6 0 April 2017
'The Night Of' complicates conventional scriptwriting
formulas. The lawyer saves the cat, but the cat saves
him. When Naz gets his saviour back all characters
are freed to empathise, and survive.
by Cormac Deane
Movie-scriptwriting
manual ‘Save
the Cat’ advises
to insert a scene
early in your script
where the hero
does something –
like saving a cat –
that makes us like
him
Saving
the Cat
I
N THE first episode of HBO’s recent TV murder series,
‘The Night Of’, a wealthy young New Yorker is
stabbed to death in her bed after a night of drink and
drugs with the driver of a cab that she happens to
get into. He’s a New Yorker too, but he’s from a Paki-
stani background and he has none of her privilege or
wealth. We know from the outset that he, Naz, is not the
killer, and we have little expectation at any point that the
real killer will be exposed.
For a murder series, then, it gives us little in the way
of whodunnit resolution. The real story here, in fact, is
the dysfunction of a legal system that is dedicated to
procedure and protocol, and fully uninterested in truth
or justice. The only thing that Naz has going for him is
that he didn’t do it, and it is quickly made clear to him
that this is irrelevant. Above all, his lawyer cynically and
truthfully tells him, Naz has to learn to keep his mouth
shut. Anything he says is evidence, the lawyer warns,
and it will be taken down and used against him.
It fits that it’s the lawyer, John Stone, who is at the
centre of this world of ‘whatever you say, say nothing’.
Played with aplomb by John Turturro, he is a shambolic
bottom-feeder of the criminal justice system, an expert
in advising clients who are on minor charges to plea bar
-
gain, and an expert in avoiding going to trial. His cheesy
advertisements in the subway promise “No fee until
you’re free” and he hands out his glossy calling card at
every opportunity. He’s the wrong lawyer for Naz, who
knows no better, but he’s the right man.
He’s the right man because he knows what it is to
suffer. This is literally, prominently, the case. John
Stone suffers from debilitating eczema, particularly on
his feet, causing him to wear sandals wherever he goes,
a fact which nobody seems to be able to ignore. His
search for a treatment for his suffering comprises a sig-
nificant subplot throughout the series, and practically
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