If you want to see how a bunch of people brilliantly solve a mysterious case or some conspiracy and confronting, then you would be disappointed. However, after about 4 to 5 episodes another new discovery would strike you and you would experience this series in a whole different way and surprisingly find out about the smooth yet delicate structure like several silk scarves wave around each other.
It never really is about the case. It is about change. It is about several individuals' different social background, mindset, emotional life, etc - in a word, life paths - and how they are forced to change by this incident, by the change of other people involved, throughout the time of the trial. Just like how those scarves change their profiles in the wind.
There are mainly 5 characters whose development gives a very concrete and "gritty" sense: Naz, Stone, Chandra, Box and Freddy.
Riz Ahmed who played Naz presented such a fluid performance which evolves in time and showed us how a "good boy" digs up his inner darker, crueler side in order to survive against a hostile and extremely unstable environment, just like the book name: "The call of the wild". It is some abstract form of mature, only more dramatical than any experience of ourselves. It is good to see there is still a piece of softness and sympathy left in him at last.
Stone looks like any of the ordinary people: he negotiates, persuades, tries to make a living and balances out conscience and reality. There are failures in sex life, marriage and relationship with kids; there are shame from untidy appearance, Eczema skin and low social status. Let alone the case. All the pressure. Yet he managed to be stronger than most and finally find the peace within himself by acquiring the "I don't give a fuck anymore" attitude.
Chandra's defeat is more realistic and tragic compared to the other four characters. It showed how a "Young, attractive urban woman" tried to prove herself but failed at last. A new face with much less experience, try to make a way through her boss, the defense, personal life, danger in face of suspects and so on. I do resonate with the same calm desperation as my condition is no better than hers.
Box may represent the justice. In other word, "subtle beast". He is calm, reasonable, logical yet still might be mislead by his own judgement, work ethic and life status. When you are about to retire, when you are in an environment that hardly anyone cares about what the truth is but finishing your own work and get home early, when your colleague wishes you get lost asap so that he can take your chair, what should you do? There is no wrong in "get the work done" - the process is justified already. Just not so much effort, that's all. But can you live with it? Can you accept the you that live a mundane retirement life? Can you give up your career just because of the office politics? Can you get past the tense relationship with your ex-wife and finally have the gut to face the problem instead of escaping from it by all means? We got the answer in the finale.
Freddy is a much more complicated character. There are still a lot of mysteries around him that we are not so sure about after the finale, but hopefully we could get the answer in season 2. He looks like a classic, epic gangster hero, yet he is not. In fact he looks less flawed than any other people in this show: he respects knowledge, got a clear mind, knows how to run an organization and train his sidekicks, yet still keeps humanity. When he lost Naz at last I can almost see his anger and sadness through his masculine, broad back.
Other than these characters carved slowly and subtly through the 8 episodes, there are still a lot to denote, for example the most clearly showed problematic society with discrimination and lack of understanding we are in; however, the finale showed us something more: life would be as unpredictable as it is. Who is the murderer? Might be someone we never know before. What is the fate of Naz? As we think he got nothing to prove not guilty hence must be convicted, the jury reached 6-6 and the prosecutor dropped the charge. How this comes possible?
Yet it is. Just like how disappointing or satisfying life can be throughout the change of time, life could be unpredictable as much that no one knows where it would lead us. From a higher standpoint, we also don't know how big an impact such an incident at the night of Oct. 24 could have caused on the society. How much this butterfly effect would cost us can only be inferred after the following seasons. I'm already waiting in high expectations.
