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Outer Range sees Josh Brolin (Deadpool 2) as the hot-headed, and bizarrely named ranch owner Royal Abbott, but then after “Gurney Halleck” in Dune, nothing is off limits.
He plays a grandfather, even though the actor is only 54 – although I get that he’s effectively playing an older character. It’s a time when everyone goes to see bull rides, to see how long participants can try to stay on. He’s also proud of the fact that the ranch has been in his family for three generations, and he’s not about to give it up any time soon, despite the actions of certain individuals.
He lives there with his wife, Cecilia (Lili Taylor), and before long in the opener, drifter Autumn (Imogen Poots) turns up, saying she was looking for his ranch, and she creates her own mystery, but what brought her there?
While out on the plain, he finds a massive round hole has appeared out of nowhere, like something just bored into the Earth, and it seems impossibly deep. There’s definitely some supernatural stuff at play. Maybe Thanos will return? Either way, Dances With Wolves this is not 😉
It quite amusing when he tries to deal with it and fill it in or cover it up. However, a situation develops where he might actually be able to use this oddity to his advantage.
Part of the plot centres on a dispute of a small piece of land with the Tillersons, which seems like small beer compared to other things going on, and there’s a scene of men beating each other up, because they’re drunk and one is taunting the other. However, how come during a punch-up, there’s no blood flying?
Anyhoo, after one episode, I Wasn’t quite sure what I’m watching, but safe to say, it left me wanting to check out the second episode. I then watched the second, but was left very confused. There’s a few things going on that aren’t quite gelling together, and it feels less than the sum of its parts, but it does have intrigue, so I may check out some more. It is such a slow drama, though. In fact, it feels a bit like The Power of the Dog: A nice-looking Western, but rather lacking in story, or at least, a story that makes sense.
However, if I do watch more, I’ll wait until it’s released (two episodes on April 15th, and then weekly after that), since there’s a lot of mumbling, so I wish I had subtitles on this preview.
Thanks to our friends at Prime Video for the screener prior to release.
Outer Range sees two episodes released on Friday April 15th on Prime Video, and then the remainder of the eight episodes are released weekly on a Friday. It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Series Directors: Jennifer Getzinger, Alonso Ruizpalacios, Amy Seimetz, Lawrence Trilling
Producers: Trevor Baker, Andrew Balek, Naledi Jackson, Lucy Thurber
Creator: Brian Watkins
Writers: Brian Watkins, Zev Borow, Dominic Orlando, Lucy Thurber, Naledi Jackson
Music: Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
Cast:
Royal Abbott: Josh Brolin
Autumn: Imogen Poots
Cecilia Abbott: Lili Taylor
Perry Abbott: Tom Pelphrey
Deputy Sheriff Joy: Tamara Podemski
Rhett Abbott: Lewis Pullman
Billy Tillerson: Noah Reid
Luke Tillerson: Shaun Sipos
Amy Abbott: Olive Abercrombie
Wayne Tillerson: Will Patton
Maria Olivares: Isabel Arraiza
Martha Hawk: Morningstar Angeline
Kirkland Miller: Hank Rogerson
Rose Hawk: Ofelia Garcia
Deputy Matt: Matthew Maher
Trevor Tillerson: Matt Lauria
Patricia Tillerson: Deirdre O’Connell
Young Royal: Teaguen Arbogast
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.