i was half waiting for a tube of excema cream to show up at the crime scene.
aside from being a nuisance for stone, it really served zero purpose- unless im missing something?
it didnt define his character. it didnt effect the plot.
why even include it? allergies and the cat would have been plenty.
i like to think of it as Stone carried something external that was similar to what had internally, as a physical manifestation of it in a way, we know he is good but he lives a chaotic life, he is viewed as a failure and not a real lawyer, we know his family isnt with him anymore, no love life, all of this problems and his sense of himself make total sense with the eczema on his skin. he is wearing all those failures on his skin, the moment it gets better, is when he finally has a purpose in life by way of Naz, Andrea, and her cat, he gets his break on a big case, he cares about Naz, and believes in him, he cares about Andrea's death and therefore about the safety of her cat, this is in a way him trying to do her some additional good. and he starts getting better, but then everything crumbles again when he knows they will lose the case because of Chandra's mistake, and you see him back where he started, without fame or glory. but he has proved himself so i believe he will get better again. maybe im over stretching things here, but to me, it totally made sense, made the character more human and to see him struggle made him more relatable.
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As I reigned blows down upon him I realized there had to be another way...
I agree- his eczema was a visible metaphor of how his work was corroding his soul/ affecting his life.
And when he did work that was meaningful to him- rescue the cat- help Naz- his eczema started getting better.
It disappeared when he had companionship from the cat and reappeared with a major attack when he lost his companionship and was afraid of losing Naz's case.
The eczema pretty much paralleled his life circumstances and choices.
Have you ever had a skin problem? Ever been sick? It has about as much of a "point" as it does in real life, which is what TV and movies go for (to imitate real things from life).
share‘The Night Of’ Producers Clear Up the Mystery of Stone’s Eczema
http://www.indiewire.com/2016/07/the-night-of-steven-zaillian-richard-price-eczema-1201711688/
The central murder case on HBO’s “The Night Of” isn’t the only puzzling element on the intriguing drama. One character’s malady has created an itch in viewers to learn more.
John Turturro’s streetwise lawyer Jack Stone suffers from a case of eczema that affects his feet so severely it overtakes every moment of his life outside of doing legal work. He wears sandals to air his feet out, joins a support group of other male eczema sufferers and consults multiple doctors for dubious remedies throughout the series.
The presence of eczema elicited more than one question during the Television Critics Association panel for “The Night Of” on Saturday to clarify its purpose — if there is one — on the show. Executive producer and writer Richard Price told reporters that BBC’s Peter Moffat suffers from eczema and therefore wrote it into “Criminal Justice,” the anthology series on which “The Night Of” is based.
“He wrote me an email saying it went away in the last few years but, guess what, it came back,” said Price. “When you have a malady that is so personal it becomes part of who you are. I always put asthma sprays in what I write, because I have asthma.” (Although it should be noted the asthma inhaler was also already present in “Criminal Justice.”)
As for eczema’s bigger meaning on the show, Price said that TV critics and fans have “picked up on [eczema] as a metaphor for the frustrations of finding a solution and the entire judicial system.”
Eczema on “The Night Of” has a bigger presence than it did in the original, though. “In the British series… I think there’s one shot of it,” series executive producer, director and writer Steven Zaillian added. “We ran with it. It gradually became a kind of symbol, it developed in a very natural way, it spoke to who this character was. We did a lot of research on it, too, and it became more and more interesting.”
The continued focus on eczema in the series has caused some to wonder if it might somehow be tied to a key revelation in Nasir’s (Riz Ahmed) murder case. Or perhaps, as one critic asked, “Will it end up a MacGuffin?”
Turturro, who made sure to point out that he does not personally have eczema, replied, “I take the Fifth.”
Thus far, there are no plans for a second season, although Zairian said, “There are ways of certainly kind of taking what it feels like and what it’s about and doing another season on another subject.”
it was amazing writing to add the exzema. I connected heavily with Stone and his burden was my burden basically, as it should've been for everyone who connected with the character. Also it shows that he cared about Naz during the final argument scene where he's basically almost destroyed by his exzema because of the stress. It gives us insight into the character - a truly amazing character - portrayed by a truly amazing actor. One of the greatest performances ever on a tv-series.