The degree to which you enjoy “Nocturne” may depend significantly on your ability to suspend disbelief.
Debuting with the first two of its 10 episodes this week on Apple TV, the tantalizing slice of noir — tantalizing largely because of its cast, headlined by Liev Schreiber, Zazie Beetz and Stephen Graham — is based on the international bestseller “Sandmannen” (aka “The Sandman”) by Lars Kepler. (For the record, that’s the pseudonym of Swedish husband-and-wife tandem Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril, who have published several popular crime novels under that moniker.)
It sounds as if many critics and readers of “The Sandman” had gripes similar to those we have with “Nocturne,” all of which are under the umbrella of plot developments that are at least a little hard to swallow.
That said, the seven episodes Apple made available for review serve as a window into the popularity of the novel, as “Nocturne” is, at its best, tense and gripping fare.
With the story moved to rural Western Pennsylvania by co-showrunners Rowan Joffé (credited with its creation) and Cleveland native John Hlavin (credited with its development) from greater Stockholm, the series puts Schreiber front and center as a retired police detective, Jonah Lynn, a military vet who long ago left behind Philadelphia for the small-town life in fictional Fairhaven, Pennsylvania.
However, Graham fills the meatier role of psychopathic serial killer Jurek Walter, who may still be committing nefarious deeds despite being locked away in the Restricted Housing Unit of Riverside Psychiatric Hospital. When we meet him in the series’ first episode, he is killing time by manipulating his neighbor in the RHU — the cells’ toilets are back-to-back, and chatting can be done via the pipes — into killing himself.
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