Liev Schreiber Questions the Limits to Fighting a Killer in 'Nocturne'

How far is it acceptable to go to stop a killer? This is one of the main moral questions in Nocturne, a suspense series starring Liev Schreiber, Zazie Beetz, and Stephen Graham. In an exclusive interview with Omelete, Schreiber discussed the limits of his character, Jonah Lynn, a detective who believes it's necessary to do anything to stop serial killer Jurek Walter (Graham).

Unlike many crime thrillers, Nocturne introduces its main antagonist from the start. The mystery isn't necessarily about discovering who the killer is, but about understanding how he manages to continue exerting his influence even while imprisoned.

For Schreiber, this structure also opens up space to question the attitudes of the protagonists themselves. “It’s a very interesting question. I hadn’t thought about that, about the fact that we reveal the monster right at the beginning,” commented the actor.

He explained that Jurek's confinement creates a puzzle about how the murders continue to happen: "There's this feeling that there's another monster or that, somehow, this monster manages to walk through walls to do these things," he stated.

When asked about the possibility of Jonah crossing moral boundaries to capture a criminal he knows to be guilty, Schreiber explained that this is precisely one of the dilemmas proposed by the screenwriters.

“That’s the gray area where the writers are asking you to make a moral judgment. I think Jonah absolutely believes that, given the gravity of the situation, this guy needs to be gotten rid of by any means necessary, and that includes murder,” he stated.

The actor also highlighted how Jonah's traumatic past influences his decisions: “What happens to us when we start thinking this way? People who, in many ways, have been shaped by trauma are often the most efficient at dealing with it. But, at the same time, do they deal with it in traumatic ways?” he questioned.

The relationship between Jonah and Saga Bauer, the FBI agent played by Beetz, amplifies this conflict. While trying to stop Jurek, the two must confront situations that test their own principles.

Everything you need to know about Nocturne

The series follows the story of Jonah Lynn (Schreiber), a former soldier turned homicide detective. Tired of the violent routine on the streets of Philadelphia, he moves to a quiet town in Western Pennsylvania seeking tranquility. However, when the town and his own family become targets of the terribly cunning serial killer Jurek Walter (Graham), Jonah must fight to protect everyone he loves. The desperate search for Jurek's last missing victim forces Jonah to put his adopted daughter, FBI agent Saga Bauer (Beetz), on Jurek's trail. What will Jonah's limits be?

The production adapts the novels Lazarus and Sandman, by Lars Kepler (literary pseudonym of the Swedish couple Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril), one of the world's best-selling suspense authors, whose books have been translated into 40 languages ​​and distributed in more than 170 territories.

Nocturne premiered on October 30th on Apple TV, with two episodes out of a total of 10, which will air until December 25th.