*Spoiler Free*
Outcast is an apparent “horror” series based on comic of the same name by The Walking Dead fame; Robert Kirkman. Since the success of TWD, it seems that TV producers were eager to quickly snap up anything else that Kirkman was/had been working on in case that lighting could strike twice and they have suddenly ended up with a brand new critically series (I am a huge fan of the comics of The Walking Dead and I for one think the TV show is medium to good at the best of times). Unfortunately, Outcast is not the hit they had hoped it would be.
I do not know anyone else who actually watches it out of everyone I discuss TV shows with (be it friends or people from work), so I don’t know if this show is a hit or not? I mean it was renewed for a second season, so someone must be tuning in.
I remember reading the first volume of the comic book of Outcast years ago after I had read somewhere that it was created by the writer of The Walking Dead. As I have said I am a fan-boy of the comic series of TWD so I thought I would check this out. I don’t remember why but I actually stopped reading it. Maybe it was getting too hard to find in this country or online, either way it did not hold my interest the same way as Kirkman’s other series.
When they announced that a TV show was being made, I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and check it out. The first episode was really good. I remember I even encouraged my partner to watch it, and I sat there and re-watched it with her. It was quite eerie and left you wanting more; which is exactly what a show’s pilot should do. The rest of the season began to drag and I found myself having to force me watching it. I know my partner stopped paying attention about halfway through and she did not return for the second season (so I had to try and fit that in somewhere when we weren’t watching TV together).
It was an interesting story of possessions and demons, but it was told in a really dull way. I personally found the main character; Kyle Barns boring and uninteresting, which is never a good sign for anything. The season was only slightly saved by Philip Glenister’s character, the antagonist; Sidney, wanting to know more about him and his motivations, a few intriguing plot points, and the season finale which had Kyle’s sister become possessed and do something horrible, which I was interested in seeing the aftermath of in the next season.
But overall, aside an excellent first episode, Outcast fell into the category of shows that I am not overly bothered about. If I suddenly become too overburdened with finding the time to fit everything in, then like Gotham, then Outcast can easily be cut away and I would not feel any different.
The change from horror to whatever the show became, was disheartening, and this shift in style (the style it was originally marketed as) is a big reason why I began to lose interest.
So despite all of that, I decided to give season two a watch. The main reasons why I did not can the show after the first (as mention above), were the things that I was most interested in finding out about. I had a rough idea of the story-line (to an extent), so I felt like I would give it another chance and see how it goes.
Well first of all, let me just say that the last episode became available on the 5th of June, and I have only just bothered getting around to watching it (June 20th). That in itself speaks volumes. I have known the entire time that I had the show sitting there and ready to watch whenever I could find the motivation, but everything and anything seemed like a better option, rather than stopping me from doing so.
This season continued from the point that the last season ended with Kyle and his daughter (I cannot stand child actors/actresses and she is terrible) as they left the town of Rome in search of somewhere to hide from the people who are possessed (for which there are absolute shed loads of. They can’t go five minutes without bumping into someone who has been possessed). However within minutes of the first episode of the season, they realise that they have made a terrible decision and head back home, maybe to face them, or because the writers realised that they couldn’t do much with them being so far away from the town where the rest of the events are taking place.
This set up the season for me and, as I had suspected after watching the first episode, the rest of the season was drawn out and dull. Once again the plot was semi interesting, but it was told in such a drab and dreary way.
I know that the style of the show is suppose to be this Midwestern American town with rotten wooden walls and dying trees, but I can’t help but feel that this just constantly adds to the dull atmosphere that the show oozes.
As I said before, I find the lead character incredibly boring. Everything about him is boring. Most of all the actor’s vacant expression he pulls constantly throughout every scene. They try and make him a deep and meaningful character, but he always comes across so uninteresting, mostly by the actor’s portrayal of him. In the first season it was funny as I realised that he resolved situations by hitting them with his fists in every episode of the first season. If there was a problem at hand then you know that Kyle would end up punching it. I mean in the pilot episode, he hits a kid square in the face. But this season he is just being his droopy faced miserable self for the most of it, with most of this season’s action set pieces occurring with other characters elsewhere, which makes me think why they even bothered bringing him and his daughter back to Rome. I am sure it serves some higher purpose in the show’s overall plot, but nearly every seen with him in fails to hold my attention for very long, even the season finale’s apparent climatic ending felt a little ho-hum.
Another note about Kyle; I have never seen him wearing anything different. He is eternally wearing that dirty brownish jacket with a hoodie underneath. Maybe this was a contributing factor as to why he is so uninteresting to me.
His wife (or ex-wife, whatever she is) is another character I cannot stand. Basically all of the immediate Barnes family suck. The sister on the other hand is probably the most interesting character in this season. Last year it was Reverend Anderson who stole the show, but this season, his plot really amounted to nothing and failed to go anywhere. Half the time I was not even sure what he was actually up to. They are bleeding the storyline about his son so gradually, that I am not sure if it is going to be told at all, where as Kyle’s sister’s plot of her dealing with the aftermath of what she did at the end of season one, as well as her and her daughter escaping the clutches of the newly appointed antagonist (more on that in a moment), was some of the best parts of the season, even if the middle sections of her story-line fall into the Outcast mandatory dull and uninteresting formations. Her story was probably better than the main plot! For which I am still not sure what is going on after two seasons. Is it a battle of heaven and hell? or something different entirely? Because I really thought that Sidney was the Devil and all the biblical stuff was relevant, but now I am not so sure. Not sure if this is a good thing to keep me guessing, or a bad thing and it is now just winding me up that after all this time, I still don’t have a clue and now it is starting to get a little frustrating.
Sidney, the best character of the show, was a storyline I was really eager to see more of. His character was incredibly illusive and you never really know what he was really up to. Well this season his story began brilliantly; such as manipulating the burnt kid into become his own little psycho pet (which was a good story-line but ended so non monumentally, that I can’t actually recall how he died, or even if he is dead… surely he must be, right?), and when Sidney got a little cult together and was liaising with a council of… whatever the hell they are, indicating that there is a hierarchy of them, were all interesting plots. However, once you did discover that there was more of them and people actually higher above Sidney, he lost his power in my eyes. Instead of being the puppeteer who was manipulating the entire series of events, he was just knocking about with the rest of the grunts, so to speak.
His story lost momentum after the disappearance of the burnt kid (I really cannot remember what happened to him), and he was put on the back burner. It is a shame as he was really a great character and the only thing that I remember from the comics that I wanted to know more about, but in the show they do away with him. Maybe this was to give the audience a little win, whilst revealing a larger threat, but it felt like they really didn’t know what to do with the character.
After that the writers must have realised that there was no major adversary so they reintroduced a character from season one for the final three episodes, just so the audience had a face to go against. Other than him, the only other character was the lame doctor who has been promoted to main villain, making it feel a little bit forced, like they wanted to do away with Sidney, but didn’t know who to replace him with, so they just threw in anyone. The character had previously been nothing but a stooge, but now he is suddenly running the joint. The whole thing just felt like bad writing.
Other smaller stories this year felt like nothing more than filler. The out-of-the-blue storyline of the Sheriff’s wife that just abruptly ended was random as. Cut it out and you realise it served nothing.
The side story of the strange cult never really goes anywhere until the final episode, and even then I am still not 100% what it was even all about. I think I have a small idea, but the problem with this show is that they are trying to make this epic Heaven and Hell battle fought on Earth, but they are not following the same biblical guidelines that we are used to, so they need to explain a little more as to what is actually going on. Originally making Sidney out to be the Devil, seemed like a cool move, and if he had actually been the Devil then that would have been great, but making him just another lackey and then not really having a top dog running things from Hell (or wherever they are from… or whatever the fuck is going on), just leaves the audience confused, and not in a good way.
It’s okay to leave us wondering about everything as a whole, but Outcast does not give people enough.
The final shot of the season with Kyle’s mum (I am assuming) is so vague that I can’t help but feel it is suppose to be important, but I don’t know how. Surely by having it as the final shot of the season, we are suppose to be shocked faced with our mouth and eyes wide open, but I have no idea really.
That is what to best take away from this show. Outcast expects you to sit and wait for answers after seasons and seasons of questions (similar to LOST, and look how that turned out). If the show does get renewed for a third season, then they need to give the audience a lot more information, because right now I feel like I don’t know enough after two seasons and if I was to sack it off now, I do not think that I would lose any sleep over the unanswered questions that have been laid before me.
Dull is the key word here for Outcast. Although some story-lines are engaging, and a few action sequences are interesting, season two of the show is just as dull as season one.
If you really enjoyed the first season, then you should check it out. If you truly believe that it is going to answer these questions soon, then check it out. I for one do not know whether I will return for a third season (if they even make one, there has been no announcement yet). I can’t see the show going on for much longer if they stick to the same formula and writing style that they have used so far.
If the show is actually about demonic possession, then this analogy will apply: the show itself needs to be exorcised of the boring pitfalls and filler story-lines that it has become possessed by. If it can truly see the light and become a beacon of great TV (or even remotely close to The Walking Dead), then something needs to be now.
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