# Nocturne struggles to sustain its slow-burn crime drama

> Apple TV's serial killer thriller has compelling characters inside a psychiatric hospital but falters when the story moves outside its walls.
- Title: Nocturne struggles to sustain its slow-burn crime drama · TIME
- Summary: Apple TV's serial killer thriller has compelling characters inside a psychiatric hospital but falters when the story moves outside its walls.
- Keywords: nocturne, apple tv, liev schreiber, stephen graham, zazie beetz, rowan joffé, lars kepler, crime drama, slow burn, serial killer, TIME
- Source: TIME — https://time.com/article/2026/10/27/nocturne-review-apple
- Author: Judy Berman
- Published: 2026-10-27T13:00:03.255+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: nocturne, apple tv, liev schreiber, stephen graham, zazie beetz, rowan joffé, lars kepler, crime drama, slow burn, serial killer
## Apple TV's prestige crime thriller
Nocturne premieres with two episodes on October thirtieth, adapting best-selling Scandinavian mystery novels. Liev Schreiber plays a brilliant yet broken detective obsessed with a case involving a serial killer played by Stephen Graham.
## The slow-burn format dominates prestige TV
This format, where one complex investigation spans a season or more, became a sensation after AMC's The Killing in two thousand eleven.
## The mystery is solved from the start
Serial killer Jurek Walter, confined in a Pennsylvania psychiatric hospital, is clearly the culprit. When a boy thought to be his victim, Michael, turns up alive years after disappearing with his sister, the hunt for…
## Retired cop drawn back into the case
Jonah Lynn, a Philadelphia cop and military veteran now retired and reclusive, was instrumental in the original investigation.Michael's return draws him back in, along with FBI agent Saga, who is a surrogate daughter to Jonah.
## Hospital scenes carry the show's power
Zazie Beetz's Saga goes undercover as a patient at the hospital, where she becomes a spookily canny mix of actor, detective, and daredevil.
## Outside the hospital, characters fade
Strong actors like Bill Camp, Poorna Jagannathan, and Chrissy Metz, who plays Michael's mother Ida, are saddled with underwritten characters.
## Delayed backstory undermines the drama
Creator Rowan Joffé appears to be holding characters at arm's length to shock viewers with later revelations.
## Lacks the specificity of similar shows
Nocturne's Pennsylvania setting invites comparisons to Mare of Easttown and Task, both created by Brad Ingelsby.
## Character depth is the slow burn's fuel
There are only so many murder plots in crime television, but as many unique characters as there are human beings.

> A slow burn that doesn't make use of such a rich source of fuel is apt to fizzle out.
## Key takeaway

Nocturne, premiering on Apple TV on October thirtieth, adapts Scandinavian crime novels with strong performances but underwritten characters outside the hospital setting, limiting its slow-burn format's effectiveness.