John Turturro

A friend urged me to try The Night Of, an HBO thing where Turturro plays an ambulance-chasing lawyer (James Gandolfini was originally supposed to play the part--he's actually credited as a producer from beyond the grave). Started slow, but picking up around the halfway mark. I love how memorable TV people bounce from series to series: this one has Omar and Bodie from The Wire, Tom from House of Cards, and Janice from The Sopranos (John's cousin Aida, so put that one down to nepotism).

HBO def has an old school studio stable of actors at this point

I thought the first half of The Night Of was stronger, actually. It had a decent premise and a very strong cast and very good writing, but in the end not a particularly satisfiying story.

Turturro nailed it, obviously.

He was great in that

but in the end not a particularly satisfiying story

There were a couple of turns towards the end--especially with regards to Amara Karan's character--that seemed like a stretch. I really liked Roberta Flack at the end, even if Mad Men beat them to it by a couple of years.

saw To Live & Die In LA for the first time last week, he had the unreliable sleazeball thing down v early

See also The Color of Money from one year later. (His IMDB page says he turns up in Raging Bull--will have to look closely for that next time.)

i forgot that he made the jesus rolls a 'going places' adaptation ~ considering the source material is wildly culturally outdated & not super strong to start (nb ive only seen the orig film not read the book), the jesus rolls is not *that* bad i kinda enjoyed it