HBO The Outsider
 

This is pretty good. Slow burn...creepy as hell. Great acting everywhere.

Yeah I really dug the premiere! Jason Bateman is a good dramatic actor and he directed the 1st episode very well. I will stick with this one for sure.

My friend is a writer on second season, so he's read the first. He said it gets wild.

Watched both episodes tonight. It's pretty damn good. Got a mixture of True Detective meets Castle Rock feel. I vaguely remembered reading this book and then it dawned on me that I never finished it. I'll have to see if I still got it so I can finish it.

This shit doesn’t **** around.

You got me interested in it.It is time to......

I saw the first two episodes. It started out pretty straightforward, but since Stephen King wrote it, I was wondering how it would evolve. This doppelganger angle seems like something he would pursue, except the fingerprints and DNA all match Bateman, that's the mystery. I'm sort of getting a Donnie Darko image in my head, a movie I really liked. Where things are normal and suddenly a rabbit appears or that thing came out of his body like the photo below. It's very good, can't wait for episode 3. I noticed Bateman's lawyer, played by Bill Camp, was the arresting detective in "The Night Of", a really good HBO mini series from two years ago.

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I think they can get there with the nurse that cut him and bandaged his hand.

Of course that could be misdirection also.

THAT'S IT!! I was wondering where I saw that actor before..

The 'I taught your kid to bunt' scene was masterful tv. Really enjoying this.

I couldn't agree more .... incredible scene.

Really was. Powerful shit. And Mendhelson is killing it too there are a lot of places he could stub his toe, but I really feel it. All of it. Old experienced cop, grieving for his kid, guilt about what went down, the whole bit.

Great show already...

Definitely a slow burn but reminds me of true detective. Can't wait to see this unfold.

Kind of. A LOT of shit has happened in 2 episodes.

yeah that got me

Yep the gravesite scene with his wife asking him if he stripped everything away, what did his gut say, was gold as well.

Definitely has a True Detective feel but the quality of some of these scenes has me flashings back to Breaking Bad cancer scenes. Like when Walt gets his diagnosis then tells the doc he's got a mustard stain on his shirt. Really good stuff going on here.

Totally agree. Bateman is a terrific actor.

Third episode was slower but that barn scene was creepy. I like this new detective too...can't wait see what is next

I was watching a detective show, and the 3rd episode turned into the X-Files. Definitely some weird shit going on!!

I knew it was X-files from the moment I saw green hoodie.

Watched the first 2 episodes last night and X-Files is exactly the vibe I've drawn so far. A labyrinth of stories with no conclusion or closure on the story you just invested a portion of your life viewing. Like having to eat your breakfast cornflakes one at time and never feeling full.</br></br>I've learned to despise the X-Files.

Yeah. I have no clue wtf is going on.

Yeah.. I think they are making it too complicated...

This show is where I thought True Detective (S01) was going until I watched episode 4 or 5.

I am quite intrigued to see how The Outsider will wrap up this season. There is a lot going on, but nothing seems wasted or filler yet. However, It's easier to tell that at the conclusion of a story.

Watched episode 4 tonight. The director likes to introduce new characters before you know what their importance is, then springs them into action. So we have a trail of 3 people starting with the female in NYC, why she lied about having sex with person #2 I don't understand. The new detective with the strange abilities does make it interesting, in fact they are making the show about her and forgetting the cops in Georgia, except for the one that went hunting. We now know there is some ugly freak in a black hoodie responsible for all this mayhem, I guess he is the devil and it's not really about aliens. This is not a spoiler, because it almost too hard to figure out even if your watching.

I'm not overly versed in the entirety of the matter, partially out of desire to enjoy the show, but;

I could see her spinning off into a new HBO series.

If you are sufficiently intrigued, this is an existing narrative that has someone else providing another interpretation of the character and milieu.

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That last episode was completely different from the book.

Show is getting good...just watched ep 5

From episode 5, I love how they recreated a sense of sleep paralysis in the scene with Green Hoodie speaking to the detective's wife. I felt that just from watching...you could feel that heaviness. Great directing and editing.

Hell of a cliffhanger this week! Cant wait for episode 7!

Just saw the first few episodes. Looks intriguing. I don't ever watch Stephen King stuff because I don't like horror stuff. This doesn't feel like a horror show so far, but it sounds like something supernatural will be popping up very soon.

EDIT:

Got to episode 5. Immediately turned off now that I've found out it's about the devil or something. Thought it was going to be something cool, instead.

It's actually better than book, which is a good sign because the ending of the book was atrocious so hopefully they don't use it.

A Stephen King book with a shitty ending? No way!

I like it okay - I'm only 2 deep into it - I like it was filmed in Stockbridge and Gainesville, Ga. Also it's neat seeing the Quality Foods sign over and over. But right now - the older series The Sinner has my full attention. So damned good.

2 Episodes in so far and enjoying it. Hard to binge watch though because it is in fact a slow burn.

Oh yeah....gonna be good. Shits about to go down

Starts out great, and gets worse. I hope these last 2-3 episodes redeem itself. I've been disappointed because of who/what it ends up being, but it is well produced.

Was insanely good right up until the autistic supernatural crap came into play. I know it's a Stephen King novel but damn could they have at least made it somewhat realistic.

I don't like the director, I would never give him another project to direct if it were me. They have too few pages and too many episodes to fill. It's beyond a slow burn, it's like paint drying. I wish I hadn't started watching all the episodes. I liked it better when I thought it was an alien. If someone showed me that much evidence connecting 3 different people in 3 different locations, I would sit up and take notice, not go off on a tangent, El cuco.

This is a great show.

Same, except I'll probably keep watching to see how it turns out. But starting losing interest when it pointed to some supernatural monster or something. I feel like it's such a easy way out in these stories--start with an intriguing murder mystery, then it turns out it's a shape-shifting monster or time travel portal or demon ghost or some shit. There's no rules that way and you can just do anything you want because a mystery alien monster did it.

Well...they're all believers now.

First 4 or 5 episodes had me on the edge of my seat.

The last few...not so much.

The Holly character is acted well, but she has basically no flaws and can figure out the answer to everything almost immediately which makes her pretty boring. Everytime she calls the creature "El Cuco" it makes me cringe. I get that it's based on a real legend, but the name just sounds super childish and cheesy.

Also we've spent 3 episodes on Ben Mendelsohn, who started off as a really interesting character, just walking around with his arms crossed and frowning. What a waste of a really promising character.

Idk. I'm going to watch the last couple episodes, but i'm afraid this one is going to go down as a show that had great potential but couldn't stick the landing.

This episode seemed more silly the more they showed the monster eating or whatever. Hopefully the next 2 will be really good. I've enjoyed the show for the most part though.

Recognized Bill Camp right away, but it JUST struck me . . . Ralph was Orson Krennic!!

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On HLN Bill Camp is the narrator of the new Forensic Files II. His voice is not good. The original Peter Thomas died in 2016, and on the internet most people are saying the same, his voice doesn't work.

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Haven't watched that movie, but the first time I recollect Mendelsohn is when he played Danny Rayburn in Bloodline.

Same here! He was awesome in that role. That series was so stressful lol But good!

Watched the first two episodes tonight. So far, so good. I’ve kept tabs on this thread so I know there’s some weird supernatural shit coming but it’s a work based on a Stephen King book. To say there’s weird supernatural shit is to be redundant. I don’t think I’ll be fazed. Great acting so far.

I stayed with it until episode 6, the last two I've just sped through. It's BS now.

Exactly how I went into it. I have found it surprisingly grounded and "realistic" for being based on a Stephen King work. Some episodes are better than others but overall it has held my interest and Ive enjoyed it.

Was it just me or did the whole "anything you see or hear, the creature sees and hears as well" thing come out of nowhere? I don't remember them talking about that before. How would she know that? It was obviously useful as a plot device in this episode, but seemed to come out of left field.

That really seemed undeveloped. They mentioned it had recollection or something after transforming but have never said anything about a continued live feed from the real person until now. I also wonder about the control over the other cop. I get that it needed protection while transforming, but how long can it keep hold of him, or is he just in line for transformation next. Maybe I missed something on that one because I am definitely not riveted to every detail. They also made a pretty big point that they don't know how to kill it so I imagine we are in for another convenient information reveal that will annoy me.

I'm still watching because I like the actors, but the story is losing me.

And they didn't even acknowledge that they were going to need to reheat lunch. That chicken place was over an hour away!

That was a good episode.

**** bro, spoiler tag that shit. ^^^

Sorry ..wasn't sure if we did that still. I just avoid threads if I'm not caught up

I think Holly realized it when the creature tried to get Hoskins to off her. Also, as viewers we saw it when the creature was constantly etching "Stop Her" on the back of Hoskins' hands. I believe Holly assumed if the creature can use Hoskins to "see" then it naturally has the same connection with whomever it copies.

But Hoskins is under direct control of the creature, not the person who is being cloned.

It's also a bit weird to see the affect the "link" is having on the strip club guy (acting paranoid, throwing up) given that we didn't see any of that behavior from Jason Bateman's character when his copy was running around. He was going to conferences, baking pancakes and coaching baseball.

But like Hoskins, the person being cloned is still 'linked' to the creature through whatever DNA it uses from the scratch. Therefore, ability to see what the cloned person see is reasonably within the scope of creatures powers.

The major difference there is the strip club guy is aware that the monster exists, has copied him and is in his head whereas Bateman's character was completely unaware anything like that happened to him. He STILL doesn't know.

So the strip club guy vomiting and being paranoid, I think, is moreso due to his own psychological reaction to KNOWING than any effect the creature is having on him.

Wow, that really sucked.

Bummer..had potential

What did the PC scene mean?

Most disappointing finale since Game of Thrones.

What a ****ing dud.

I was falling asleep at the end. I know it's been a slow burn, but man, the ending just dragged out.

It was odd. Not sure when or she got scratched. Have to go back and watch it again. She said it takes an outsider tk know an outsider. They snuck somethin in there about Holly.

Not sure about the post-credit scene, but the whole "Let's do this again sometime" seemed to set it up for another season of them investigating something else together. I guess she's the Mulder in the relationship. They could actually improve the pacing if they were investigating two or three cases during a season instead of one that's full of slow motion shots of people deep in thought.

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This thing had been limping out but they still had me until El Cuco became visible. I'm sure that's not an easy concept to make visual, but woof, most non-terrifying monster scene ever.

Was hoping they'd show a true form

Not a great show. It was well scripted and well acted, but had a flawed foundation.

It's like, rather than telling a story, they were 'going for something.' That something being an ineffable struggle between rationality and the supernatural, and the plodding dread that accompanies the recognition that some things cannot be explained.
I can see how they were excited to tackle it, but it's the same old shit with King. Fascinating premise that peters out like a wet fart.
The actors did their best, but they started with an idea without a resolution.

They didn't even show some crazy eyes or sharper than normal teeth. It was just Claude, the strip club guy. They at least hinted at its facial changes right before it got its head crushed, but it was too little too late.

If they were going to go with the look-exactly-alike angle, they should have at least done a switcheroo at the end. Claude is killed in the partial cave collapse and the creature switches shirts with him so the hole from the shotgun blast shows on the dead guy. Creature wedges his leg under a rock and waits for rescue. Of course none of that is revealed to us until the end when Claude returns to his house and is splashing some water on his face. He looks up at the mirror and then we get one of those facial changes. At least then there would have been a reason for the ho-hum human appearance of this horribly dangerous beast.