Outer Range: The Most Boring Show on TV (Season 1 Review)
Please note: This review is only for Season 1 of Outer Range. I will not be watching Season 2.
I enjoy contemporary Westerns. I enjoy science fiction. A TV show combining the two genres sounds like something I might be interested in, I thought to myself several weeks ago while searching for a new show to watch.
My wife and I had just finished A Gentleman in Moscow and needed a new program. As the more particular of the pair of us (when it comes to what to watch, at least), it’s one of my responsibilities to seek out new content. Sadly, in selecting Outer Range, I had made an error in judgement. A mistake. A whoopsie-daisy. I hope that she will forgive me. I will need to watch a period piece to make it up to her for this one. Something with lots of costumes and romance. Only then will I be back in her good graces!
Now though, as I lie here on the grey couch typing on my computer, I reflect back on Outer Range and the many missteps it took to create a TV show so bland and unenjoyable.
The Biggest Problem with Outer Range
Firstly, and most egregiously, Outer Range is boring. It’s fine for a Western to be slow. I can appreciate a slow burn type of show. I am, contrary to popular belief, a patient man. (Well, maybe with some things I am not patient. I do not like waiting in lines.) Outer Range goes beyond being slow though and enters firmly into extremely boring territory.
There are two main goings-on in this season. Going-On “A”: There is a mysterious giant black hole on the Abbott family’s ranch that the family patriarch, Royal Abbott, discovers. We quickly learn that the hole has something to do with time travel.
Going-On “B”: One of Royal’s sons, Perry, gets into a drunken fight and kills a man who’s a member of a rival family/the Abbott’s neighbors. The sheriff is investigating the murder.
That first storyline, the one focusing on the sci fi elements of the show, is actually fairly interesting. The problem with Outer Range is that it spends over 90% of episodes 1-6 (out of the eight episode season) not focusing on this at all. Instead, we focus the far majority of our time on the murder investigation of a character that had maybe five minutes of total screentime in the show’s first episode.
This murder investigation, which is being conducted by the town sheriff, is just not entertaining in the slightest. Unlike the giant mysterious hole, there is zero intrigue here. We already know exactly what happened to the murdered rancher, since we were shown it in Episode 1.
This storyline also focuses largely on Perry and Rhett, Royal’s sons, and the town’s female, Native American, gay sheriff. (Outer Range decided to get all of its inclusion out of the way with this one character.) Watching any of these three characters is about as exciting as watching paint dry. I swear, if you are ever in need of a good nap, turn on a scene with one of Royal’s sons and you’ll be out in seconds.
The Acting is Really, Really Bad
Sure, the plot is boring, but it’s not like the actors who play Perry and Rhett are stealing any scenes either. Every member of the Abbott family, in fact, has a default look that’s this glazed over, bland expression.
Royal Abbott is played by Josh Brolin, someone I think is actually a really good actor. He’s probably the best part of the show, but he’s just largely wasted here because Royal, as a character, is pretty one-note. He’s a brooding, tough, manly man who doesn’t talk to his family. That’s about it.
Will Patton, another actor I’ve enjoyed in other roles, hams it up as the head of the eccentric neighboring family. I really don’t know what they were going for here. Who we’re presented with feels zero percent like a real person. This character’s sons, particularly Billy, feels the same way. Billy will sing songs randomly because that’s supposed to make him interesting. It’s a big miss.
Imogen Poots is the other big name in the cast. She plays a suspicious woman named Autumn Rivers staying on the Abbott’s land. I’m sure that Poots is a nice person in real life, but, wow, is she bad on Outer Range. Of all the characters, Autumn is given, by far, the most intense scenes – scenes in which a talented actor could really nail the performance and sell it. But Poots never does. It always feels like acting. Her emotions never feel real.
The Final Two Episodes of Season 1
My wife was so bored with Outer Range that she gave up after Episode 6. She got in some good naps during those first episodes, but apparently, she’d had enough. Of course, it was at exactly this point when she’d stopped watching that the show went completely off the rails.
Remember how I said that Outer Range is boring in the worst way? Well, that’s not exactly true for these final two episodes. It’s like some executive came in and said to the show’s creators, “Wait a minute, did you realize you need to have exciting and/or interesting things happen on your TV program?” And then the show’s creators said, “What?! No one told us that!” So, they then decided to just put tons of story beats and twists in the final two episodes.
It still doesn’t work. The final two episodes of Outer Range Season 1 are definitely still bad. But at least things happen. It’s entertaining bad and not boring bad.
That’s pretty much all of my main thoughts on Outer Range. Needless to say, I won’t be subjecting myself to Season 2, and I clearly don’t recommend Season 1. It’s a boring show with a boring story and boring characters. If you like things that aren’t boring, then this probably isn’t the program for you.
Grade: 3/10