Viewers already skeptical of Netflix-branded content probably have similar good reasons to be wary of anything labeled as an Amazon Prime Video original.
Against that backdrop, it was interesting that Outkick writer David Hookstead included Amazon’s Outer Range on his list of “The Best TV Shows Of 2022: Non-Woke Entertainment Fans Edition.”
According to Hookstead, “Now, I’m not talking about entertainment that was explicitly against the woke mob. Not at all. I’m talking about shows that simply focused on being entertaining over pushing nonsense garbage and political messages.”
Most consumers probably never heard of it, but Outer Range is a science fiction opus that plays out in contemporary Wyoming.
You might say that it’s “Wy-fi.”
Amazon summarizes the show as follows: “A rancher fighting for his land and family discovers an unfathomable mystery at the edge of Wyoming’s wilderness.”
At Wikipedia, Outer Range is described as a science-fiction neo-western. According to Screen Rant, “The neo-western is a subset of films within the western genre that invoke themes and motifs of classic westerns but takes the setting to modern times.”
But is it really non-woke? And putting that aside, is the western quasi soap opera with fantasy elements a worthy time investment?
After plodding through its eight somewhat “unfathomable” episodes as prompted by the Outkick compilation, here’s an assessment.
Warning: Spoilers
Ostensibly about two investigations, a murder and a missing person, the murky, as it were, plot of Outer Ranger includes a mysterious, time-travel-inducing black hole or portal discovered on an area of the property owned by the Abbotts.
The portal is located in the same pasture land that is subject to a title dispute between patriarch Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) and his family with the nearby Tillerson clan.
The laconic Royal lives on the ranch with his age-appropriate wife — which is unusual for movies or TV — Cecilia (Lili Taylor), two sons, and a granddaughter. Royal’s daughter-in-law has gone missing.
When Cecilia describes Royal as a “walking cliche,” she might be describing everyone in the show.
Wayne Tillerson (Will Patton) has three obnoxious sons and an estranged, aggressively materialistic ex-wife (Deirdre O’Connell)
Throughout the episodes, the Abbott family goes from stoicism to throwing fits at a moment’s notice.
As part of the storyline, Autumn, (Imogene Poots), a “hippy from Boulder” with an enigmatic agenda shows up and camps out on the Abbotts’ land.
The Autumn character — who eerily resembles a young Hillary Clinton — starts off as quirky but then she, too, becomes totally unhinged. (And what’s up with the disgusting tongue kissing?)
The often slow-moving show contains various scenes that have little or no context or seeming relevance.
There are some big reveals in episodes seven and eight, though, if you get that far.
Nothing fundamentally gets resolved, however. This may have been the whole idea, since Amazon renewed Outer Range for a second season.
Outer Range currently has a somewhat inflated 7 out of 10 user rating on IMDB, and a mediocre 59 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
That suggests that viewers who made it to the end might want to get access to a time machine to recover the eight hours that it took to get there.
Holes in the Wormhole
Hookstead, and others, have compared the show to a combo of Yellowstone and Stranger Things.
Some have made a connection between Outer Range or other fare in the sci-fi genre.
Fans of the show claim that Outer Range is underrated. Maybe the underrating is for a reason.
Perhaps some of these observations are picky, but…
Characters behave in inexplicable manner; even other-worldly fiction needs grounding in some degree of logic or common sense.
As a practical matter, the Abbots and the Tillersons both own huge ranches, but they don’t appear to employ any workers helping them run it.
As with almost every streaming show, the characters drop an unnecessary amount of F-bombs. This is a manifestation of lazy and hardly edgy script writing.
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Apparently, only one bar operates in the area. Everyone more or less shows up there at the same time, even when it’s a really bad idea to do so.
Brolin is convincing in the gruff rancher role, but is there some law that says that movie cowboys have to take on that fake gravelly voice?
Both of his TV sons (actors Tom Pelphrey and Lewis Pullman) come across like generic, bland placeholders.
With that said, Outer Range was filmed in New Mexico and California. You have to wonder if the showrunners ever visited Wyoming and interacted with real people there as part of their research, if any.
Sheriff Joy Hawk (Tamara Podemski) is the county law enforcement official trying to figure out what’s going on. Her performance is also convincing, going from affability to seriousness as necessary.
Hawk presides over some incompetent police work, however. This includes a civilian stealing an unsecured key piece of evidence from her office along with a separate inept interrogation.
Taking over as acting sheriff when the incumbent passed away, Hawk is running for reelection. She does precious little campaigning, though, even with the voting around the corner. Maybe they use mail-in ballots in that jurisdiction?
Wokeness Follows the Science…Fiction?
Perhaps contrary to Hookstead’s premise, the sheriff represents a woke trifecta: female, Native American, and gay. Did any of that box-checking advance the narrative?
In the series, the fictional sheriff is married to Martha Hawk (Morningstar Angeline), and the couple has a daughter.
Same-sex marriage is obviously legal in all 50 states. Ordinary Americans usually abide by a live and let live philosophy, Yet, In one gratuitous, if not pointless, sequence that adds zero to the storyline, a random dude takes to the church pulpit — with the Hawks in attendance — to condemn gay marriage.
Agree or disagree with the status of marriage in America, would a church really tolerate that kind of disrespect, especially when directed toward a high-profile official in the room?
Martha privately expresses outrage about the incident and implies that she feels disconnected from her spouse’s constituency. Yet there is no follow-up, so, again, why was the scene inserted in the first place?
In another scene, Martha evinces surprise about “white people” being willing to vote for a Native American sheriff.
In 21st century America, however, why would this in any way be surprising?
As one IMDB user, who gave the show a 6 out of 10…
On par per course, this being 2022, there are some smatterings of wokeness, empty virtue signaling, and other post-modern garbage of the kind that has penetrated and infested pop culture and entertainment at all levels. The good news is that it all this rubbish is present in small quantities, not enough to derail the series. The weakness of the show lies…in the lack of narrative coherence and a loss of focus.
Further on the woke ‘range,’ Outer Range seems to present an anti-religion subtext, but viewers can judge that for themselves.
Asa side note, in a departure, the script gives a male characters a female-sounding name, rather than vice versa, which is usually the case.
From a visual perspective, IMDBers complained about too many scenes filmed in the dark that prevented them for seeing what was happening.
The self-conscious soundtrack often seems not to fit with the events portrayed.
Here’s what some other on-point IMBD user commentary concluded about a series whose plot itself could constitute a black hole:
This is like a dream…that you wake up from and think ‘WTF was that all about.’ Essentially, no character in it is worth caring about, and much happens with no explanation whatsoever…Huge waste of time…
Scowling, sulking, weak, irresolute, insipid, whining, failing people do not make for compelling viewing, but that sums up every nearly character here, both antagonists and protagonists…
I can’t decide what has disappointed me more: every episode of this total mess or that I wasted my time watching every episode of this total mess.
This series is so utterly stupid and so lame, you will feel ashamed that you wasted your time on it.
Outer Range Checklist
Is Outer Range sufficiently non-woke?
Is Outer Range binge-worthy?
Is Outer Range entertaining enough to watch the entire season?
Parenthetically, according to Breitbart News, “Amazon Prime Video is forecast to contract by about 100,000 [subscribers]” in 2023.
