Outer Range flies screeching out of the bend ★★★☆☆

It will depend on age, but when watching the neo-western science fiction series (more on that later) Outer Range we heard snippets of the song all the time rednecks by Randy Newman passing by. We are rednecks, we’re rednecks/We don’t know our ass/From a hole in the ground †Good Old Boys, 1974). The association is mainly about that hole in the ground, but also about those rednecks.

Although the series is set during this time, it maintains a classic western theme: the battle for land between two neighboring ranches, the Abbots’ and the Tillersons’ ranches. These ranches are located in Wyoming, but the (beautiful) shots were taken in New Mexico, where the vast plains lined with mountain ranges are also reminiscent of those other neo-western: The Power of the Dog by Jane Campion (who shot for the archetypal landscape at home in New Zealand).

The first episode introduces us to Royal Abbot (Josh Brolin, always good and first in a series in 20 years), an old-style rancher who, on an exploratory drive across his sprawling ranch, discovers a mysterious, circular hole in the ground. discovered, seemingly bottomless. Also, a young woman (Autumn, played by Imogen Poots) appears on the property as the type of stranger who sets events in motion in a classic western.

And while the neo-western setting is original, Outer Range also a typical ‘mystery box’ drama: a series in which all developments arise from a central mystery and in principle cannot be solved rationally, with the classic examples lost (2004-2010), The Leftovers (2014-2017) and recently Severance† The riddle in this genre is generally more interesting than the answer.

We got quite carried away with the first episodes of Outer RangeMetaphysical (teach us a portal to another dimension!) and earthy at the same time, with the feud between two families, which quickly spirals out of control when two sons attack each other and one of the boys is left dead. And at the same time, the family secrets, of which Royal Abbot carries the greatest, are slowly being revealed, in connection with that curious hole in the ground.

The central premise is also reminiscent of the successful German Netflix series darkwhere the role of the hole in the ground played by a cave in the woods. Wonderful maximum confusion with dozens of characters wandering in many dimensions, stripped of any humor, or not.

In the second half of Outer Range it seems that everyone is really off the path; That’s what you get with a wormhole in your backyard. There is really something to be said for series that fly out of the corner, see also Twin Peaksbut Outer Range let the reins loose. Prelude to a second season, but it’s hard to say how we’re going to get the stampede (in this case literally) back under control. But still: Josh Brolin on horseback in Wyoming, staring at a cosmic hole in the ground. Sometimes you don’t need more.