It’s finally reached a turning point.
But of course it has. We’re halfway through the show, halfway through the dramatic arc, and it’s great to finally see Naz making concrete choices.
In the previous episode, Naz was approached by Freddy, the top dog at Riker’s, with a proposal of protection. Naz, of course, was reluctant to take it. But he had to rethink when his cot was set ablaze one night when he was in the restroom.
In this episode, “The Art of War,” Naz has made a new friend, Calvin Hart (Ashley Thomas), who teaches him the ins and outs of prison life (yes, again, but he seems more wiser than the last guy). Calvin tries to steer Naz away from Freddy, which seems wise, as Freddy is beginning to seem more and more of questionable character.
There’s also the matter of Naz’s trial and the effects on his family. But I don’t want to spoil too much of that (the last scene of the Naz in the courtroom is fantastic). Instead, I’ll just reiterate that the show is great. It’s incredibly well executed, but there are some niggling problems that have been bothering me throughout its run.
To get to these issues, I’ll start by mentioning a scene where we see Freddy in the gym where Naz is working out. He nearly beats half to death a guy who had the misfortune of unintentionally crossing him.
Freddy’s character started out as delightfully ambiguous, a mentor figure for Naz with a malevolent undertone. While he’s fleshed out here (and Michael Kenneth Williams gives as fine a performance as he’s ever given), Freddy has started to feel dangerously predictable. Naz’s new friend warning him against Freddy sets up a great conflict and dichotomy, a shifting schema of the social order in prison. But now he’s (for me, at least) turning into a known quantity.
Take the scene where Freddy nearly kills the man. This falls into a trope I’ve noticed that’s especially prevalent in television, and especially prevalent on HBO. It’s the villain (usually) who’s crazy. Who’s unhinged. They’re so bad that the show runners are going to rub it in our faces by giving us a scene of extreme brutality on their part. And I’m getting a little tired of it. Today, violence isn’t shocking. Brutality doesn’t rattle. So it always feels like a copout when that is the purpose it’s meant to serve.
For as much as I’m enjoying The Night Of and am continuing to look forward to new episode, it’s this type of thing that’s indicative of a larger problem I’m having with the show: apart from the central dramatic question of Naz’s fate in the courts, so much of the conflict comes and goes.
The writers set up these interesting dilemmas and moral quandaries, but then they are solved or evaporate. In the course of this one episode, the issue of Freddy just goes away. We know that Naz is about to make a deal with the devil. We’ve seen the way he handles people who have crossed him. He’s become a known quantity instead of an enigma.
And I get it. I do. It’s an eight episode series that we’re already halfway through, so there’s not the time to spend and linger — the plot must go on. However, at various points, the show just seems to be undermining its most interesting elements.
To end my thoughts with a more qualitative recap, “The Art of War” was overall the weakest episode so far. It had highs that were as high as the show has had, but they were few and far between. Instead, it felt like the most by-the-numbers, taking a great setup and moving it towards predictability.
But hey. We’ve still got four more episodes, so it could turn around.
