According to The Guardian's review of Nocturne, published October 29, 2026, the series centers on a sadistic murderer who, the review's summary states, is still pulling the strings from behind bars. The review was written by Lucy Mangan, and its headline describes Stephen Graham as the most evil serial killer on television.

The summary quotes the review as saying that the show is "perfectly terrifying show for Halloween" in one passage. The review credits Graham with high-pitched giggles and fatal whispers, and it suggests that the title of the screen's most unsettling serial killer may have passed from Anthony Hopkins to Graham. Its headline adds that the show is impossible to stop watching.

The New York Times published a review of a different kind of work on the same day. In The New York Times's review of Queen at Sea, written by Alissa Wilkinson, the summary describes a film in which Juliette Binoche stars as a heart-wrenching drama about dementia that is "harrowing to watch." The review's headline refers to an impossible situation.

The two reviews address a television series and a film, and their summaries do not refer to each other.

The summaries available for this report are brief excerpts, so the details here are limited to what they state. The full text of neither review was available to this report, and no other reporting on either work was consulted.

Sources: The Guardian: Nocturne review - Stephen Graham is TV’s most evil serial killer … and it’s impossible to stop watching him; The New York Times: ‘Queen at Sea’ Review: An Impossible Situation.