Outer Range Review: Josh Brolin's western meets sci-fi show sinks into its own mysterious void

Outer Range

Outer Range Cast: Josh Brolin, Imogen Poots

Outer Range Creator: Brian Watkins

Streaming Platform: Prime Video

Outer Range Stars: 2.5/5

It seems to be that time in Hollywood, where westerns are making a comeback with storytelling twists that have previously remained unpopular with the genre. If Jane Campion's Oscar-nominated film, The Power of the Dog presented themes of masculinity and sexuality, there's also the recently released Kevin Costner's series Yellowstone presented a family drama with the ranchers in focus. Another new release into the portrayal of the western genre is Josh Brolin's series, Outer Range which happens to combine a thriller element to ranch life. 

Outer Range falls into the sc-fi-western genre which sounds fairly intriguing although the mystery is one element that's hardest to ace and while it's possibly easier to manage in a two-hour movie format, stretching out across episodes for a series makes it a tougher job considering there's a chance that it drags more than it entertains. To make viewers anticipate the reveals of the next episode in the case of Outer Range which will be released weekly is a massive task. The series premieres with two episodes followed by one each week. In my opinion, this release format hasn't worked wonders for most series except those that have truly compelling writing. 

In Outer Range, Josh Brolin plays Royal Abbot, a brooding patriarch who lives with his family on a Wyoming ranch. The Abbot family consists of his wife Cecilia (Lili Taylor) who puts her faith in the church to help shake off any and every hurdle they face. There is also their son Perry (Tom Pelphrey) who is trying to raise his daughter Amy following her mother's strange disappearance. Another Abbot dealing with his own issues is son Rhett (Lewis Pullman), a rodeo cowboy whose career seems to be in the slumps. The series also introduces us to the Abbot family's not so friendly neighbours, Wayne Tillerson (Will Patton) and his sons Luke (Shaun Sipos) and Billy (Noah Reid) who are to become a rather major problem for Royal as they try to acquire the Abbot land though a messy legal route. Although in between all of this there is the appearance of a strange, bottomless black hole on his property that will soon change things for the Abbot family. 

The show kicks off with the concept of known and the unknown as the voiceover of Brolin speaks about a Greek God named Cronus, who cut a hole in the cosmos. While in the beginning, it seems like a strange piece of information to have, the analogy soon starts to fit into the story. The Brian Watkins created series tries hard to keep its mind in one place as it hops through genres. While trying to be an intelligent sci-fi thriller, the show doesn't necessarily deliver on the clever part. 

Taking notes from shows like Lost and Dark, Outer Ranger brings combined elements from different shows in the mystery/thriller genre to keep us on our feet to follow the story that revolves around missing people, cattle deaths and so on as the Wyoming ranch begins to make us question about the nature of the void that sits on Abbot's farmland. Although, it's evident that while we are left with several questions, the show keeps complicating its storyline further, never to catch up on all the mystery it left us with. The void as we can call it represents several things in the show but mainly focuses on bringing forth an element of loneliness. In its eight-episode season though, several things don't go in its favour they are that the story lacks the coherence required to keep you invested enough till the end.

While the show ends up lacking in the script at several points, it scores well with director Alonso Ruizpalacios' ability to take us through Brolin's Royal Abbott's strange relationship with the void on his ranch. The show also steals scenes in cinematography that capture and convey the darkness of this story well. Another win for this show is also its haunting score which has been composed by Danny Bensi and Saunder that perfectly delivers the scary vibes his mysterious tale is shaping up to be. 

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In terms of performances, Brolin makes the best of what he has and brings a great deal of depth to Royal despite the minimal space he may have in terms of the script available. He particularly aces one dinner scene where he offers the prayer.  Among the other cast members, Imogen Poots' Autumn who is introduced on the show as a hippie traveller, who camps out at Royal's Wyoming ranch and soon wreaks havoc in the most unimaginable ways does a decent job. While Poots captures Autumn's wide-eyed understanding of the world perfectly well, it's not her acting but the character development that does leave us disappointed. 

Outer Range starts off on a promising note but soon derails itself along the way. For mystery and sci-fi nerds,  this isn't the best show out there. It doesn't seem like the makers have a second season in mind and that may be a good thing.