Stephen Graham's foreboding villain can't elevate this series above genre's complex and macabre conventions
If it wasn't for Adolescence star Stephen Graham's involvement as a mendacious, menacing serial killer, you likely wouldn't have heard of Nocturne.
asserted
you → elevate → Nocturne
Then again — this being an Apple TV show after all — you might not have heard of it anyway.
uncertain
you → hear → it
Not to say the streaming also-ran doesn't have at least some must-watch TV: just ask your friends obsessed with Slow Horses or obsessively awaiting just one more season of Severance.
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ran → say → Severance
But for every Ted Lasso, there seem to be two or three Cape Fears: standard streaming-fare releases that, while high budget and adequately designed, don't do much to demand viewing.
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that → seem → viewing
If you do choose to amble through, there is just enough serviceable storytelling and professionally lit scenes to lull you into habit-viewing.
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you → choose → viewing
It's only after several episodes of uninspired reveals you suddenly come to your senses and ask: "Wait, why am I watching this?"
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I → come → this
Which could function as the be-all-end-all description of Nocturne.
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Which → function → Nocturne
Adapted from crime novels The Sandman and Lazarus by Lars Kepler, it follows the conventions of its "Nordic noir" progenitors to a painful T.
First, we have a typically unsettling mystery.
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we → adapt → mystery
Who could be kidnapping people and burying them alive with just enough food and water to ensure they die slowly?
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they → kidnap → food
And why have they seemingly released young Michael (Landon Valentin), who is discovered stumbling back into town years after he and his sister disappeared?
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he → release → town
The No. 1 suspect would be Jurek Walter (Graham), given he was convicted for exactly these types of crimes long ago.
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he → give → crimes
However, aside from using his borderline supernatural powers of manipulation to convince his cellmate to bash his head into the wall, Walter hasn't had much of an opportunity to make a nuisance of himself lately.
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Walter → use → himself
And, of course, there's the fact he's been locked up in a psychiatric hospital for years.
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he → be → years
All are plagued by past trauma and lingering, all-consuming pain.
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All → plague → trauma
And all are involved in the complicated, interweaving plot to find Michael's sister Felicia before she runs out of time in her box below the dirt — assuming she's not already dead.
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she → involve → dirt
Transplanted from the books' Swedish setting to a small town in Pennsylvania, the brooding and bleak esthetics still jump to the fore.
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esthetics → transplant → fore
No one is allowed on screen without a broken and haunted expression.
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one → allow → expression
Not a day is allowed to go by without oppressive, grey colour-grading — making the sky appear to constantly be seconds away from releasing a torrential downpour.
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sky → allow → downpour
And not a single attempt at well-meaning altruism is allowed to go unpunished by a vindictive, cruel universe — at least in the first two episodes of the 10-part series released Friday.
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attempt → mean → series
For all its considerable cliché, Nocturne is elevated by Graham.
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Nocturne → elevate → Graham
There is something uniquely menacing about what is clearly a Hannibal Lecter descendant: a chameleonic svengali who at times appears so emotionally blunted you wonder if he's actually awake; and who, at other times, gives such an entrancing performance of empathy you genuinely begin to wonder how easily such a monster could come to control you.
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monster → be → you
On the one hand, Graham's committedly unsettling performance offers at least one somewhat original aspect to Nocturne; on the other, the torturously subdued evocation of evil doesn't do much for the show's drama.
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evocation → offer → drama
It may put Walter in the running against No Country for Old Men's Anton Chigurh as the most realistic psychopath put to screen; but it does not put him in the running as the most entertaining.
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it → put → entertaining
As the show ping-pongs between interconnected storylines — and refuses to go as campily overwrought as the Hannibal series, from which Nocturne obviously borrows — Walter's weird, clown-like guffaws and subtle hints at violent intentions tend to get lost in the weeds.
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guffaws → pe → weeds
What comes through more is the aimless voyeurism of the other genre Nocturne apes: true crime.
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Nocturne → come → genre
Graham himself detailed his research process as binging crime documentaries, while Apple TV opted to advertise the show in a similar way.
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TV → detail → way
"If you like true crime, you'll love this show," ad after ad claims; a testimonial Nocturne seems designed to satisfy.
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Nocturne → like → ad
That's because — completely separate from any debate about the ethics of mining crime for entertainment — the vast majority of true crime releases suffer from the same problem: gussying up incidental crimes as universally consequential and then artificially stretching out the mystery behind them to pad out an overlong end product.
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majority → mine → product
As more and more characters stumble into an improbably interwoven crime, Nocturne feels ever more like a documentary you just never bothered to finish.
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you → stumble → documentary
Assuming the series follows the general plot of the novels, it all leads to a laughably predictable reveal — one that would make skipping the most time-conscious choice.
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skipping → assume → reveal
With only two episodes available, it may be too early to say.
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it → say → ?
Nocturne's slow-burn start may evolve into something worthwhile, while Graham's performance and the tantalizing mystery at Nocturne's heart do offer just enough intrigue to draw you in.
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performance → evolve → you
Although, if you really wanted a good time, The Silence of the Lambs is right there.
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Silence → want → Lambs
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