HBO's adaptation of Stephen King's TheOutsider sets up a haunting premise with a fantastic cast, but quickly loses steam; JacobOller reviews
projects, confront us with the uncanny proof that we are not unique and infuse us with doubt. If we’re not the only us, then what exactly are we supposed to believe?’s exciting novel —becomes another variation on this theme for HBO, presenting a procedural where alibis, accusations, and evidence enter the realm of unreality.
Because the storytelling—precise only when it wants to be—is often intentionally opaque, chopping up timelines and ending acts on meaningless beats, neither Holly nor Anderson’s investigation can pick up steam. The effect is jarring rather than unsettling, especially since much of the show’s horror is a growing dread developed methodically, as each dedicated, beat-by-beat procedural element is proved fruitless.
The aesthetic also plays a role in this obfuscation. Important plot points can slip through the narrative cracks—not apparent until a full episode later —or fall into the endless darkness in which the show is shot. Some of its visual elements aren’t especially bad, just ineffective. Slow-motion, used best in single sequence of bloody violence, erects a barrier of tempo between us and the characters.
A heightened tug-of-war between intimacy and distance—settling its camera in the beds its characters sleep in, then lingering outside in the doorways only to glimpse its obscured subjects through gaps in the environmental clutter—dominates the first Bateman-directed episodes. These shot choices are certainly distancing, but more often in a squinting, “What the hell’s going on over there?” sense than a “lonely isolation” sense.
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