I saw The Night Of. My wife and I joked that it really should have been called "The Night of Really Poor Decisions" because the title character just does so many incredibly stupid things in quick succession. However, given his situation, age, and background, it actually doesn't stretch belief that he could make such a awful mess of things, but it is a bit like watching a trainwreck (in an entertaining way).
Although it's not among my top shows on HBO, I liked it. The actors did a great job, and my main complaint is that a couple of the plot threads don't seem to go anywhere. But ... if you want a detailed look at how harrowing the US criminal justice system can be for even an innocent person (and their family) it does an excellent job of showing that.
Being arrested for a crime in the US (not convicted, mind you, simply arrested) can be a life ender if you don't have the money to pay for bail, or the judge denies bail. Even an innocent person may spend months or years in a dangerous prison like Rikers Island waiting for their trial, due to overcrowding in the local jails. Poor families often go broke simply trying to pay for competent legal counsel, without which, even if the person arrested is innocent, they may still up accepting a plea bargain and going to jail anyway.
The show makes an excellent argument that the way we handle criminal prosecution and incarceration in the US is often more likely to make people criminals, not reform them, especially if those people are unfortunate enough to be poor.
So, once you've watched both Westworld and Stranger Things (both of which I highly recommend!), if you're still interested, give The Night Of a watch.
Trivia: The Night Of was supposed to come out six years ago, and much of it was filmed then. They had filmed the first episode, with James Gandolfini (from The Sopranos) playing the lawyer and also acting an an Executive Producer. Then, Gandolfini died.
That threw the project into limbo, and eventually, John Turtorro, a good friend of Gandolfini's, agreed to take over the role of the lawyer. So from start to finish, The Night Of took like six to seven years because HBO and the cast were figuring out how/if they wanted to proceed without Gandolfini.
