The Outsider (2020)
HBO | Release Date: January 12, 2020
6.4
USER SCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 77 Ratings
USER RATING DISTRIBUTION
Positive:
51
Mixed:
11
Negative:
15
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User Reviews

User scoreBy dateMost helpful
2
alric1952Mar 16, 2020
That none of the professional critics have panned this HBO series, I decided I'd write one of my own. Aware that the story was based on a Stephen King novel, and how he often includes a lot of psychic mumbo-jumbo, Jason Batman's presenceThat none of the professional critics have panned this HBO series, I decided I'd write one of my own. Aware that the story was based on a Stephen King novel, and how he often includes a lot of psychic mumbo-jumbo, Jason Batman's presence drew me in. As expected, he delivered a fine performance and the series was engaging every moment he was on the screen. However, that last only two episodes. The rest of it revolved around a lot of chummy relationships and a detective suffering from OCD. Her eccentricities provide an oddball intuition, and these allow King to glide over the need to detail her arrival at any particular conclusions. There are also references to ethnic customs and superstitions, that imply that modern humankind is simply too smug to appreciate the noble wisdom in these quaint artifacts of culture. It's a cliche I'm tired of, and it's used by King here to prevent from having to explain in detail how such a thing existed without our catching site of it before. Our eccentric detective, of course, is all into it, and was hip to it right away. She had no problem taking that leap from the rational reality to a world of a demonic cannibal. After the first two episodes, I found this thing grueling, and I couldn't wait until it was over. Had this not been on HBO, I would have unplugged from it after Bateman departed the story. Instead, that I was just plain curious to see if anything of interest would really happen, or if it would plod along as dull as it seemed. It was all vague and unsure of itself, all the way through. My patience in waiting for some exciting reveal was never rewarded. The monster or creature or whatever it was was simply not that interesting, and you never really saw it for what it really was. It was a huge waste of time, and I expected more from HBO. I honestly don't get what people who liked it were seeing, and that's even more baffling: that so many can see it so differently from me, while I'm plum bored with it.… Expand
2 of 2 users found this helpful20
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10
LordoftheDanceFeb 5, 2020
A very good slow burn. Great acting. A palpable sense of doom and a worthy enemy to root against. I am REALLY enjoying this show so far.
1 of 1 users found this helpful10
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10
KuggzFeb 17, 2020
The real successor to true detective season 1 this show gives the creepy feels non stop. Wonderful performances and gripping cinematography with a skin crawling score make this a must watch for detective and psychological horror junkies.
1 of 1 users found this helpful10
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3
CanikoMar 12, 2020
The first episode hooks you but the rest of the episodes are extremely slow pace, cliche, unrelatable characters and way too long.
1 of 1 users found this helpful10
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10
DeanomiteJan 13, 2020
Jason Bateman has really brought brilliance to his work, Ozarks is uniformly well done. This feels like a mix between Ozarks and The Fugitive. Ben Mendelsohn is regularly the most talented actor in subpar movies. The photography isJason Bateman has really brought brilliance to his work, Ozarks is uniformly well done. This feels like a mix between Ozarks and The Fugitive. Ben Mendelsohn is regularly the most talented actor in subpar movies. The photography is excellent, I particularly like how the opening credits melt into and out of the scene. It will be a bummer when I have to drop my score when this show gets swallowed up by modern feminism or hyper homosexuality.… Expand
3 of 4 users found this helpful31
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8
dogboyFeb 17, 2020
Very gripping and suspenseful show. Bateman and Mendelson are great leads and this show reallyh draws you in.
0 of 1 users found this helpful01
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2
imthenoobJun 15, 2020
Terribly slow-paced and poorly edited. This 10 episode season should have been 8 instead. It would have quickened things up quite a bit and really improve the show overall, which was knee-capped fairly early on because pacing.

But thenTerribly slow-paced and poorly edited. This 10 episode season should have been 8 instead. It would have quickened things up quite a bit and really improve the show overall, which was knee-capped fairly early on because pacing.

But then again, The writing for this series was pretty bad IMO. Characters never fully explored, too many subplots that just don't amount to anything and the ending was utter nonsense. I wish it had been a more faithful adaptation to the book because that would have improved the story greatly.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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9
CasteApr 17, 2020
In my opinion it's a must watch if you are into detective stories. Yes, I'm omitting 'sci-fi' on purpose as that's for me the main strong point of the show, its tone is more realistic than usual Stephen King stuff.
The cast is outstanding,In my opinion it's a must watch if you are into detective stories. Yes, I'm omitting 'sci-fi' on purpose as that's for me the main strong point of the show, its tone is more realistic than usual Stephen King stuff.
The cast is outstanding, their thoughts, dialogues and reactions are consistent and the story is told it just clicked with me, it's slow but every second you are watching has a purpose.
It was a nice surprise, can definitely recommend!… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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2
sadamo1Nov 11, 2020
Wow. The first 2 episodes were a 9 out of 10. Then, the rest is ridiculous. This is a 5, maybe 6 episode story that they milk for 10 episodes. I mean milk, and cream, and cheese and every dairy product out there. Jason Bateman is great. TheWow. The first 2 episodes were a 9 out of 10. Then, the rest is ridiculous. This is a 5, maybe 6 episode story that they milk for 10 episodes. I mean milk, and cream, and cheese and every dairy product out there. Jason Bateman is great. The ending is anti-climactic and really not worth the time.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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10
eli_fjrJan 31, 2020
!!!!It's fantastic! Love the eeriness, dread, acting, styling, and story! This is a on a short list of great Stephen King adaptations.
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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7
JLuis_001Mar 17, 2020
It lost a lot of strength in the last few episodes and the ending felt quite anticlimactic but I think it was a good adaptation.

I feel the biggest problem was that it shouldn't have lasted so long. 7 or 8 episodes would've been enough butIt lost a lot of strength in the last few episodes and the ending felt quite anticlimactic but I think it was a good adaptation.

I feel the biggest problem was that it shouldn't have lasted so long. 7 or 8 episodes would've been enough but overall I did enjoyed it the whole thing.
Perhaps because of the supernatural element of plot, the story loses the crudeness of the first couple of episodes, but that is how it should have been.

Without doing much Ben Mendelsohn delivers, but the revelation was Cynthia Erivo.

If you like Stephen King or horror series, here's a decent option.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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7
MayfieldjaMar 18, 2020
A series that starts strong but could have benefitted from trying to fill fewer episodes. Don't worry, the stellar cast holds it all together until the final episodes. 7.5 out of 10 - SM
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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7
Bertaut1Nov 24, 2021
Starts very strong but the narrative weakens as the show progresses

Starting as a grim police procedural, the show takes a left turn in the third episode, before diving head-first into the supernatural in the sixth and seventh. And do theseStarts very strong but the narrative weakens as the show progresses

Starting as a grim police procedural, the show takes a left turn in the third episode, before diving head-first into the supernatural in the sixth and seventh. And do these two tones mix well? Kind of. The early episodes are the strongest, and as the hokey horror elements start to take over, the foreboding portentousness of those beautifully constructed episodes gives way to Stephen King-isms. Relatable themes such as guilt and the paralysis of grief are dropped in favour of larger (and thus more abstract) issues such as the infectious nature of evil and the ability of ordinary people to band together in extraordinary circumstances (as I said, it's King-101). But for all that, I enjoyed the show. I hadn't read the novel, and so I was genuinely invested in finding out where all of everything led. And even though the journey (the early stages, in particular), proved more interesting than the destination, it was a journey that I don't regret taking.

Cherokee City, Georgia. When the badly mutilated corpse of a young boy, Frankie Peterson, is found in the woods, homicide detective Ralph Anderson (the always excellent Ben Mendelsohn) immediately launches an investigation. Within a few hours, it appears the murderer has been identified, with multiple witnesses reporting seeing local little league coach and school teacher Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman) covered in blood near the scene of the crime. When physical evidence and surveillance footage further point to Terry's guilt, a bull-headed Ralph has Terry arrested in front of the whole town. As Terry's wife, Glory, (a suitably frazzled Julianne Nicholson) and his lawyer, Howie Solomon (Bill Camp; as good as he always is), scramble to understand what has happened, Terry maintains his innocence, saying he was at a teaching conference in another state on the day of the murder, a claim soon backed up by irrefutable evidence. But how can one person be in two places at once?

Airing on HBO, and based on the 2018 novel by Stephen King, the show was adapted for TV by novelist Richard Price. Showrunners/executive producers include Price and Jason Bateman (who also co-stars and directs the first two episodes, establishing the Ozark-esque aesthetic template). Novelist Dennis Lehane also contributes scripts for two of the later episodes.

If the show has a singular standout element (aside from the excellent ensemble cast), it's the aesthetic design. Bateman establishes a dark and gritty tone in the first two episodes, imbuing every shot with a foreboding sense of unease. Shadows abound; bright colours are muted, with greys and washed-out blues dominating; characters are often shown isolated in long shot, framed in doorways, or pushed into corners; depth of field is often extremely shallow; camera movements are methodical and slow; there's even a split-diopter used at one point. The show looks every inch an HBO prestige crime drama. There are also some nice directorial flourishes. For example, in the last episode (directed by Andrew Bernstein), as the good guys are moving through a cave, they pass a body of water and we see the villain's eyes non-diegetically reflected in the water, taking up almost all of the screen's real-estate. It's not subtle, but it looks good.

Perhaps the most noticeable aesthetic element is the discordant score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, which helps the atmosphere, tone, and pacing immeasurably. Music cues are often just one deep note, held and elongated for up to two or three seconds. Oftentimes, entire scenes will be scored to these singular notes, giving whatever is on screen a sense of portentousness beyond the visual.

For all its aesthetic gymnastics, however, the show does have problems. For one thing, it's too long; eight episodes would have been more than sufficient to tell this story. There's also the genre-mixing issue. What starts as a tough cop investigating a grisly murder morphs into a quirky paranormal sleuth chasing down an ancient evil, and as these two vie for space, neither genre feels fully developed. The early episodes are creepy and unnerving, but as the show goes on, the horror becomes broader and less effective. Another thing that bothered me was that the first solid transition into the supernatural is based on a coincidence so preposterous that I was convinced the show would return to it to offer an explanation (it does not). There's also the merry band of blue-collar salt-of-the-Earth types who band together to face something beyond any one of them, a trope that King has done to death.

All in all though, I enjoyed The Outsider for the most part. It has significant problems, but it does a lot right. The aesthetics and acting help a hell of a lot, and although it's far from the best King adaptation (that would remain The Green Mile), it's a damn sight better than recent efforts such as the two It films and (shudder) The Dark Tower.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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3
odysseus420Feb 22, 2021
The first couple of episodes were great and the detective lady is an interesting character but the show nosedives pretty quickly after that with a bunch of useless characters, boring dialogue and a meandering plot. It's funny how the TVThe first couple of episodes were great and the detective lady is an interesting character but the show nosedives pretty quickly after that with a bunch of useless characters, boring dialogue and a meandering plot. It's funny how the TV medium exposes how **** and formulaic Stephen King's dialogue can be (not always, but here it's pretty bad), with every character talking the same and always bringing up boring anecdotes with completely unearned gravitas etc.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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6
nycnationApr 7, 2020
HBO's The Outsider started off as a really interesting, exciting re-invention of Dracula, but was ultimately weighed down by it's tortoise-like pace after the 2nd episode. With an excellent cast, the mini-series would have been better ifHBO's The Outsider started off as a really interesting, exciting re-invention of Dracula, but was ultimately weighed down by it's tortoise-like pace after the 2nd episode. With an excellent cast, the mini-series would have been better if edited down to 7 episodes instead of dragging out repeated conversations, character thought processes and the continual use of car driving scenes to forward momentum. The finale was equally disappointing and reminded me of how I felt after watching the original mini-series of IT.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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8
dr_TreApr 12, 2020
Starts brilliant, staggers in the middle with too much filler and ends ok. Worth checking out.
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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7
mikesgold2KMay 16, 2023
zaczyna się ciekawie, potem zwalnia i nudzi, żeby na koniec znowu zainteresować i rozczarować finałem. Przynajmniej obsada daje radę, szkoda, że reszta niezbyt
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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