I started the first 10 minutes or so of Outer Range. And I hated it. It so badly wants to be Yellowstone, but with weird music and presumably some sci-fi stuff that I never saw. And with Lily Taylor and Josh Brolin and a heap of other fine actors it could have been great, but I really hate the cinematographic style. It’s all close-up hand-held tracking camera shots with natural light. But there isn’t enough natural light to illuminate these shots, so you see a gleam of an eye here, a hint of stubble there, the edge of a cowboy hat against the dim horizon, and a bunch of vague shapes moving in the murky darkness. Little kid says “Grandpa it’s 10 am!” and I was as surprised as Brolin because it looked like pre-dawn light to me. The style reminded me of the Neal Armstrong film First Man, but at least First Man was generally well lit. I’d say if your name isn’t Chloe Zhou you shouldn’t try to pull off these kinds of shots.
I agree, I watched most of the first episode and it was dark, mumbly, and dull. Then the thing happened, which wasn’t that interesting, and then it immediately went back to dark, mumbly, and dull for quite some time.
I watched the first two. It reminded me a bit of Lost, but not in a good way. It feels like the writers really don’t know what to do with the anomaly. Not sure if I’ll watch any more of it, but if I do I’ll probably wait for all the episodes to drop so I can skim a bit.
After 4 episodes it still feels like the writers don’t know what to do with the anomaly, although they keep hinting at it building to something. We know where it goes but there is still lots of weird unexplained stuff. But also, there really isn’t lots of weird stuff, there is mostly still just lots of cowboy murder drama.
I watched the first two and that’s it until the season is over. I’ll check then and if the anomaly is not explained by season’s end I’m done for good. That’s really the only interesting thing in the show for me. I’m not going to have that drag me through multiple seasons.
Episodes 5 and 6 lean into the weird more and start to answer some more things but we’re still not quite there on any of this being worthwhile.
Apparently episode 8 was the finale, and here I assumed it was just the set up for the finale. So uh, while those last two episodes dispensed with most of the standard drama stuff, what it turned into is not worth it, especially with how little it actually wrapped up. Also, what I think was supposed to be the big reveal, at least it was to our main character, was telegraphed so hard throughout the season that I was mostly just relieved they could quit pretending. The other reveal I didn’t actually see coming and was more interesting. Long story short, don’t bother with this.
I’m already six episodes in and was enjoying it moderately. Is it worth finishing with that level of sunk costs? I’m leaning towards yes.
Oh yeah, if you’re that far in definitely finish it out. I’ll be interested to hear what you thought! I know a lot of people upthread only watched an episode or two so my comment was more directed at them who have another 6 or 7 hours of watching ahead of them. Honestly, this concept probably would have been better as a movie or a series that was half the length.
Granted, they clearly left it wide open for another season considering I didn’t even know I was watching the finale.
So it’s a one and done series? No second season?
Question for anyone who might have an idea
What was the deal with Cecilia having the dead bear cub bite her hand? This seemed totally random and nothing came is it as far as I could tell.
Seems to be no indication if there will or won’t be a season two.
Not really. The whole bear thing I assume was meant to mirror her family situation but I really have no idea what the point was. It didn’t reveal anything about her character to me and it didn’t go anywhere.
I had issues too with other things that didn’t really fit into the established rules of what was happening with the hole. Specifically the buffalo with the arrows, the mountain vanishing, and the body returning.
What a weird show. I didn’t particularly like any of the central characters, and I didn’t know wtf was happening most of the time, and I didn’t enjoy that feeling as often or as much as I usually do in shows like this, but I still appreciated the mysteries and overall I didn’t actively dislike it, so there’s that I guess.
Oh, I nearly forgot, I also really liked the soundtrack and orher audio effects.
Pretty well sums up my thoughts. The Sheriff was pretty likeable for the most part. And I guess Amy was alright, especially considering how unlikeable children usually are in shows. But all the adults in both families were not likeable in any way. I guess the really weird Tillerson boy was kind of entertaining?
And yes, so much of the show was wtf weird stuff happening to seemingly just be wtf weird. It never came together or meant anything.
Add me to the list of those surprised I’d just watched the finale with so much unresolved. I’m also surprised no one has mentioned the exaggerated tongue kissing which made me laugh pretty darned hard. There had to be some reason for that (copious amounts of saliva exchange needed for …something?) other than comic relief, right? I mean, they zoomed in on the spit-string connecting their tongues, so that’s got to be something, right? I also thought the singing cowboy thing was really odd and off-putting at first, but it turned out to be central to the character and I’d say he’s actually not a bad singer once I got past the wierdness of it. If there’s a 2nd season, I’ll watch.
A few episodes in it reminds me of that German show The Dark somehow.
Yeah, I watched the first episode and about five minutes of the second and, aside from the poet girl, decided none of the characters were interesting enough to spend any more time with it.