User Reviews

I was amazed to see this show that I didn't notice before has a rating 9 on IMDb so I watched the first episode and it was very exquisite, Drama at it's best and the investigation,tension,the murder,mystery it has everything you need.The pilot was very long (1hr 20min) but it felt much shorter, it was tense from start to finish, in the sense of the story it was actually very predictable, but it was the acting and how the story was portrayed that made it so gripping and watchable. Not a second went by where my attention wasn't glued to the TV screen. What really made me love the pilot was how REAL the story felt, there wasn't a moment that made me think that it was a stupid story, it felt REAL. The acting was superb by everyone, the cinematography was perfect with it's overall dark tone and lighting, and the music just set the scene playing in the background to the tone of the show. Overall If you are looking for new best crime drama series of 2016 here it is HBO did it again...

The setting is Jackson Heights, Queens. The protagonist is a young college math student named Nasir "Naz" Khan. And the "night of" in the film's title is precisely October 24, 2014. The story that unfolds is a nightmare for young Naz, but he is not a character out of a story by Franz Kafka. Rather, he makes mistakes which go beyond youthful, innocent transgressions.

First, Naz takes his dad's cab without his permission, in order to attend a party thrown by the Kings basketball team. While parked with his taxi cab operation light on, a young woman enters the vehicle and requests to to be taken to the beach. Naz makes the fatal mistake of driving her uptown in Manhattan. He takes a pill that the woman offers him. They return to her home on West 87th Street, where they take shots and cocaine. While under the influence, Naz takes a dare to stab the table with a large knife with the blade landing between his fingers. When he plays the game with the woman's hand, her cuts her badly. The next part of the evening is a blur with sex in her bedroom followed by Naz waking up in another part of the house. When he wakes up, discovers the dead body of the woman whose name he still does not know, he races out of the house and is promptly arrested for making an illegal left turn.

At the police station, a mountain of evidence is discovered that implicates Naz as the murderer of Andrea Cornish. Detective Box is a smooth interrogator, who questions Naz, prior to having his first stroke of good luck for the evening: hustling attorney John "Johnny the Red" Stone is willing to take his case.

Much of the action of this first episode occurs in police headquarters. The dialogue is crisp with such police jargon as "cop a squat" for "sit down." Lively banter between Detective Box and the eyewitness Trevor keeps the dialogue moving at a brisk pace. While it is inevitable to feel some empathy for Naz, the film is successful in making the situation more ambiguous than a straightforward melodrama. The program began in a classroom with the professor discussing Stokes' mathematical theorem, which seems appropriate as the audience seeks to sort out the details like an equation in calculus. Perhaps the most important clue in this first episode is when Andrea Cornish tells Naz that she cannot spend the night alone, suggesting that she afraid that she may be murdered.

THE NIGHT OF: Episode 1- THE BEACH follows Nasir "Naz" Khan (Riz Ahmed) is a naive, or maybe flat out dumb ass is more appropriate, Pakistani-American college student living in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York who, after being unable to procure a ride, borrows his father's taxi to attend a popular.

Problem one; the cab's "on duty" light is on, and he can't figure out how to turn it off. This leads to a series of unhappy passengers who he refuses rides to.

Problem two; this leads to meeting Andrea Cornish (Sofia Black D'Elia) who wants a ride to the beach. Being both a woman, and attractive he doesn't say 'no.' It actually doesn't take long for Naz to tell Andrea, who had caught the quick blurb "This isn't my cab." when they first met, the truth. Instead of Naz attending the party, Naz and Andrea go to the river and chat which leads to a seeming 'emotional connection', drugs, alcohol, and sex at her place in the Upper West Side with a woman who turns out to be both mysterious and nuts.

Problem three; he wakes up the next morning sitting at the kitchen table. He wanders back into the bedroom to get dressed only to find Andrea stabbed to death. He panics, and runs, but the cab is locked, and he left the keys in the apartment, and now the main entrance of the building is also locked. He breaks back in, grabs his keys, and the knife (presumably the murder weapon), and flees again.

Problem four; he's pulled over by cops for ignoring a "no left turn" sign. They get pulled away to another call, taking Naz with them, without reading him his rights. The call they're pulled away to.., You guessed it The crime scene quickly becomes a circus all while Naz sits in the back of the police cruiser. When the lead detective shows up, Naz, who has not been linked to the crime is transferred to another car and taken to the police station.

Problem five; the cops who "arrested" him did so for a minor traffic violation (and possible DUI, although he's never tested) were just basically being jerks about it. The cops in the police car which takes Naz back to the station think Naz is a witness to the murder, but otherwise not linked to the crime, but Naz doesn't really know any of this.

Meanwhile, due to a racist exchange earlier in the evening with a twenty something, an eye witness puts Andrea with an "Arab" earlier in the evening who eventually positively identifies Naz. To make matters worse, his parents discover that he's not home, and begin to fear for his safety.

The first episode is a series of unfortunate, and unlucky events for Naz; a stew of bad choices, stupid twenty something horny kid, and a little Islamophobia. With the Miranda Rights never being explained, nor the right to an attorney, or a phone call-- all seems hopeless for this kid.

Naz, however, does have two things going for him; lead detective, Dennis Box (Bill Camp) is a fair guy. He doesn't necessarily believe Naz, but he isn't playing "bad cop" either. He's professional and courteous.

Without even asking for it, world weary lawyer, John Stone (John Turturro) takes his case. As he doesn't show up until the near the end of the episode, not much is yet known about Stone.

Other than the big mystery of who killed Andrea Cornish, the show is a drama focusing on a stupid kid caught up in an unfortunate situation. It's basically something that could have happened to anyone.

THE NIGHT OF, loosely based on the British Crime Drama, CRIMINAL JUSTICE (2008-2009), seems to be mostly a character driven piece more than a murder mystery. Sure there's the big 'who done it?', but it isn't what drives the story. Naz's plight does, at least for now.

Despite the fact that this kid does everything wrong, and some of the cops are a bit of a schmuck, it's a decent episode. Although, it doesn't really distinguish itself from any other crime/mystery/drama it's still worth the watch, at least for now.

Many things could have been better, but an excellent plot and a solid Riz Ahmed performance in the opener. Naz's logic's sound, why go to a party in the hopes of meeting some girl, when there's already a pretty girl in the back seat. He wasn't gonna get out of it regardless of being pulled over, but things escalate as it connects, becoming engrossing. The line "is she dead?" is bad, as he wouldn't of run if he wasn't sure of that and obviously he shouldn't know anything about it, making it glaring, but at least they cover it, so it's not left hanging there. Unfortunately the last part's a little deflating.

If you've listened to the podcast "Serial" then you've basically seen this episode. The concept is pretty much the same. That said, I loved "Serial." "The Beach" is a dark and mysterious series premiere that leaves you with a lot of questions. Just hoping that the series doesn't end on a cliffhanger the way "Serial" did.