Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | November 3, 2026
The source material for Apple TV’s latest crime drama, Nocturne, comes from Lars Kepler, the pen name of the Swedish husband-and-wife team Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril. “Swedish” tells you it’s probably very dark, if the title of the novel, The Sandman, hadn’t already tipped you off.
For Nocturne, however, the action relocates to a small Pennsylvania town that has somehow fallen under the spell of an imprisoned serial killer. The series opens with a young boy, Michael Frost, stumbling out of captivity three years after he vanished: He’s filthy, he’s temporarily blind (all that darkness), and he’s not right in the head. Also, his sister, Felicia, is still missing.
Jonah Lynn (Liev Schreiber), a former homicide detective, had been working the case before he walked away from the force after the death of his wife and child (see? Dark). Michael’s return drags him back in, and Jonah is convinced that Jurek Walter (Adolescence’s Stephen Graham at his creepy best), a serial killer locked in the basement of Riverside Psychiatric Hospital, is somehow behind it, despite an airtight alibi, what with being locked up.
You know the phrase “He’s living rent-free in your head”? That’s Jurek Walter, except he picks the heads. Over the first two episodes, we watch him drive a fellow inmate to take his own life (in a particularly gruesome way), and we learn he has a long history of bending guards and hospital staff to his will. He doesn’t need to leave his cell to commit a crime. He just needs someone to listen.
That’s why Saga Bauer (Zazie Beetz), an FBI agent and Jonah’s surrogate daughter, goes undercover inside the hospital to figure out Jurek’s game. Either she cracks him, or he gets inside her head, too. And it falls to poor, grieving Jonah to untangle the whole mess.
And it’s … good! The cast is almost too good for it not to be, though so far, Stephen Graham steals the show. He radiates a Manson-esque celebrity, so even the scraps of attention he tosses to a hospital nurse, Karl Anders (Rory Culkin), are enough to turn him into a courier. Graham is surrounded by a strong bench, too, including Poorna Jagannathan as the FBI agent running the investigation; Chrissy Metz as the mother of Michael and his missing sister; and the always reliable Bill Camp. And of course, Liev Schreiber and Zazie Beetz are always excellent.
Nocturne was created and adapted by Rowan Joffe (son of Roland), and aside from the relentless bleakness — if that’s not your bag — it’s genuinely compelling. With only six episodes, it’s unlikely to overstay its welcome or sag in the middle. All of which is to say: If you like your nights cold, dark, and Swedish, even when they’re pretending to be Pennsylvanian, Nocturne is worth the the investment. Just don’t let Stephen Graham inside your head.
