The Night Of

I saw the 1st episode…., it was very good.

I like Turturro’s work (Do the Right Thing, Game Show, etc)

the interrogation scenes have been good….

PA,…. I think the limo driver that picked up the cigarette butt that the victim through out the taxi window did it…but only the cat truly knows…..

I’m kinda getting sick of Turturro wrapping his feet in plastic wrap every episode, but he still is my favorite character of the show…..

time to smuggle more heroine……prison life is brutal….I would never last.

It’s very good. Our “justice” system needs to be completely turned on its head.

Lots of interesting characters. Really good writing and acting. The Freddy Knight character has become a compelling figure, and bsically Naz’s everything right now. The parents are the unsuspecting tragic victims who will pay for their son’s mistakes for the rest of their lives. The Muslim angle has been a deftly woven plot line You could understand Naz’s anger issues if he was treated like a terrorist by other students after 9/11. Then, there’s Det. Box, who you at times view sympathetically and critically. Should he have done more to investigated the crime? Sure. Can you blame him for coming to the conclusion that the evidence points to Naz? Probably not. After all, not everyone can be Det. Colombo.

https://medium.com/the-night-of/the-cat-525630bb1244#.ufe7jvm7d

The Cat

Steven Zaillian: The cat in The Night Of has no name, not even “Andrea’s cat.” At most, it’s referred to in dialog as “her cat,” but more often just “the cat” or “it.” This was intentional.

At the beginning, there were no grand designs for the cat as a character. It was there in the first episode to establish in a natural way that Naz has asthma and uses an inhaler. That and one other thing.

But once the cat had served its purpose, then what? You can’t just forget about it, have it disappear, thank you for helping with plot, now goodbye. Its owner has been killed, but it’s still around. What do you do with it now?

Instead of abandoning it, perhaps it could be integrated into the story. Like other characters, it too had suffered loss. What might happen to the pet of a murder victim who has no close family? Maybe it could become involved in attorney John Stone’s story.

Stone does what most people who are allergic to cats would do with a stray in this situation. He takes it to an animal shelter and begins asking around if someone wants to adopt it.

When he, and we, first see the shelter, its stark walls and cages resemble a prison cellblock. This, too, was intentional. And as the cat with no name is carried by a volunteer past the chain-link cages housing loud dogs, it’s an experience not unlike Naz’s when he’s first taken into Rikers by a corrections officer. The outlook for both of them is grim.

From there it was a matter of asking, “now what,” “what if,” and “then what,” and “then what if.” This is what writing is.

The Real Cat

How do you choose a cat actor? How do you audition cats? I certainly wasn’t going to have them come in and do scenes. All I could think of was to do what I’d do if I were looking to adopt one — to meet and spend some time with them as you would at a shelter, to try to get a feel for their personalities, and, in this case, their comfort around people.

Unlike the cat in the story, the real cat, of course, has a name. His name is Bam Bam, and he was brought to meet me by Diane Bove and Dave Frischenmeyer. Bam Bam was adorable and engaging and expressive — and entirely unimpressed with all the activity on a film set.

I fell for Bam Bam right away, and so did everyone else, no one more so than John Turturro, which was important, obviously, since John would be acting with Bam Bam in far more scenes than anyone else. He was very fond of Bam Bam.

There are actors who people say are naturals. I would say there are also animal actors who are naturals. Bam Bam was not some circus cat trained to jump through hoops; Bam Bam was a natural actor. All you had to do was create a nice environment for Bam Bam, turn the cameras on, and marvel at his work.

We all adored him.