The Outsider Season One Finale: Nearly Happy Ending

So as long as I'm reviewing sicko shows, I might as well say a few things about The Outsider's season one finale, on HBO last Sunday evening.

It started with Jack, under the evil entity's control, killing more of our pinned-down posse, along with some in the reinforcement car.  But a part of Jack responds to Holly, which leads him to stop shooting and allow himself to get bitten by a rattle snake.  One down and El Cuco him/itself to go, and Ralph gets him/it, too.

That was the harrowing action part.  But not the end of the story.  The rest is almost a happy ending, as the authorities move to clear Terry Maitland, while keeping El Cuco under wraps.  Ralph and Jeannie make as much peace as they can with the loss of their son.  Ralph and Dolly hug, and wonder if they might be teaming together again someday.

So why isn't this just a happy ending?  Because there's some evil spirit left in this world, as we see in the last scene with Holly.  Is El Cuco still around, somehow?  Is another evil being taunting Holly?  Is the evil in some way in Holly herself?  I hope not.

But there's talk of a second season, and it would be intriguing indeed to find out what's going on with Holly.  She'll no doubt contact Ralph sooner or later.  Cynthia Erivo and Ben Mendelsohn put in primo performances as Holly and Ralph, and a nearly happy ending is a perfect reason for a new season, and I'm up for seeing that when it comes back on HBO.

See also The Outsider 1.1-2:  Two Places at the Same Time ... The Outsider 1.7: The Tear-Drinker ... The Outsider 1.7: The Guy with the Neck ... The Outsider 1.8: Two Monsters ... The Outlander 1.9: A Bit of Clarity

The Outsider 1.1-2: Two Places at the Same Time

What do you get when Stephen King writes the novel and Richard Price the screenplay?  You get a television series as slap-in-the-face riveting as it comes.  The first two episodes of The Outsider on HBO tonight were that and more.

Here's what we have so far, in terms of narrative.  A boy is brutally murdered.  The suspect's blood is on the victim, and reliable witnesses put him near the scene.  But a video shows him at an academic conference many miles away, and his fingerprints on a book he handled at the hotel where the conference took place are confirmed as his.  Too.

The "too" is the key and paradoxical point here.  There's an old Yiddish saying, with one tuchas you can't dance at two weddings.  In the supernatural police story that is The Outsider, Detective Anderson (perfectly played by Ben Mendelsohn whom I last saw in Bloodline) realizes that, of course, one person cannot be in two places at the same time - the same person can't have committed a horrible murder at the same time he was video-recorded at at academic conference miles away.

As an academic, I can testify that I've been to some conferences that are so boring as to be maddening.   But not to the point of making someone commit murder, and certainly not at a place miles away from the conference at the very same time.

So, what's going on?  Since Stephen King wrote the novel (which I haven't read), there has to be some kind of supernatural element.  We do see a person with a hood, standing at the edges of some of the tragedies.  We don't yet know what his story - assuming it's a "his" - is.  Maybe some spirit or monster than assumes the shape of an innocent person and employs that shape to commit murders?

I'm looking to seeing how this plays out, against the grit and dialogue that is itself a fine example of a film noir police procedural.

Bloodline Season 3: Peak Shoreline

My wife and I saw the third season on Bloodline on Netflix the past few nights. It's especially good to see on Cape Cod, where the shoreline at the foot of our stairs has a lot in common with the shore that's the swaying backbone of Bloodline.  But Bloodline's especially good to see anytime, being, as it is, one of the finest narratives ever to be on any kind of television screen.

I don't usually start my reviews with the acting, but it was a tour de force, across the board, in Bloodline.  We've been Kyle Chandler fans since Friday Night Lights, but he put in a performance in Bloodline which in some ways exceeded that, given the intensity of torment in his lead character, John Rayburn.  Norbert Leo Butz as John's younger brother Kevin was also superbly memorable, playing a character who is somehow even more complex and realistic, a package of weaknesses and surprising strengths impossible to classify.

When Sally - also wonderfully played by Sissy Spacek - surprisingly lashes out at John at the end (no doubt born of her hated over what he did to her beloved Danny), Kevin suddenly becomes the wiser, protective brother, telling John he doesn't have to absorb this abuse. Unlike John, who's too damaged to keep his wife and family together, Kevin is able to grow into being a father, and even tell his wife the truth about the family she has married into.

On that note, I would have rather seen a different ending - hopeless romantic that I am, I think Kevin and his wife and baby deserved better.  But the Rayburns are manifestly never ever about happy endings.

The storyline has all kinds of shockers, my favorite being the role of the coroner in the early episodes of this final season.  Even the smaller roles are top-notch, with great work by Beau Bridges and Melvin Van Peebles and Ben Mendelsohn.  It was also good to see David Zayas, almost reprising his police role from Dexter, and Linda Cardellini as sister Meg Rayburn.

But back to the storyline - not only would I have liked to see a slightly different ending, I'd be much happier if this was not an ending to the series at all.  There are all kinds of questions hanging, not only what John says to his nephew Nolan (Danny's son) on the dock, but the source of the same dream John, Kevin, and Meg are having, and what exactly happened on the boat years ago with Roy and Robert.  So here's a plea to show creators Glenn and Todd Kessler, and Daniel Zelman, and Netflix, for at least one more season (hey, their superb Damages had five).

The sun is high, the water's just right, so I'm going for a walk by the bay, and thinking how good it would be if we could see another season of Bloodline up here next year.


See also Bloodline Season 1: Mainlining Family ... Bloodline Season 2: Darker Maybe Even Better than the First

Bloodline: Mainlining Family

Just finished Bloodline, the latest all-at-once television series on Netflix.  My wife and I slow binge-watched it, for a variety of reasons, mostly because the complex drama was better savored with a just an episode or two each evening.   Netflix has once again hit the mark with an outstanding series, right up up there in its own way with House of Cards and Peaky Blinders, and Amazon's Bosch.

First, the locale is evocative, and best seen in high definition.  We spend lots of time on Cape Cod, which makes me a sucker for anything with a similar land and seascape.   The Florida Keys in Bloodline work just fine as a surrogate Cape.

The story is about a dysfunctional family - to say the least - and the deaths and dynamics of its members make Bloodline a distant cousin, I suppose, of Ray Donovan.   But the narrative is unique and original and all its own.

Ben Mendelsohn puts in a standout performance as Danny, a black sheep prodigal son who returns for a family gathering.   We soon see he's been scapegoated - whether fairly or unfairly - and the family is split about being happy to see him again, with his mother, played Sissy Spacek, most in favor.   What I can tell you, without giving two much away, is that Danny is a masterful deconstructionist, able in any conversation with a family member to pull out just the right stone from their foundation which will cause them to crumble, or close to it.   He also has a good head for crime.

His prime check is his slightly younger brother John, a local lawman, played by Kyle Chandler, in easily his best role since the immortal Coach in Friday Night Lights.   Strong performances are indeed on hand from everyone, and its was especially good to see Linda Cardellini (Mad Men!) as sister Meg, Sam Shepard as the father, and Big Love's Chloë  Sevigny as Danny's sorta girlfriend.

The series is a creation of Glenn and Todd Kessler - best known for their superb Damages - and Bloodline bears the same stamp - dark, deadly, human souls stripped almost bear, and glimpses of the ending to tease the audience, which might have worked better in Damages then in Bloodline, which still should be at the top of your binge-watching television list.

#SFWApro


not about a dysfunctional family, but a dysfunctional species