User reviews

Starts off pretty straightforward, but then the plot thickens... and you're hooked. Some of the adaptations of Stephen King's stories end up atrocious messes, but this one has real potential! Sublime acting.

If only HBO would release the entire series at once. I hate waiting for new episodes. ;)

First 2 episodes were very promising and intriguing, directed by Justin Bateman who also performed as a main character. Then the next 8 episodes feel so long, dragging along the story with slow development and minor characters mixing it up.

The reason I kept watching was because of Cynthia Erivo's wonderful performance as Holly. Positive note to Ben Mendonsohn acting too.

In the end, I feel this could have been an 5 episode series or a 2h movie.

In Cherokee City, Georgia, young Frank Peterson is found brutally murdered. Police detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) leads the investigation. All evidences point to amiable kids' baseball coach Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman). His wife Glory (Julianne Nicholson) is shocked when he gets arrested on the field. He maintains his innocence and has an indisputable alibi. This case has overwhelming evidences on both sides. With such conflicting clues, Anderson resorts to peculiar private investigator Holly Gibney.

This is like True Detective with a splash of supernatural from by Stephen King. It's got great actors like Ben Mendelsohn doing good character work. It has good atmospherics and great crime drama feels. It's a limited series. I do get frustrated with Ralph as he keeps his denial for too long. The start is addictive. It has its fun surprising weirdness.

Jason Bateman has become one of my favourite actors, he disappeared from the limelight for years and has come back stronger and better than ever before. This show is absolutely fantastic, you are hooked within the first ten minutes and you can't look away so put your phone on silent and your feet up to enjoy this suspenseful edge of your seat mystery! Forget the negative reviews especially about Ben Mendelson's lisp for goodness sake he's a great actor and anyone with negative reviews clearly doesn't appreciate good acting and film!

When I read this book, I couldn't put it down. The series so far is the SAME WAY - the cast is excellent, the sound editing sets the scene and I am highly doubtful anyone guesses the ending. This is classic Stephen King...believable humans at their worst (and best). Tough to watch and impossible to look away. I hope people stick with the full story (and read the book too)!

First of all, the story was great. This series had such great potential to be brilliant, addictive and entertaining, but .. What an artistic poop. The story is stretched, situations prolonged. Long music scenes where nothing happens. The series would have been a great 5 episode miniseries. The 10 episodes were absolutely insane to extend the story, which culminated in the final 50 minute episode, where the actual entertainment was 15-20 minutes. 6/10 because this was ok, but not addictive and entertainment what I expeckted seeing the first episode. What a disappointment.

If you ever wondered what the first season of might have looked like had the merely-hinted-at supernatural elements become more than merely hinted at, then The Outsider gives you a possible answer. Starting as a grim and gritty 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 easily 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, and despite the not entirely successful mixing of genres, 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 acclaimed 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, who has directed multiple episodes of Ozark, 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; the editing is non-linear enough to keep the narrative slightly off-kilter (although this non-linearity is confined primarily to the first two episodes and the opening of episode nine); there's even a split-diopter used at one point to keep the foreground and background in perfect focus. 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. Sure, 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 purely visual.

For all its aesthetic gymnastics, however, the show does have some problems both stylistic and narrative. For one thing, it's too long; eight episodes would have been more than sufficient to tell this story, and the narrative really starts to drag in episodes five and six. It picks up again in eight (which is largely a character-focused episode), but there's just not enough material to fill 10+ hours. There's also the genre-mixing mentioned earlier. 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, with tone and atmosphere doing the heavy lifting. But as the show goes on, the horror becomes broader and less effective, and Price is never really able to fully yoke these two disparate elements into a cohesive whole.

Other problems (presumably) come from the source text, such as the first solid transition into the supernatural, which 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 by this stage.

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 ever made (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.

Absolutely compelling , impossible evidence with awesome performaces.

It started out excellent, but after a few episodes it divert from the book, probably to extend it to ten episodes. Nevertheless it is a good show. Casting is great, and it keeps the tension and keeps you interested even if you have read the book

The acting is great. The story is great. Incredibly watchable. If you like true crime, this as close as fiction can get as far as the feel.

I loved the first two episodes and was absolutely gripped. Then episode 3 and 4 happened. I was wondering why the style, pacing, even lighting changed for the worse. Why did this suddenly change from an engaging mystery to a slow, arty-farty borefest where the majority of long, lingering scenes are watching people travel on public transport with no dialogue. Far too much time suddenly spent on cinematography than actual story.

Wondering why the sudden change in direction, I noticed that Jason Bateman stopped directing after the second episode and handed the reins over to Andrew Bernstein, who has seemingly made a hash of things. After finishing episode 4 and struggling to stay awake, I'm done.

I only gave it 5 stars as the start was so good.

Really enjoying this adaptation. Faithful to the story. Jason Bateman just gets better as both an actor (been a fan since "It's Your Move" !) and a director; simply but electrifying use of pace, angles & cinematography. He has a delicate touch that leaves you feeling like you're part of the story watching from over a shoulder. Genius.

I love this show! Not a huge fan of Stephen king's works but the storyline, acting and screenplay of this show really hooked me in. I found myself at the edge of my seat, getting increasingly invested in each of the characters. Great balance of light and dark and excellent character development. A must watch!

I just completed the first season of this dark and suspenseful detective/horror series an have to say that it's saving grace is a great cast of veteran actors, including Justin Bateman who also serves as executive producer. Without getting too mired in the details I'll just point out some areas that didn't work for me: 1] Holly, played by Cynthia Erivo left me wondering why her character wasn't developed fully. She literally used the same furrowed brow expression throughout. As for her role, she is intuitive, but is she also clairvoyant? Is she a supernatural? A medium? No one really knows. The show only suggests powers beyond what she showcases, like an eidetic memory and a belief in the supernatural. 2] The creature itself is not interesting. Shape shifting is old as the hills and usually just as boring. It has this weird little encampment in a cave which borders on ridiculous and it also has to eat to survive which is even more ridiculous. Why does it choose to take children? Oh, because they're "sweeter" tasting? 3] Then there are the endless stretches of filler that compelled me to fast-forward because there was no reason to be invested in the character's relationships as they never really furthered the plot. Worth a watch but don't expect True Detective season one.

Loved this show. Each episode was intriguing. It was a Cop thriller that kept the supernatural aspect of it at arms length. Maybe 8 or 9 episodes would have been better just to tighten the pacing up a bit. Worth a look.

Just seen Episode 7. It is a great series. Those who watch it are the audience of a seance where evil forces are being invited into your most intimate world...

Amazing thriller One it's the best I've seen. How come all Stephen kings novel's make wonderful movies he's an amazing writer and the director of this series is also amazing

I've watched 6 episodes so far, and I have to bail on this show. It uses non-stop ominous sound effects and dramatic angles to hide the fact it's halting and withholding plot points to drag the story over 10 episodes. So little happens each episode. I understand the writers and directors are accomplished, but this story suffers from what a lot of streaming shows suffer from: a story that could be told in 3 hours instead of 10. Excellent cast can't redeem it. Also, the story wastes too much time on hardboiled cop show cliches (strip club action, yawn). Cynthia Erivo is amazing. If they cut out all the other parts and focused on her, well, I might go for that.

Ben has to be the best Australian actor we've had in a very long time. From Bloodline to this... the diversity of his roles and the way he goes about them. He is just brilliant and this may just be his best work yet (Bloodline is tough to beat).

I was afraid to begin this serie cause i have two little babies, and the story what i've read soo disturbing... BUT im really glad that i've been watching this cause its as good as the another stephen king inspired series the Castle Rock or even BETTER YET!! The story the actors, the director (THANK YOU MR BATEMAN!!) is so good. I can recommend to everyone who have a bit stronger heart and stomach. But you will not regret it! I wont spoil anything, JUST PLEASE START TO WATCH AND ENJOY every minute that it can give to you!!

First few episodes had me thinking this was going to be a great series. The last two episodes made me so angry that im finding it hard to put it into words. For the life of me i cant figure out how they could screw it up so badly.

If you havent seen this yet, please dont you will only get disappointed and frustrated like me. Its almost like they had good writers in the beginning and they got replaced by total amateurs halfway through..

Dont believe the good ratings, they only saw the first two episodes or are involved in making of the show somehow.

I'll be brief, almost as well done, scripted, and acted as True Detective season 1. Don't know there will ever be a limited series that will top True Detective season 1, but this is close! A must watch and I am not a sci fi guy.

Great storytelling and cinematography. Really impressed by Jason Bateman.