Outer Range
Amazon Prime
Man that was annoying! It started off well enough with some lovely visuals and a slow paced combination of supernatural mystery and family drama. I watched the first episode when it was released but then abandoned it - I was worried that my time would be wasted with a show that set up some great ideas but never managed to explain them - either becuase the writers made things so weird they tied themselves in knots (e.g. “Lost”, so my wife tells me) or just get cancelled (“Night Sky” - once burned twice shy!). After all it is easy to write strange, haunting and mysterious elements into your show, it is another thing entirely to then explain them in a satisfactory way!
But when Season 2 was announced I decided to give the rest of the first season a further look. It was frustratingly slow at times (perhaps reflective of that Wyoming ranch life) and I hate that Amazon run ads in a show they told me I’d paid for in my Prime subscription (petulantly, I turn down the sound and read a book while they’re on) but it was interesting enough to keep me going.
And then we got to the final couple of episodes and it became a real “WTF” experience. I totally lost any understanding of almost all the characters’ motivations. Yes, it was perfectly clear what they were all doing but I have no idea why (except for Rhett, who’s desire to just get his girl and take off out of there is perfectly understandable!). How can I care about characters who just seem to be doing random things? I have literally, “lost the plot” on this one.
But, yes, dammit, I will be back for season 2 but I’ll tackle something else while I let the resentment burn away…