Review by C.J. Bunce
With the tumultuous year of 2020, it wouldn’t be outlandish if you missed the HBO series The Outsider. It’s a supernatural thriller from Richard Price (Sea of Love, The Color of Money), an adaptation of a 2018 Stephen King novel. It’s a series that would have made a better movie–it’s about 8 hours too long–but once the supernatural elements kick in it’s worth riding it out to the end, thanks to solid performances by Ben Mendelsohn (Captain Marvel, Rogue One), Cynthia Erivo (Mr. Selfridge, Luther: The Fallen Sun), Mare Winningham (Turner & Hooch, St. Elmo’s Fire), Paddy Considine (Hot Fuzz, The World’s End), and some good supporting performances. It’s a creepy blend of true crime and the supernatural that calls into question eye witness testimony in a way only Stephen King could conjure. The Outsider is streaming now on Max.
Ben Mendelsohn plays Ralph Anderson, a lumpy cop plagued by the death of his son, in pursuit of a child killer he thinks is Terry Maitland, played by Jason Bateman (Zootopia, Central Intelligence), who also directs a few episodes. The eyewitness testimony, crime scene evidence–everything–pegs Maitland as the brutal killer. Ralph is so certain, he arrests Maitland in front of the town while he’s coaching a kids’ baseball game. Maitland is shocked and pleads his innocence. Then other testimony appears, incontrovertible video testimony of Maitland at a convention at the same time of the killing. So what gives?
As Ralph begins to doubt Maitland’s guilt, Maitland is shot down and killed by the victim’s son. Then Maitland learns about all the other cases, with similar crimes and similar accuseds. So what gives?
Cynthia Erivo is Holly Gibney, an investigator who might be autistic, or she might just be overly fixated on her wild theory of the crimes. Holly is sensitive to possibilities outside the norm, and comes up with a single given: One person can’t be in two places at the same time. So what gives?
For the first episodes the viewer isn’t given enough information to know what kind of story is being told. Once they remember this is a Stephen King tale, and once the fourth episode arrives with the possibilities of the paranormal, the story begins to make sense. Holly tells Ralph and a few others about El Cucuy, the Spanish folk tale of the bogeyman. The key players of the story, including Ralph and his wife, played by Mare Winningham, and Maitland’s kids, all begin having realistic dreams. Who is behind it all?
Yul Vazquez (White House Plumbers, Traffic) is a cop on Ralph’s local force who is quicker than others to believe in Holly’s ideas. Julianne Nicholson (Law & Order, Blonde) plays Maitland’s wife, who wants to know why her innocent husband was wrongly accused and killed. Whoever or whatever is behind the murders, the sleuths expect the murders to continue until they find the culprit or culprits. Paddy Considine, in a great dual role, is the next person accused of murder, but because of Holly’s quick action, the team converges on a rogue ex-cop who may be behind it all.
King’s story leaves all kinds of possibilities open–is this a science fiction creature behind the murders? Is it some kind of demon? Is it some kind of folk tale myth? Or is it a group of psychopaths conning everyone? Maybe it’s just a character study of a loner named Jack Hoskins, played by Marc Menchaca (Black Mirror, Sleepy Hollow). Just as the nature of the murderer(s) is open for most of the series, so are possibilities and new ideas, appearing in nearly every scene. It’s like each episode’s director did not know the ultimate ending, but created new solutions ready for all options to be possible by story’s end.
Fortunately the series sticks its landing in the finale, eliminating the possibility of any worthwhile continuation via a second season. But it also leaves open plot threads. The actions of the murderer(s) follow specific modus operandi and rules for the length of the series, only to have some of them not apply in the end. Why is that? After the key plot pieces are wrapped up, the story simply ends.
It’s worth noting that show creator Richard Price wrote the script for The Color of Money starring Paul Newman. The show highlights Ben Mendelsohn as a similar leading man on the back-end of his career, and the New Zealand actor’s full range of skills are spotlighted here–a good addition to his already exceptional portfolio.
This story easily could have been told in a two-hour movie. The TV series Grimm handled similar content in a single episode. Whittled down this would have been a great double-feature companion with King’s Silver Bullet. From a cinematography standpoint, the entire series is shot with too little lighting. At times it’s impossible to see what is going on. Good moody music, good direction, and the slate of actors will keep viewers coming back for more. A showdown, a grandpa rescue, the backstory of a cave disaster, and a hero mission to get the bad guy all play into the intrigue.
Fans of Stephen King won’t be disappointed. If you’re looking for a creepy, dark, supernatural story with some special effects gore at about the level of Silver Bullet, you might want to give The Outsider a try. The first, and likely only, season is on Max now. Catch King’s original novel here at Amazon.
