Nocturne review: Stephen Graham is terrifying in a slow-burn killer hunt

Every few years a TV villain comes along who makes a whole show worth watching. In Nocturne, that villain is Stephen Graham, and he's terrifying.

Apple TV's new serial-killer thriller is good, our 7 out of 10, and it splits opinion more than most. Critics mostly like it. Viewers are less sure. Both have a point: Graham is extraordinary, but the mystery around him is slower and more predictable than it should be.

The set-up hooks you fast. A teenager who was abducted three years ago turns up alive in a forest. His sister is still missing. The man everyone suspects, serial killer Jurek Walter (Graham), has the perfect alibi: he's locked in a restricted unit of a psychiatric hospital.

So retired detective Jonah Lynn (Liev Schreiber) goes back to the case he never let go of, and FBI agent Saga Bauer (Zazie Beetz) goes undercover inside the hospital, posing as an inmate, to find out whether Walter has help on the outside. Rory Culkin plays a hospital aide Walter sets out to befriend, and Bill Camp plays the local police chief. Chrissy Metz, Poorna Jagannathan and Gary Carr round out a deep cast, which is one reason the show feels bigger than a standard cop drama.

The 10-episode series is adapted from Lars Kepler's bestselling novels The Sandman and Lazarus. Creators John Hlavin and Rowan Joffé moved the story from Scandinavia to western Pennsylvania.

The man behind the glass

The reason to watch is Graham. Walter barely raises his voice, and he doesn't need to. "Stephen Graham oozes such calm, intense menace in Nocturne that the air practically vibrates," Nick Schager wrote for The Daily Beast.

Saloni Gajjar of The A.V. Club, who gave the series a B+, put it plainly: "Stephen Graham steals the show as a Hannibal Lecter-esque character." It's a fair comparison. Walter is a killer locked away from the world, and his weapon now is talk: the show's tension comes from watching him work on whoever is in front of him.

Graham, who won an Emmy for Adolescence, did his homework here too. He told the Associated Press he studied true-crime documentaries to see how real killers manipulated the people around them and "believed their own truth."

Beetz has the riskiest job in the story: Saga's cover is all that stands between her and the man she has been sent to question. "Schreiber and Beetz form the show's turbulent emotional core," Gajjar wrote.

The problem with the mystery

The trouble is everything around Walter. For a show built on a missing girl and a ticking clock, Nocturne takes its time. Jonathon Wilson of Ready Steady Cut called it "slow-burn Scandi noir that might be a bit too much for some," and said it "can sometimes threaten to feel a little languid."

The bigger issue is the puzzle itself. Seasoned crime fans may find themselves ahead of the detectives. "A solution to the case feels preordained," Gajjar wrote. Schager also found parts of the plot hard to believe, writing that one key relationship "feels far-fetched."

That probably explains the gap between critics, most of whom praised the performances, and the 56% audience score, which suggests plenty of viewers wanted more surprises than they got. It's also worth knowing that critics judged it early: The Daily Beast, for one, saw seven of the 10 episodes, so the last three could still change the verdict either way.

Worth the wait?

If you loved The Silence of the Lambs, Mindhunter or True Detective, Nocturne is worth your time, as long as you go in for the performances rather than the twists. It's a show to settle into, an episode a week, not one to race through for the answer. Given the slow start, give it at least the first two episodes before deciding.

The first two episodes are on Apple TV now, with a new one every Friday until the finale on Dec. 25.

As Schager put it, "despite its familiarities, it keeps you watching." With Graham behind the glass, it's hard to argue.