'The Night Of' Season finale review: Stone' eczema and the cat

Steven Zaillian, the writer and director of HBO’s “The Night Of” TV series, shared some details about the show in a post online. He spoke about the lawyer Jack Stone’s eczema andalso wrote about the cat in the show and how its role evolved.

In a post on Medium, Zaillian said that the lawyer’s eczema collides with the plot of the TV series in the finale episode. The skin condition of the character has been a part of him throughout the show and Jack (John Turturro) tried multiple things and spent quite a bit of money in order to cure it. After some initial success the skin condition came back with a vengeance.

Jack bought OTC creams and then using prescription drugs. Zaillian revealed that about 10 percent of the adults in the US are affected by this skin condition.

Turturro took the skin condition of his character very seriously, the director revealed. The actor spoke to people who suffer from this skin condition and the doctors who help with the treatment.

It took two hours for the makeup team to apply all the lesions on Turtorro for “The Night Of” TV series, but the actor apparently never complained.

The main cause of the skin condition on the show was a cat that Jack brought home. In another post on Medium, Zaillian pointed out that the cat had no name on the show. It wasn’t even referred to as “Andrea’s cat.”

Initially there were no “grand designs” for the cat. It was there in the first episode to show that Naz (Riz Ahmed) has asthma and uses an inhaler. The director felt that they couldn’t just toss the cat after that and forget about it. It was then decided to integrate it with Jack’s storyline.

The cat somehow emerged as an interesting cast member in “The Night Of.” But, just as the case of Naz came to an end, so did the lawyer’s time with his new pet. [Update: The very last scene of the finale episode showed that Jack kept the cat afterall, as he prepares to defend another client].