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This HBO miniseries puts a Pakistani on trial for murder

This HBO miniseries puts a Pakistani on trial for murder

The series is an adaptation of the 2008 BBC series, Criminal Justice
01 Jul, 2016

HBO's new miniseries The Night of has a Pakistani for a main character.

The show is based on the 2008 BBC series Criminal Justice and is about a young Pakistani college student accused of murder. The central character borrows his father’s taxi and picks up an attractive woman. After a night of partying, he wakes up to find her stabbed to death in her bed.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the creators of the new version, Steve Zaillian and Richard Price, decided to adapt the show in America. But apart from moving the mystery to New York, they also changed the central character from a white man to the son of Pakistani immigrants.

Zaillian credits Price for this switch. “In the British series he’s a white kid because most of the cabdrivers are white. Most of the cabdrivers in New York City are not,” says Zaillian. “That one decision affected the whole show.”

Price has visited Lahore many times for his wife's, novelist Lorraine Adams, research. He chose to keep the central character a Pakistani because he knew more about Pakistanis than any other ethnicity the character may have belonged to.

Actor Riz Ahmed, who was in Nightcrawler and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, will be portraying Naz, a college student who is the accused killer.

Comments

Sara Jul 01, 2016 02:49pm
Hope it will not be another Homeland series, full of senseless, ridiculous, propaganda about Pakistanis and the life in urban Pakistan.
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Bilal Jul 01, 2016 05:40pm
It is not mindless like homeland it is a better series and very intriguing.
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Khwarezmi Jul 01, 2016 07:45pm
I saw the first episode and liked it a lot. Riz Ahmed is also part of the upcoming new Star Wars movie. I can hardly wait :)
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