‘Nocturne’ Review: A Killer Who Never Leaves His Cell

‘Nocturne’ lands on Apple TV today with its first two episodes, and the platform is leaning hard on a bestselling pedigree. The series adapts Lars Kepler’s novels ‘Lazarus’ and ‘The Sandman’, moving the story from Sweden to rural Pennsylvania. Rowan Joffé created it, John Hlavin serves as showrunner, and the full run stretches to ten episodes with new chapters every Friday through December 25.

Everything begins at Riverside Psychiatric Hospital, where Stephen Graham’s Jurek Walter sits behind walls of institutional concrete. Liev Schreiber plays Jonah Lynn, a former homicide detective who has pulled away from the world after losing his wife and daughter. When a girl goes missing, Jonah becomes convinced that Jurek holds the answer, and his plan involves sending his goddaughter Saga Bauer, played by Zazie Beetz, into the hospital undercover.

Here is where I started to lean forward in my seat. Graham is the engine of this show, and he builds Jurek from a hulking frame and a soft, patient voice that makes every quiet sentence feel like a threat. The scariest thing about him is not what he does but how far his influence travels from a locked room, and the way a guard played by Rory Culkin slowly bends toward him is the most chilling thread in the story.

Schreiber gives Jonah a weary, grief stricken stillness that fits the role even if it rarely surprises. Beetz has the trickier job, since Saga has to play multiple versions of herself inside the walls, and she sells every shift with real nerve. Bill Camp, Poorna Jagannathan and Chrissy Metz, who plays the mother of Michael and Felicia, do solid work, though they are often handed thinner material than they deserve.

The trouble is that the story around these performances is built from very familiar parts. Jonah is a grizzled lawman buried under a pile of dead loved ones, and the genre habits show up right on schedule. A few plot choices also ask a lot of the viewer, with guards bending protocol far too easily and Jonah poking around cases without any official standing.

The pacing is another sticking point, because ten episodes is a long runway for a story this lean. Some stretches feel padded, and the show sometimes wobbles between pulpy mystery and a sincere look at how overwhelmed mental health institutions treat their patients. That second idea adds welcome texture, but the series never fully commits to it.

Still, there is real craft on display. Tim Van Patten directs the opening two episodes with a crisp eye, cutting between the cold hospital and the warm, lived in streets of the town outside. The show tightens as it goes, and by the midpoint I was far more invested than the first hour had prepared me for.

So where does that leave me? ‘Nocturne’ is not reinventing the serial killer thriller, and it leans on tropes you have seen before, but the dread Graham generates and the strength of the ensemble carried me through the rough patches. I give it 7.5 out of 10 for a handsome, tense and often gripping watch that is held back by its own habits.

Do you think Jurek Walter is one of the great television villains of the year, or did ‘Nocturne’ lose you somewhere along the way, and let me know in the comments?