--- title: The Night Of, Making a Murderer and Criminal Justice description: How two television shows 'made' murderers canonical: https://time.com/4470877/the-night-of-making-a-murderer/ author: Daniel D'Addario article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-30T14:48:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:26.208Z article:section: Ideas og:title: What 'The Night Of' and 'Making a Murderer' Say About Justice og:description: How two television shows 'made' murderers og:url: https://time.com/4470877/the-night-of-making-a-murderer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95f1bd9bd648303a/6988a429fb4eac6e5388eeb7/the-night-of.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: the-night-of og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What 'The Night Of' and 'Making a Murderer' Say About Justice twitter:description: How two television shows 'made' murderers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95f1bd9bd648303a/6988a429fb4eac6e5388eeb7/the-night-of.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What _The Night Of_ and _Making a Murderer_ Say About Criminal Justice > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Making A Murderer - Trailer - Netflix HD [Watch (HLS stream): Making A Murderer - Trailer - Netflix HD](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9eZGZJZm.m3u8) (2:55)  _Published 2015-12-11. Making A Murderer - Trailer - Netflix HD_  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Aug 30, 2016 2:48 PM UTC  John Turturro and Riz Ahmed in "The Night Of". John Turturro and Riz Ahmed in "The Night Of". Craig Blankenhorn—HBO  by [Daniel D'Addario](https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Aug 30, 2016 2:48 PM UTC [_The Night Of_](http://www.wired.com/2016/08/the-night-of-hbo-finale/), HBO’s limited series that concluded its run Sunday night, seemed to underperform in terms of public consciousness. It failed to spark conversation online as vivid and impassioned as whodunits, real and fictional, have tended to of late. The form in part explains the muted response: While _The Night Of_ [was seeded with potential culprits](http://www.vox.com/2016/8/29/12688534/the-night-of-finale-recap-the-call-of-the-wild-verdict) who might have murdered Andrea, its detective story never quite caught. But that wasn’t the point, anyway. The series left its central investigation with Naz, our protagonist, off the hook due to a hung jury, perfectly split, six for acquittal and six for conviction. It was the perfect count for a show that never seemed to make up its own mind about Naz’s culpability, never providing the succor of hard confirmation. All we’re left with is the prosecution deciding to pursue a promising new lead, as Naz turns to drugs for some escape from his ruined prospects; neither his mother nor his community can see him, covered in prison tattoos, as anything but a wrongdoer. Like the deeply flawed Netflix true-crime series [_Making a Murderer_](http://time.com/4167699/netflix-making-a-murderer-evidence-left-out/), _The Night Of_ was a show that was at its best when it considered the problems of the American justice system. That Netflix show got its grist from the incident that gave it a title: Steven Avery was “made” into a person who could be convicted of murder on the basis of shaky evidence because of pre-existing prejudice against him from a past, overturned conviction. In this story, the presumption of innocence is a concept but not a reality. A valence of the title is that Avery’s first, wrongful conviction effectively unsocialized him. Where _Making a Murderer_ fell short for me was in its advocacy on Avery’s behalf: its filmmakers had found a situation worthy of coverage, but tried to over-prove their case by walking viewers through a story too hand-holding by half. It was reverse-engineered to get you to sympathize with an already sympathetic figure, as though the filmmakers didn’t trust their own material. _The Night Of_, allowed to invent any story it wanted, was a bit less, well, jury-rigged; it was made with a dispassionate, chilly sense of observing the justice system at work, rather than _Making a Murderer_‘s seething outrage. _The Night Of_‘s flaws went hand-in-hand with its triumphs. The murder victim as a doomed, drug-abusing beauty would have leaned too heavily on misogynistic cliché were the show not quite so aware of how the legal system lends itself to cliché. The girl matters to prosecutors only in the sense that her beauty and her sad fate make it easier to nail Naz, and as her alleged killer’s trial picks up its own sinister momentum, she fades out of the story. _The Night Of_ spent perhaps too much time and narrative energy on situations in Rikers that beggared belief—particularly in the case of [Michael K. Williams](http://time.com/4405807/michael-k-williams/)‘s kingpin character, whose rule over the prison bordered on ominpotent. But the outlandishness of some prison details helped sell Naz’s descent. If _The Night Of_ occasionally went a bit far in conveying the circumstances that turn a “good kid” who made a mistake into a violent, tattooed drug mule, it was at least in service of selling that transformation, and done with the brio and confidence _Making a Murderer_ seemed to lack. To some of its detractors, the show violated a trust with viewers. The show’s posters—never a reliable source of information about a program’s content, but still—used the slogan “What Happened _The Night Of_.” But the show ultimately cared little about that question; it might have been better had the show never depicted the events leading up to the murder at all. That it did, however, ratifies its status as one of the year’s most intriguing Trojan horses. The night of matters little from a human perspective, as, convicted or acquitted, it effectively ended Naz’s life as a contributing member of society. Crime stories are about serving justice. This very unusual one argued that such a goal was impossible as soon as Naz entered the penal system. Who did what matters less than the fact that an entire class of Americans, almost entirely nonwhite, exist in a totally different, extralegal sphere. They haven’t been found guilty, but they’re trapped nonetheless. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] The people that were close to Steve knew he was always happy. He always wanted to To make other people laugh. [ LAUGH ] They didn't dress like everybody else. They didn't have education like other people. The Avery family didn't fit into the community. Stevie did do a lot of stupid things, but he always owned up to everything he did wrong. I think I had a good life, 'til all the trouble started. [ MUSIC ] Penny Bernstein was everything that Steven wasn't. So just think of the two of them side- by- side. There was no real investigation done by the sheriff's department. The sheriff told the DA not to **** this case up. He wanted Avery convicted of this crime. There isn't one iota of physical evidence in this case that connects Steven Avery Agree to it. In fact, the sheriff was told by the police, you have the wrong guy. [ MUSIC ] Steven Avery spent 18 years in prison for something he didn't do. 18 years. 18 years. DNA had come through indicating that he had not committed the crime. Law enforcement officers realized that they can **** it up bigtime. We were getting to ready to bring a lawsuit. Thirty- six million dollars, Manitowac County itself and the Sheriff and the DA would be on the hook for For those damages. They're not handing that kind of money over to Steve Avery. I did tell him, be careful. They are not even close to being finished with you. Do we have a body or anything yet? I don't believe so. We have Steven Avery in custody though? [ SOUND ] Are you kidding me? The disappearance of Therese Halbok remains a mystery. Mr. Avery's blood was found inside of Teresa Halbach's vehicle. Steve, everybody's listening. What do you want to say today? I'm innocent. If convicted Steven Avery will spend the rest of his life in prison. We found a key. That key was scrubbed and his DNA was placed on it. This is really strange. What's going on here? Halbach's last stop Monday was at Steven Avery's home. If he did this then it was good he was in prison all that time. Everything I've heard him say hasn't been the truth. It was extraordinarily disturbing. We went through this 20 years ago and we're going through it now again. In this criminal justice system, good luck. You are probably. The most dangerous individual ever to set foot in this courtroom. 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