Nocturne bets on Stephen Graham's menace, and it pays off

What makes a serial-killer drama stick: the case, or the man? Apple TV's Nocturne answers without hesitation, and we think it's the right call. Several reviews find the show shaky as a puzzle. As a character study in menace, it's hard to look away from.

What Apple is releasing

Nocturne is a 10-episode adaptation of Lars Kepler's novels The Sandman and Lazarus, created by Rowan Joffé and John Hlavin, who moved the story from Scandinavia to western Pennsylvania. As AP reports, a kidnapped teen resurfaces after three years, and a retired detective (Liev Schreiber) turns to Jurek Walter (Stephen Graham), a killer locked in a psychiatric hospital's restricted unit. The FBI sends in an undercover agent played by Zazie Beetz. The first two episodes arrive Friday, October 30.

The killer is the show, and that's smart

The procedural scaffolding here is familiar: a haunted ex-cop, a missing child, an undercover agent, a killer who is always a step ahead. NME itself calls the show "not entirely original" and says it can feel like a standard potboiler souped up with prestige production values. That's a fair charge.

What lifts it is restraint. The same NME review praises Graham's "deeply creepy, admirably restrained performance," and the opening sequence has him talking a fellow patient into suicide through the pipes. No scenery-chewing. Just stillness, a high-pitched giggle and a gift for finding people's soft spots. The Guardian goes further and suggests the torch of the screen's great serial killer may have passed from Anthony Hopkins to Graham. That's a bold claim, and we wouldn't sign off on it before the full season has played out, but it shows how strongly the performance lands.

The choice also tells you something about casting habits. After Adolescence, it would have been easy to cast Graham as another wounded everyman. Casting him as a predator who preys on people's weaknesses is the braver move. The scenes with Rory Culkin's tender-hearted nurse, which Decider singles out for their chemistry, are where the show gets under your skin. For us, the pull isn't only whodunit. It's watching a man be manipulated in real time, and that's scarier.

The flaws are real, and they matter

Not every critic is sold. TIME's headline calls it "A Slow Burn That Fizzles." The Guardian admits a growing sense that the series is "a little more hollow than it thinks," and notes that some roles are underdeveloped. Decider says the multiple storylines get overwhelming and pull focus from Jurek's central mystery. Roger Ebert's site adds a caveat worth remembering: Apple didn't send the final three episodes to press, so any verdict on the full run is provisional.

That's the pattern to watch. A killer this magnetic can mask a lot, and the danger for a 10-episode season is that the plot has to keep pace with its villain. The early signal is good, though. MovieWeb reports a 92% critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes ahead of release, and even the reservations in the NME and Guardian reviews come alongside praise for Graham.

What it says about Apple TV

We'd argue this is Apple doing something it hasn't always managed: mainstream dark crime without leaning on glossy self-seriousness. Hlavin says the show is something you should be leaning into as opposed to "folding your laundry" while you watch, which is a nicely old-fashioned promise. It wants attention, not background noise. Yes, it's still a polished, prestige-shaped thriller, but the polish serves a human monster rather than hiding the lack of one.

Our verdict: watch it, ideally this weekend, since it's tailor-made for Halloween. Go for Graham, accept that the plot may wobble, and hold final judgment until the last episodes land. If the finale can't match the menace of the opening, the show will have been a better performance than a story. Even then, it would be a performance worth the subscription.