TV MVP: Riz Ahmed in "The Night Of"
Friday, July 22, 2016 at 11:29AM Chris Feil on HBO's latest buzzy drama...
HBO has gotten back into the crime genre with the launch of new limited series The Night Of. Adapted from the BBC's Criminal Justice, the series has more than a few shades of Serial thrown in as it examines the gruesome murder at its center. While the new series has already established a patient fascination with glacial detail, what has kept it from becoming a flat procedural is the fascinating performance by Riz Ahmed as murder suspect Naz.
Just as he served up a humane human foil to Jake Gyllenhaal's psychopath in Nightcrawler, Ahmed brings a necessary soulfulness to this otherwise cold world in The Night Of. In the lead up to and fallout from the crime, Naz makes an endless string of bad decisions that the actor effortlessly makes believable. He is a wounded deer in the headlights, alternating masked sexual nerves, outsiderness, and blind panic. If the script makes Naz out to be a naive dope, then it's to Ahmed's credit that he finds the honesty about why he would willfully put himself in an obviously toxic situation.
With an insurmountable amount of evidence against him and a convenient blackout during the murder, it's the raw believability of the actor that drives our doubt about Naz's guilt...
Even that is complicated by the wavering conviction that Ahmed infuses into the performance, frazzled not just by the uncertainty of what is to come but also by the uncertainty of what he might already have done. Naz is a man of few words so the performance is a purely lived-in, unmannered cloud of tense physical minutiae - Ahmed's silences are the most invigorating moments of the show's meticulous first two episodes.
Complaints that the show is simply an expensive Law & Order may be premature considering it has only just begun, especially as Ahmed is finding its dark humanity among the gloom. The mood and high gloss production suggest that HBO is chasing the audience crime saga addiction that made True Detective's first season so successful, but even Night's soft attempts at race relation examination lack a certain charge to make the show a fresh must watch. The second episode is particularly sluggish but it still comes alive every time the lead actor is on the screen. There is promise for greatness among the other cast members, especially Bill Camp as the officer investigating Naz, and strong performers like John Turturro, Jeannie Berlin, and A Separation's Peyman Moaadi also on hand. For now, though, Ahmed's the reason you can't miss an episode.
The 33 year old British actor has big budget supporting roles in the forthcoming Rogue One and Jason Bourne, but here you can see his incredibly watchable leading man potential. He is a performer you want to root for and The Night Of not only taps into that, it turns it on its head.
The Night Of continues Sunday nights on HBO.
Reader Comments (4)
I adore Riz Ahmed.... he took what could've been a throwaway part in Nightcrawler and added so much depth to it. He should've got more acclaim for that role. <3
Riz was absolutely mesmerizing in Nightcrawler. The fact he didn't get an Oscar nomination for that role is criminal.
Ugh. LOVE HIM. He was insanely arresting in reluctant fundamentalist, which ended up being so so different from his turns in Four Lions and, especially, Nightcrawler. I can't wait to see whatever he does next.
Riz! I've loved him since Ill Manors. What a talent! He should be far more recognized than he is and I feel like every article/interview I've read about him always states this fact. Hope he keeps rising and getting acclaim.