HBO’s new miniseries has a Pakistani killer at the forefront

HBO’s upcoming miniseries titled The Night Of, which is scheduled to hit the airwaves on July 10, has TV fanatics going gaga ever since its first episode released on HBO Go for online streaming. The eight-part procedural series revolves around a fictitious New York City murder and the accused killer’s eight-hour long, grueling struggle against the criminal justice system.

The Night Of follows the life of Pakistani-American college student Nasir Khan (Riz Ahmed) who has a chance encounter with a pretty, young woman Andrea (Sofia Black-De’Elia) while on a random, middle-of-the-night excursion in Manhattan in his dad’s cab. The meeting leads the two of them into spending a night together which turns into Nasir’s worst nightmare by next morning – he wakes up to a dead Andrea lying by her side. Naturally everyone assumes he is the killer (no points for guessing) and he lands up in jail where the system has little empathy and patience for him. From there on, it’s all in the hands of his quick-witted lawyer, Jack Stone, played by John Turturro.

Vulture describes the show as “a tragedy about a society that punishes itself by signing off on a hobbled system of crime and punishment that creates more frustration and sadness than justice.” One can’t help but wonder American television’s increasing fascination with Muslim, South Asian criminals (Read: Homeland, Quantico). While one has to wait to find out how stereotyped is the depiction of Riz’ character in the series, it’s frustrating to know that the accused is very conveniently a Pakistani and a Muslim and of course, the son of a cab driver. While on one end, Hollywood continues its discrimination towards minorities by casting white actors for regional characters like in the case of Rumi, American television doesn’t seem to be offering much relief either by feeding into stereotypical mindsets.