Review: 'Nocturne' intrigues with a stellar cast that grounds a sometimes implausible mystery

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Set us as preferred There are a number of ways, substantial and superficial, that “Nocturne,” a sort of murder mystery premiering Friday on Apple TV, announces itself as a class act.Let’s begin with the title.The series Americanizes the internationally successful 2012 novel “The Sandman” and its 2018 sequel “Lazarus” by Lars Kepler, the pen name of the wife-and-husband team of Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril.

The word “nocturne,” typically used to describe music, poetry or paintings made to evoke a pensive, nighttime mood, must have seemed vaguely analogous to “Sandman,” which was already the title of a TV show.And though this show is indeed moody, with moody characters, it’s hardly got the atmosphere of say, Chopin’s Opus 27, No.

1 in C-sharp minor, or James McNeill Whistler’s “Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket,” or Federico García Lorca’s “Sleepless Night [Brooklyn Bridge Nocturne].” But it does betoken a certain classiness.The setting is a western Pennsylvania small town called Fairhaven — ironically, given the less than idyllic new and old business we’re about to witness.The series has been shot where the story is set, rather than in some look-not-quite-alike quarter of Canada or Georgia, and there is no better favor a producer can do for a production — it spells commitment.

Whether or not viewers are familiar with the actual setting, they may still sense its authenticity and how the environment shapes the action.Television This season, new series will feel familiar, thanks to literary adaptations like ‘East of Eden’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ as well as prequels and sequels like ‘Crystal Lake’ and ‘Blade Runner 2099.’That catnip cast makes the series immediately interesting, not to say irresistible.

Stephen Graham plays our villa...