Outer Range 1.7-8: Shuffle Off to Buffalo

Well, Outer Range certainly saved the best for last -- the last two episodes (of what I hope will be the first of at least a few seasons) -- waking up like after a fever has broken and everything is clear, or at least, clearer.

Here were my three favorite, clarifying parts:

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

• Royal went into the time-portal hole as a boy in 1886, after accidentally shooting his father in a hunting accident, and emerged in 1968.  That's a nice piece of time travel that explains and makes somewhat more clear everything we've seen about Royal before.
• Autumn is Amy!  Wow!  That explains why Autumn has such a convincing sense of she belongs here -- why she seemed to expect that Royal would know her.  It doesn't quite explain -- or maybe I missed it -- why Autumn didn't tell her grandfather her true identity when they were on good terms, or for that matter, on very bad terms. (Perhaps the time travel or something that came after disrupted part or all of Amy's prior memory.)  But Amy being Autumn is another fine example of what you can do with family narrative when a time portal is available.
• And that herd of buffalo as one of the most destructive weapons or catastrophes to come down the pike or the plains of a time-travel story, or any story, in a while -- that was brilliant, too.

So let's see where we stand now.  Royal hearing those approaching hooves, with the kettle shaking, just as he finished finally telling Cecilia what was going on, was a great way to end the season.  How many people did those bison from the past actually kill in their stampede in our time?  Or, more germaine to the series, how many characters that we've come to know?  It seems that Autumn survived the trampling -- she was moaning when Royal approached her on on the ground -- and he carried her home.  I suppose he could have just been carrying home her body -- but I don't think so, and I certainly hope she's alive.

The series cries out for a second season.  We've learned a lot of things.  The hole in time doesn't bring people back to life -- it shunts them into another time.  Into the future, as well as the past, right? And there's an enormous amount of story yet to be told here.  Where was Rebecca (what time was she in) before she came back to get Amy?  The future -- which would explain why nobody in the present had any idea where/when she was -- or the past?  And about that past, are all moments in the past ports of call in that time portal?  And there's a whole season or more of a story of Amy becoming Autumn to tell.  Where/when did Rebecca take her, and what then happened to them?

Those rampaging bison also have more of a story.  Cecilia killed that bear -- is that why the bison were coming for her home, an expression of animal unity?  Royal took the arrow out of the one we've been seeing most of the season.  Will that result in the herd swerving away from Royal and Cecilia at the last minute, expressing their gratitude?

Put me on the list admiring fans, eager to see much more of this time travel western, now that we've learned at least a little about what's really going on.

See also Outer Range 1.1-2: Elusive Hybrid ... Outer Range 1.3-4: Twin Peaks Out West ... Outer Range 1.5-6: Time and the Bison

 

Outer Range 1.5-6: Time and the Bison

Well, here's my idiosyncratic review of one of the most idiosyncratic series on television.  Ever.  As in, as I  said in the previous review, in Twin Peaks territory, or west of the Twilight Zone, certainly when it comes to the west pasture.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Here are the two things that made the most sense to me:

1. Autumn says that that pasture and everything that's going on in it and around it is about time -- all the time that ever existed.  Ok, that's a lot to chew.  But it's true, even if it leaves us nowhere closer to figuring what out what's going on.

2. The guy crashes into a bison that suddenly appears in front of him as he's driving and Tony Orlando's "Knock Three Times" is playing.  (As I said last week, the music is excellent in this series, including the song about -- I think -- dying in the snow -- and edelweiss  -- not the one from The Sound of Music, which is also excellent -- which comes at the end of episode 6).  Anyway, chances are this guy will be knocked into some other time, right, because, as Autumn says ... (see # 1 above)

And speaking of Autumn, things between her and Royal get much worse, mostly because of Royal, but you can't really blame him, but Autumn brands herself (I think) and then gets Royal's family into an uproar by threatening to go to Sheriff Joy and tell her Royal killed Trevor.  So that sort of makes sense -- but Autumn's ultimate motives are still occluded, and that's an apt word with two other concluding episodes to this season, and so much recalcitrantly incomprehensible.

Like why, for example, did Cecilia cut herself on the dead bear's tooth?  To get some of that immortality into her circulatory system?  Who knows, and for all I know, maybe that was an accident -- maybe Cecilia was reaching for something, who knows what.

Anyway, all of that occlusion is part of the series' appeal, and one of its highlights, and I'm sure we'll find out at least little more next week. I'll back to you here then.

See also Outer Range 1.1-2: Elusive Hybrid ... Outer Range 1.3-4: Twin Peaks Out West

 

Outer Range 1.3-4: Twin Peaks Out West

So it occurred to me, as I was watching the enthralling third and fourth episodes of Outer Range, that this new series on Amazon Prime has a lot of Twin Peaks in it.   I mean, an investigation of a murder against a backdrop that has a Philip K. Dickian mind-bending vibe is a rare thing, with a pulsing potential to be memorable if it's done up right.  If Deputy Sheriff Joy, one of my favorite characters  (and being played really well by Tamara Podemski) expresses a joy in cherry pie, I may be on to something.

Outer Range is one strange bird, if I may mix metaphors, and getting stranger by the episode.  In the third and fourth episodes, and linguistically evocative also of Twin Peaks, we have a mountain disappearing.  This gives the time shifting or time traveling or whatever exactly is going on a much longer timeline.  If we're talking about mountains coming and going, we're entering the NBC series La Brea territory, and even further back than that.

Autumn probably has the most knowledge of what's going on at this point, and she's not saying too much, despite her seeming willingness to answer every question.  On the other side of the being informative curve, it's not clear how much of what happened to Royal (good portrayal Josh Brolin), when he spent the better (or worse) part of the dead of night in that waterhole, is something he either doesn't really remember or doesn't want to talk about.  I hope his wife Cecilia keeps pushing him for a briefing, and he does more than looked pained when she walks away, frustrated, because he's not talking.

He does have a lot on his mind.  A dead body is bad news in the most normal of times, and Outer Range is most assuredly not normal.  Wayne (well played by Will Patton) knows a little more than what he's saying, too, and the fact that he's more focused on that west pasture than who killed his son, says a lot, too.

But back to that in-and-out mountain:  You can't beat Burl Ives singing "Big Rock Candy Mountain," and with Juice Newton's "Angel of the Morning" also playing in episode 1.4, we've got some timeless music in this time warping narrative.

See you back here with my review of the next two episodes next week.

See also Outer Range 1.1-2: Elusive Hybrid

 

Outer Range 1.1-2: Elusive Hybrid

The hybrid of science fiction/fantasy with the western (contemporary or historical) genre has long been sought after, touted as a natural, powerful combination for a television series, for as far back as I can remember.  But it's seldom been realized, and off the top of my head, I can't think of a single successful example.  Last year's Invasion on Apple TV+ took a shot with a lead-off episode out West, with no less an actor than Sam Neill in the lead -- but it was the weakest episode segment in an otherwise top-notch series.  My wife suggested Westworld as an example that achieved the elusive goal, and yes, it did, but only partially, because the heart of its narrative was not western.

But I'll never say no to a recipe which seems so logical, so I'll gave Outer Range and its first two episodes which went up on Amazon Prime Video on Friday a shot.  The upshot: I wasn't blown away by the narrative, but I liked it enough to keep watching.

[Spoilers ahead ...]

Here's the story:  On a ranch in Wyoming, Royal Abbott (well played by Josh Brolin) discovers a water hole or pond (I'm not sure what it is, or should be called) that has some strange properties.   It's not clear as yet exactly what those are either, but they may entail bringing back the dead, or some kind of time travel, if the bison that keeps appearing with some arrows in its side is any indication.  Before the two hours are over, Royal throws a dead body (whom one of his sons killed) into the water, and is shoved in the water himself by Autumn (Imogen Poots -- great name), a young woman who shows up with a deep interest in the area.  Royal comes back fine the next day -- with just a wound in his leg -- but the dead body, not as yet.  Autumn clearly has some knowledge of what's going on, but even she doesn't know the whole story -- she's surprised when Royal comes back.  It's also no doubt also significant that Royal's daughter-in-law is missing (did she fall into the water hole and then the hole disappeared, too?).

So clearly, there are a lot of provocative questions in the air, which means a lot of possibilities for this series.  I would have advised Amazon to put up all eight episodes of Outer Range, so it could be properly binged and therefore comprehended and appreciated.  But, as I said, I'm sufficiently intrigued to watch more, and I'll see you back here with my reviews of the next two episodes next week.