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鈥淭he Night Of,鈥� HBO鈥檚 newest program centering on crime, premiered on July 10 and has been the subject of positive reviews.聽

鈥淣ight,鈥� a miniseries that will air for eight episodes, centers on a college student (Riz Ahmed) who finds himself accused of a crime he doesn鈥檛 believe he committed. It co-stars John Turturro, Peyman Moaadi, and Bill Camp.聽

Crime shows are of course nothing new on television and continue to be big business, with programs like CBS鈥檚 鈥淣CIS,鈥� 鈥淣CIS: New Orleans,鈥� and 鈥淏lue Bloods鈥� becoming some of the highest-rated shows for the 2015-2016 TV season for total viewers.

And crime has been part of HBO鈥檚 original programming for decades, with the network airing shows like 鈥淭he Sopranos,鈥� which centers on members of the mob; 鈥淏oardwalk Empire,鈥� which depicts the efforts of Nucky Thompson to take charge of the crime in Atlantic City; and 鈥淭rue Detective,鈥� which centers on police detectives in Louisiana and California.聽

What about 鈥淭he Night Of,鈥� a show about someone being accused of a crime, won over critics?

suggests that the show is interesting because it echoes themes recently seen in the Netflix program 鈥淢aking a Murderer鈥� and the 鈥淪erial鈥� podcast, exploring how the justice system works. Mr. Poniewozik called it 鈥渢ense, exquisite.鈥澛�

鈥淭he biggest suspect is the notion of egalitarian justice,鈥� he writes, saying the series 鈥渆xcels at laying out the snowballing costs of a case, financial and psychological.鈥澛�

also notes that the show avoids pointing fingers at easy antagonists.聽

鈥淚slam, immigration, and criminal justice would necessarily give the tale political charge, and the show embraces it by making prejudice a real issue,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淏ut the most radical thing about 'The Night Of,' at least from the episodes I鈥檝e seen, is how it studiously avoids the notion of bad actors, villains, or even governmental incompetence among its main players鈥� The mounting conflict of the plot is therefore a comment on a larger system 鈥� and whether that comment ends up amounting to indictment or endorsement, perhaps surprisingly, remains to be seen.鈥澛�

聽notes that the show examines the prison system, as well.聽

鈥淲ith relentless precision, 鈥楾he Night Of鈥� uses every cinematic tool at its command to convey the dehumanizing aspects of Naz's imprisonment,鈥� Mr. Bianco writes.