The Outsider (2020)

[moon_custafer]

A couple of weeks ago I watched the HBO adaptation of Stephen King’s The Outsider, and want to write about it. I fully understand if you’re not in the mood right now to watch or read about a show with a cop as one of the main heroes, even if the other one is a Black, female, neurodivergent private investigator. There’s also a pretty sympathetic defense lawyer involved. They’re all up against a monster whose MO involves killing innocent children and then framing innocent adults.

The first two episodes are almost a straight police procedural, as small-town homicide detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) investigates a brutal child-murder and every piece of evidence points straight to local Little-League coach Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman), until footage shot at a teacher’s conference by a tv crew confirms Terry’s alibi of being seventy miles away at the time of the crime, asking questions at a panel discussion on books and censorship.

Of course, this being a Stephen King story, the explanation is supernatural; the audience has already noticed the mysterious hooded figure watching from the sidelines as the crime creates ripples of heart attack, murder, suicide among the survivors. By episode three Terry’s been fatally shot at the courthouse by the victim’s brother; Ralph is on administrative leave and beginning to have his own doubts; and he and Terry’s widow (Julianne Nicholson) and lawyer (Bill Camp) have warily, grudgingly teamed up to figure out what really happened before the local DA sweeps the case under the rug. Howie and private investigator Alec recommend hiring on Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo), described as “a full-bore loony, but the best in the business.” And things start to look a bit more hopeful.

Holly is a human encyclopedia who spent her childhood being studied by psychologists and neurologists; she’s a mix of intelligence, charm and anxiety; she keeps calm and outwits her kidnapper and she’s terrified at having to speak to a roomful of people (even if the prospect of telling the people who hired you ‘actually all the evidence points to this being the work of a supernatural bogeyman’ would scare anybody) and she has an enthusiastic romantic relationship with Andy (Derek Cecil), the mall-security guard who joins their quest along the way.

Holly and Andy are my favourite part of the series, actually—Erivo and Cecil do this beautiful, delicate dance of their characters trying to figure each other out. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a romantic relationship depicted in quite that way— it’s not an enemies-to-lovers, or even a friends-to-lovers: both parties are interested pretty much from the start, but they’re each unsure of the other’s boundaries, so they’ll move towards each other, back off and check the reaction, etc. It made me think of the courtship of sandhill cranes. For all the horror, I felt like this series was actually very warm, emotionally – the cast all have really great chemistry, and it sets up the necessary contrast with the inhuman evil they’re fighting.

My one quibble with the show’s execution is that the picture quality was frequently very dark—obviously this goes with the mystery/horror territory (and may also have partly been the screen settings on my iPad), but it was a little frustrating in a narrative that calls on the viewer to pay close attention to details (the narrative isn’t entirely in chronological order). I kept squinting at the picture only to find myself looking at my own reflection in the screen.

Comments

[kore]

Oh wow, that sounds like a neat take on Holly! She's one of my favourite King characters, altho I was kind of meh on the actual books. This sounds like an interesting adaptation.

[sovay]

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a romantic relationship depicted in quite that way— it’s not an enemies-to-lovers, or even a friends-to-lovers: both parties are interested pretty much from the start, but they’re each unsure of the other’s boundaries, so they’ll move towards each other, back off and check the reaction, etc.

That sounds incredibly endearing.

P.S. I leave this here: "Shea Whigham is a joy as Mason’s investigative partner, dropping wisecrack after wisecrack against the bleakest of palettes and scenarios."