unsettling

TV has a new ‘most evil serial killer’ and it’s ‘impossible to stop watching him’.

A brand new series which launched on streaming platforms just two days ago is being praised as “impossible to stop watching”. It’s also being labelled “gripping”, “compelling” and featuring “TV’s most evil serial killer”. One prominent critic suggested the character has even supplanted Sir Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter as “the screen’s most profoundly unsettling… serial killer”.

Nocturne stars Stephen Graham, Liev Schreiber, Zazie Beetz and Rory Culkin. Graham portrays serial killer Jurek Walter, who is imprisoned for life for torturing and murdering his victims, reports the Express. Yet, he continues manipulating events from behind bars and the show begins with him successfully convincing a fellow prisoner to take his own life.

Walter could prove to be another iconic Stephen Graham role to add to his remarkable repertoire, which already includes Eddie Miller in Adolescence, Andy Jones in Boiling Point, Combo in This is England, Tommy in Snatch and Al Capone in Boardwalk Empire, amongst numerous others.

The storyline revolves around one of Walter’s presumed victims unexpectedly appearing alive, leaving Schreiber’s detective Jonah Lynn to locate the one “victim” still unaccounted for.

Guardian film and TV critic Lucy Mangan declares “Stephen Graham is TV’s most evil serial killer and it’s impossible to stop watching him”, noting that “with his high-pitched giggles and fatal whispers, it is a perfectly terrifying show”. “It has taken a while,” Mangan writes.

“But I think the torch may finally have passed from Anthony Hopkins as the screen’s most profoundly unsettling and instantly-absorbed-by-the-cultural-imagination serial killer. From Hannibal’s hitherto unfailing hands it has been thrown to Stephen Graham. Graham – muscle-bound, preternaturally still and occasionally emitting a high-pitched giggle – is mesmerising and utterly terrifying.”

Adapted from the hugely popular Scandi noir Joona Linna novels, the show has drawn widespread acclaim. Mangan continues: “There is a slight but growing sense as the series wears on that it is just a bit less impressive than it was shaping up to be, a little more hollow than it thinks. Then Graham appears again and the adrenaline that floods your system in the presence of his radiant evil pushes all rational thoughts from your mind, and you are captivated once more.”

Nocturne has already achieved an impressive 85% rating on review-aggregating website Rotten Tomatoes. Writing in Variety, critic Aramide Tinubu describes Nocturne as “thoroughly captivating” and “a wildly entertaining ride that gets better with every episode”, adding that part of its success lies in the fact that “audiences never see the full picture”.

“At any given moment,” she writes. “It’s only clear what Jonah and his team know, and unfortunately, that’s not much. As a result, as the elements of Jurek’s towering and astonishing crimes begin to click together, the plot quickly shifts, leading the narrative into entirely different and ever more haunting directions. It’s a truly breathless and disturbing run of television.”

Randy Myers of The Mercury News declares that “Graham and Culkin give scorched-earth performances that are electrifying to witness”, while noting: ” Apple TV’s gripping serial killer thriller is undeniably twisted, absorbing and suspenseful. It’s also elevated by a superior cast and a dark unsettling moodiness that overshadows the incredulous moments in this 10-episode lightning bolt of a series.”

Yet not everyone has been won over. One Rotten Tomatoes reviewer wrote: “I’m sorry, but I fell asleep. I watched one episode. I will hope that it gets better.”

A second viewer commented: “Pretty boring so far for an Apple show, nothing special. And trust me I’ve watched almost everything Liev has acted in, and also Zazie. Hollywood is dying for new original story lines but they are not getting it.”

Nocturne is available to stream now on Apple TV.