/2016 at 10:58 AM, Margherita Erdman said:

've been wondering about the stabbing overkill in this one too and if that means they're going in a different direction with the resolution of the mystery.

I just started watching tonight and almost regret wandering into this forum (spoilers), but, it's the fact of all that blood all over the place, and not any of it on Nas's clothes (or body underneath), combined with not one single character mentioning the lack of blood on his clothes, that had me leaning toward his innocence. What, no one checked the shower?

I'll have to look for the Ben Wishaw version when this has finished its run.

Edited July 23, 2016 by FemmyV

[Margherita Erdman]

The bazillion stab wounds and resulting extra-bloody crime scene is a different wrinkle in the American version for sure. I almost expected bloody gloves to turn up somewhere.

The lack of a sustained focus or critical analysis on forensics made more sense in the Criminal Justice series because IIRC it wasn't London, with its big city media attention and big city resources (or if it was London it was some kind of grotty suburban area, driving distance to a seaside), plus the accused had no money for expert witnesses, and the case seemed so very open & shut to the Crown.

Not to mention that even a soapy CSI-style focus on science! and facts! and logic! wouldn't serve the narrative end game to betray intimate connections and compromise personal integrity in order to secure a successful appeal for the defense; resolving the murder case based on the facts would in fact muffle the constantly banging anvil* about the inexorable gears of the system grinding on without regard for truth or justice.

* And I do mean that in the best possible way, not just to snark. I did think it was mostly very well done, and I am really looking forward to seeing the same themes unfold in an American context.

But the constant flashes of the super-bloody crime scene, the knife, etc., in the absence of any revelations of how the NYPD analysts are breaking that down — that is causing some serious cognitive dissonance for me too. This is (I think) the largest police department in the U.S., in the post-O.J. era — no way are they phoning this one in or jumping to conclusions.

On another topic previously raised here — it is noted in the articles that I posted in the media thread that Glenne Headly will be coming in as a high profile criminal defense attorney to assist or possibly try to shove Stone aside (presumably this is the Lindsay Duncan role), and that Headly's character will bring a young woman associate of South Asian descent with her to "connect" with Naz —

...so it looks like they will indeed retain the ill-fated romance angle between inmate and lawyer. That skeeved me out in the original and always felt wholly in the service of plot rather than organic to the characters. I could buy Ben Whishaw's character, in his youth and inexperience and the trauma of incarceration, crushing on his beautiful barrister (solicitor? I always get them confused), but it never seemed plausible to me that a smart, ambitious, worldly lawyer — who would have had to clear some considerable hurdles related to gender, beauty, ethnicity/race, religion, and youth, to reach her position and level of success, and mentored by a super-shark of a boss — would throw it all away on a jailhouse affair with a needy, dependent boy out of pity. You couldn't convince me that was some grand tragic passion!

Edited July 24, 2016 by Margherita Erdman

[Margherita Erdman]

On July 22, 2016 at 9:32 PM, FemmyV said:

I'll have to look for the Ben Wishaw version when this has finished its run.

Do! It's really good esp. if you are a Brit mystery/Wheel of Murder type junkie

[sorry for the double post — haven't figured out how to insert new quotes into old posts.]

[LisaBLingLing]

I have to think they are going to find a way for Naz to be found not guilty.  The American system wouldn't work fast enough to let an innocent man go, even after proven innocent, to get the same ending as Criminal Justice.  The wheels of justice turn way too slowly here.  Naz would still be in prison for years.  And if they do find him guilty then he gets out on whatever rule allowed Ben to get out in the English version - it's not true to the American system.  And isn't that the point of the show - to shine a light on what it's like to be caught up in the criminal justice system?  Or they may be going for a much darker ending than Criminal Justice.

[Margherita Erdman]

Yuck, for all they've changed from the source material, they're keeping the lawyer romance? I've come around to sjohnson's view, expressed in one of the episode threads, that in reimagining this for the U.S in 2014 NYC, the show's creators have inexplicably retained (and in some instances, like Stone's eczema, even expanded) elements that didn't quite work then or don't work in this context, while, just as mystifying, discarding elements that would have strengthened this version.

My $.02, worth what you paid for it.

[Wondering whether a stolen jailhouse kiss will amount to ineffective counsel though here, or just be another dropped plotline.]

Edited August 23, 2016 by Margherita Erdman
here not hee (no laughing matter!)