Bill Camp was outstanding, and Sarsgaard was a perfect foil.
The best part about the Nico DG actor is, here i'll copy / paste:
In “The Witness,” we finally see newly elected chief prosecutor Nico question a witness: Detective Rigo, who previously had been aligned with Rusty and who now must speak to his behavior when he was entrusted with Carolyn’s case, before he became the primary suspect in her murder. Fagbenle lets Nico’s voice drip with sarcasm and contempt as he mocks Rigo’s decision-making and digs into her ethical reaction to Rusty offering a felon early release in exchange for potential information about Carolyn’s death. With “Did you take issue with this attempted bribe? Did you take issue with this approach?”, Nico makes
issue lively and mellifluous, even as he goes in for the kill.
The word is only two syllables, but Fagbenle elongates it. Miraculously, he simultaneously gives it a long
s sound and a shushing hiss, as if Nico started out saying
issue the British way and then changed it midway through to the American pronunciation. It’s like Sir Hiss from
Robin Hood trying to go incognito Stateside, which isn’t that far off given that Fagbenle is an Englishman playing a Chicagoan. But the actor has played a Windy City resident before —
President Barack Obama, actually, in the miniseries
The First Lady — and
absolutely nailed Obama’s unique cadence. As Nico, Fagbenle is doing something totally different, something weirder and more free-flowing, less connected to Chicago’s distinct accent and more born out of stagy arrogance and shifty cosmopolitanism. His
issue being so divorced from any one specific linguistic origin isn’t a mistake, but a way to signal Nico’s cartoon-villain qualities. (The
Ghostbusters EPA inspector obsessed with upholding bureaucracy was a vocal inspiration,
Fagbenle says.) He’s a jerk, and Fagbenle is having a blast using his voice to communicate that.
