Outer Range review: Josh Brolin's mystery thriller is more confusing than captivating

2.5/5

Story:

Outer Range follows the story of a rancher, Royal Abbott, who discovers an unfathomable mystery.

Review:

Josh Brolin's Outer Range is full of mysteries. The first episode begins like any other Western neo-noir series with people wearing cowboy boots and hats living in a large family-owned ranch. There’s a mother who is spiritual and wants all her family members to attend Sunday mass and a son who is a professional bull rider.

In a small part of his huge property, Royal Abbott (Josh), who resides peacefully in a small town, finds a mysterious black ditch, which seems filled with an unknown fluid, that swallows everything that falls in there.

Moving on the series introduces all the members of the Abbott Family. While Josh looks quite perfect in his character with the southern American accent and his body language, Lili Taylor as Cecilia Abbott seems perfect as the over-thinking wife to the protagonist and overprotective grandmother to Amy Abbott (Olive Abercrombie), who performs well as a 9-year-old quiet kid.

Meanwhile, Tom Pelphrey doesn't bring anything new to the table as Perry Abbott, the eldest son of Royal. While Lewis Pullman's Rhett Abbott is a professional bull rider in the series, his character seems to have been kept in the Outer Range just for the sake of giving it the full Southern American vibe.

Imogen Poots essays the character named Autumn, who meets Royal as a traveller and later becomes one of the most important parts of his life. Poots’ character has a few layers in the series, which confuses the audience about Autumn's real nature and motive, however, The Father actress plays it well.

Outer Range mostly focuses on the mysterious black hole Abbotts' giant backyard, which might remind the viewers of another Amazon Prime show called Manifest, where a few passengers flying through an aircraft reach their destination after 5 and half years of their departure, while for them it was a journey of a few hours.

While the Josh Dallas and Melissa Roxburgh starrer tries to uncover each layer related to the mysterious event one by one in the show, the Brian Watkins directorial doesn't bother to unwrap the puzzles and makes it even more complicated.

Outer Range has tried to showcase a few different timelines not in any particular order, which might remind the audience about the German show Dark, however, both the series are just not comparable as the Netflix series has explanations about each of the events that are happening around every character, while Amazon Prime's new show chooses to leave the audience clueless.

The only noticeable and watch-worthy scenes in Outer Range are the long shots that cover the picturesque locations and let the audience witness the beauty of this small town.

Verdict:

In the end, the show hints at another season of the less captivating and more confusing series. Watch it at your own risk.