HBO’s the outsider 0

[Comicopolis]

On 3/12/2020 at 12:17 PM, sd2416 said:

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As this scratch has throughout the show been a sign that El Cuco is able to take someone's form, this suggests that either Holly has had another encounter with El Cuco after she left Ralph, or alternatively that the Holly we have seen all this time was not the real one after all.

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Some are saying possibly, the Holly we saw wasnt the real Holly and the mid credit scene was actually earlier in the series. 

 

The mid credit scene comes after she sees that Terry has been exonerated so it can't have come earlier in the series.

[Bosco685]

THE VULTURE: The Outsider Season Finale Recap: Closing the Book

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Most of “Must/Can’t” is about the cleanup. After all of this, Ralph Anderson and Holly Gibney basically hide away what they know to be true, aware that the world would never understand it. This feels very practical, but also a bit disappointing. Everything gets tied up in a way that allows Glory Maitland to hug her children after Terry is finally officially exonerated, which is nice, and part of what the season has all been about, but the destination doesn’t feel worth the journey. Multiple people are dead, and their murders have been blamed on a rogue cop named Jack Hoskins and his partner in crime, but no one really knows about the extent of the evil that was uncovered. Maybe they’ll discover it after Yunis’s call and the move to reopen the investigation. Maybe Yunis will do a talk-show tour about the boogeyman. Maybe not. The idea that violence has a supernatural element that is never made public is a part of King’s mythos, but everything feels too tidy here, even the final beat of Ralph and Jeannie at their son’s grave.

Spoiler

Claude himself didn’t get that memo. He comes into the cave himself and starts shooting. As the ceiling collapses, the trio flees, but Claude is caught under a rock. Instead of just leaving the villain behind, Ralph goes to end this thing. Luckily, there isn’t a “Double Spiderman” moment in which Ralph has to figure out which Claude is the real Claude. No, he gets to watch this creature transform through the various faces it has been in the past before smashing all of them with a giant rock. It’s over.

 

Listen, no one expected Richard Price to become more like David Lynch in the season finale, but it’s telling that the season premiere of The Outsider felt more ominous and surreal than the season finale. The best moments in the final episode were the unexpected ones — the brutality of those bullets hitting Alec’s body, the ghosts of Ollie Peterson and Derek Anderson appearing to tell Ralph his job wasn’t done, the morphing faces of the enemy — but there just weren’t quite enough of them to match what initially worked about this show, or what it was about in the end.

 

Where does The Outsider go from here? Ralph says to Holly, “I wouldn’t mind teaming up again,” as if he’s pitching season two. Most people have been assuming that season two would follow Holly on a whole new case, but what if it brought Ralph back, too? For some reason, it’s easier to picture Holly investigating something supernatural again than Ralph, especially now that the division between the two of them in terms of belief isn’t there to drive the story, but it could work.

 

The bigger concern is in that post-credits tag, in which Holly has a vision of Jack and seems truly concerned that she might have a Hoskins Burn on the back of her neck. And is that a scratch on her arm? Could she be next? Do we really want a season two of The Outsider that brings back El Cuco? Maybe, if it means they’ll get the ending right this time.

• In case you missed it, the last song that Holly hears on the radio is “Washington Square,” the same tune that meant a great deal to Ralph Anderson’s mother and seemed to supernaturally come back to him at a key moment in his life. Discuss among yourselves what it means to end the show with it.
• What did it mean that Holly said, “Who’s Terry?” In the cave, she has a moment of the kind of surreal uncertainty I wish was evident in more of the finale. Of course, Holly knows who Terry is. Has she been “infected” or altered by El Cuco already? Or is it just a “Holly moment”? After all, she can tell you anything about the day in history but not remember how she got where she is today. She could also just be implying this is all much bigger than one case.
• What does the pan to the hoodie on the rocks mean as Ralph is leaving the cave? It’s just the outfit that El Cuco’s worn most of the season, like panning in on a vanquished villain’s mask, right? Or does it mean something more?

 

COLLIDER: ‘The Outsider’ Ending: Breaking Down the Finale, Credits Scene, and Season 2 Possibilities

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Spoiler

 

Episode 10, titled “Must/Can’t” in a dual reference to both the necessity of trapping El Cuco in the cave and the danger of confronting a supernatural being no one in our group of heroes fully understands, seemingly ends with everything resolved. The monster is killed (Ralph goes Full Mendo on that thing with a big-assed stone and I would’ve stood up in my living room and shouted had it not been late on a Sunday night), Terry is exonerated by the Cherokee City District Attorney, Claude returns to his family home, Holly leaves a gift in Andy’s casket and moves on to other cases, and Ralph finally accepts his son’s death with some comfort of the knowledge that a world beyond his understanding absolutely exists. But if horror and Stephen King in particular has taught me anything over the years, it’s to be utterly suspicious of an uber-happy ending. And my suspicions were confirmed when the credits were interrupted with an epilogue of Holly in a hotel room somewhere in middle America.

 

Holly has a vision of Jack Hoskins, the bag cop-turned-monster-puppet, in her bathroom mirror, and immediately checks the back of her neck for any signs of the boils that indicate El Cuco’s influence. She seems to be comforted by the results, but it’s important to note that we don’t actually get to see her neck – it’s completely obscured by shadow. Then she moves into the bedroom and looks up Frankie Peterson’s murder to see that Terry Maitland has been exonerated. The episode ends with the camera slowly pulling away from Holly as she anxiously twirls her hair, a prominent scratch visible on her forearm.

 

Now, as far as the possibility of The Outsider Season 2, I think it’s entirely likely. While the show was initially announced as a miniseries, it does the work to pave the way for a potential second season.

This part is interesting about Holly's use in other King books.

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The Outsider was based on a single novel, but Holly has appeared in a few of King’s books, as well as the Audience series Mr. Mercedes, in which the character is played by Justine Lupe. So the idea of having Holly as a recurring character in a series of mysteries is clearly something King intended. Also, there’s precedent for spinning off a miniseries into a regular show – Dexter, starring Michael C. Hall as a serial killer of serial killers, started out as an adaptation of a single novel in its first season but went on to become its own storyline, completely separate from any source material.

 

I think a Season 2 is entirely dependent on how much people enjoyed this initial offering, and I am fully excited about the possibility of watching Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo hunt Frankensteins and werewolves for years to come.

 

[Bosco685]

The Outsider Episodes 8, 9, 10 wrap-up featurettes.

 

[Jaydogrules]

3 hours ago, Bosco685 said:

THE VULTURE: The Outsider Season Finale Recap: Closing the Book

COLLIDER: ‘The Outsider’ Ending: Breaking Down the Finale, Credits Scene, and Season 2 Possibilities

This part is interesting about Holly's use in other King books.

 

Ugh.  And I am of the opinion that the point where this show went awry is A) The introduction of the supernatural elements, and B) the introduction of the Holly character. 

Although the finale did redeem both concepts to a certain extent, I agree with the other reviewer above who states that the destination wasn't worth the journey.  (And for me the similarities to "It" were also too distracting and annoying.)

-J.

 

[Comicopolis]

1 hour ago, Jaydogrules said:

Ugh.  And I am of the opinion that the point where this show went awry is A) The introduction of the supernatural elements, and B) the introduction of the Holly character. 

Although the finale did redeem both concepts to a certain extent, I agree with the other reviewer above who states that the destination wasn't worth the journey.  (And for me the similarities to "It" were also too distracting and annoying.)

-J.

 

That is the book.

[Jaydogrules]

3 hours ago, Comicopolis said:

That is the book.

I know. 

I still didn't like it. 

Sometimes (usually) things done in books do not necessarily translate to well or effectively to the screen.  

-J.

[Bosco685]

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The Outsider season 2 is happening, Stephen King confirms. Published in 2018, King’s novel following the investigation of a brutal child slaying was yet another best-seller for the legendary author and was quickly picked up by HBO to become a series.

 

That series was indeed released earlier in 2020 and proved to be a hit for HBO, with the finale episode drawing 2.2 million viewers across all platforms. With heavy-hitting writers like Richard Price and Dennis Lehane involved, along with episode directors like Jason Bateman (who also starred) and Karyn Kusama, it was no surprise the series captivated audiences while unspooling its increasingly bizarre and disturbing mysteries. The show’s cast was also strong, with headliners including the aforementioned Bateman, Ben Mendelsohn, Bill Camp, Julianne Nicholson, Mare Winningham and Paddy Considine. But the standout performer was clearly Cynthia Erivo, playing recurring King character Holly Gibney, an eccentric savant with OCD whose gifts help her sniff out the supernatural entity responsible for the story’s string of grisly murders.

 

[Bosco685]

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HBO is finished with The Outsider.

 

The premium cable outlet has canceled the show after a single season, which enjoyed strong viewership during its 10-episode run earlier this year. The decision comes eight months after The Outsider's finale aired in March.

 

MRC Television, which produces the series based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, will try to find a new home for it. Showrunner Richard Price remains attached to a possible second season.

 

The Outsider stars Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo as a detective and freelance investigator looking into the bizarre, possibly supernatural, circumstances surrounding a murder case. Jason Bateman, who's also an executive producer, plays the prime suspect, who insists he was out of town when the crime was committed.

 

"We enjoyed our collaboration with Richard, Jason, Andrew [Bernstein], and the MRC team, and we wish them well in continuing the world created by the brilliant Stephen King," HBO said in a statement.