The Outsider (2020, HBO Max) - 6.5/10
Anytime I watch a show or movie based on a Stephen King property, I need to remind myself of a few things. First of all, it's going to move slower than it needs to - with middling effect to the overall feel and plot. Secondly, it'll get weird, more often than not by dealing with the fantastical or spiritual realm steeped in only halfway fleshed-out lore (I'm sure his books give more "insight" to his deep stories, but that isn't always apparent in the show).
The Outsider had a strong starting premise, a few telegraphed twists or revelations, and some brilliant acting that invested me into otherwise ho-hum characters. Still, when the veil dropped and everything was out in the open by the end, all chances of a satisfactory conclusion went by the wayside.
The ending was a shame, because there were plenty of pieces and build-up that should've made for a great story. A child is murdered, and even though the audience is presented with an obvious suspect right away, the peeling of layers behind the circumstances reveal some wild possibilities. The suspect was Terry, a seemingly respectable man within a small-town community. Terry (played by Jason Bateman) and the cop who is investigating the murder, Ralph (played wonderfully by Ben Mendelsohn, whom I know best as Director Krennic in Rogue One), have an uneven friendship, and that's before Ralph accuses Terry of murder. The actors played off each other incredibly well; they're friends, and the pleasantries are not compromised despite their awkward situation. They formed the most interesting relationship of the first half of the season by a long shot, especially after Ralph presents video and physical evidence pointing to Terry's involvement in the murder (Terry claims he is not the one in the video, of course).
So what happens? Why, Terry gets shot, of course. What a waste. And his death is in public, so after the shock and mayhem dies down, the police department (and town) seem satisfied with burying the child's murder case with Terry. After all, conclusions give peace of mind, right? At least Ralph isn't ready to give up on the case yet. Of course, he goes through the cliched process of working too much, obsessing over the case, forcing his superiors to suspend him, yada yada yada. It's a tiring cop story; seriously, why can't a good cop with good motivations know how to balance his job with his life? There were times when the extra hours clearly weren't paying off, but apparently he wasn't smart enough to realize how much he neglected his wife. Oh sure, the writers (and Stephen King, I presume) try to justify this with a sense of vicariousness; Ralph lost his son years ago, and never got over it (who could blame him for that?), but of course, finishing this case might give him some false sense of closure. The mechanic is pretty transparent, but more than that, I really didn't like how uneven the character became.
Thankfully, a new character midway through the season injects some much-needed life into the remainder of the season. Holly Gibney is a smart, sleuthing investigator who specializes in extreme "weird" cases. She's as smart as Rainman, but she is poised, her words measured, and she holds to her convictions. Holly is played by Cynthia Erivo, who is one of my favorite breakout actresses of recent years (Erivo played the title character in Harriet, which I still need to see, she played in Widows and Bad Times at the El Royale, both of which were mediocre to me, and she most recently was in Chaos Walking).
Holly helps Ralph crack the case, which goes deeper than they initially realized (her research process made for some of the best scenes in the back half of the season). As it turns out, Ralph did see Terry on the recording he had as evidence, but it wasn't the same "version" of him. This is when we start getting into bizarre lore about a creature or spirit that has peculiar habits and needs, and it uses seemingly random people at will. Aside from the ridiculous nature of this spirit being, the timing of the reveal couldn't have been worse as the information we got not only was minimal, but slowly doled out. By the finale, we finally get enough to make something out of the convoluted mess, but it was too hard to care at all by that point. And as I alluded to earlier, the last morsels we get in the final two episodes really proved to be a major letdown.
The Undoing (2020, HBO Max) - 8/10
When watching The Undoing earlier this year, I went in knowing full well it was a murder mystery. I expected all the classic tropes, the misleads, and twists. I had heightened narrative sensors, knowing full well any little bit of dialogue or random camera shot could have significant meaning.
Despite the predictability, The Undoing truly did a great job of building motivations for multiple suspects in completely natural, sensical ways (not just gimmicks like "Oh, he owns a gun. He must've done it!). The show also thoroughly explores the complex relationship between the husband and the wife caught up in the middle of the murder as well as the ensuing media craze, societal stipulations, and past secrets that rear their ugly heads. And get this, the writers accomplished all of that quite nicely, and in only six episodes! (Yes, I'm throwing shade at Falcon and Winter Soldier.)
Nicole Kidman, of course, is the star of the show. She plays Grace: a wife, a mother, and, of course, a therapist; yes, this is an overused writing device, but her profession really did add a nice wrench into the psyche of this woman who is going through as unpredictable and difficult-to-handle an experience as anyone would ever want to face. Her husband, Jonathan (an oncologist), is played by Hugh Grant; surprisingly to me, Grant rose to the challenge of matching the serious, perilous tone of the show (his boyish humor that somehow pervades most of his roles was kept to a minimum), and he actually held his own with Kidman. But Kidman's performance was chilling, in a good way.
Jonathan disappears after someone murdered another woman with whom he had an affair (well that sure doesn't make you look way more guilty, huh?). Grace knew the woman, at least in passing. They served on a board at a ritzy school. The fallout of this murder investigation shakes this family's everyday life. Their young boy deals with kids who prey on him at school. The paparazzi has a field day with the parents, who are white, well-off, and visible leaders in their respective communities, making their story "all-the-more tragic and unexpected," (mostly because of their socioeconomic status); suddenly, this picture-perfect family has all kinds of skeletons in the closet. Despite all the scrutiny, Jonathan and Grace still exude a sense of pride and dignity while trying not to crack under the pressure, which is to be commended. You could make a case that they are snoody rich people, but I think there's far more subtlety and nuance to appreciate with how these characters react to their circumstances (the acting helps a lot, too).
The murder case seems open and shut, but small bits of information and evidence conveniently appear that open up other possibilities. Sure, without these, the story would be boring and predictable. But what made this progression work was the believability. Other characters are fleshed out enough to justify their motivations and even generate sympathy for them. Maybe it was Grace's father, who never liked Jonathan and wanted to frame him to remove him from the family. Maybe it was the murdered woman's husband (or maybe ex-husband? I don't truly remember), who was angry because she cheated on him with Jonathan and she lied about who their baby's father truly is! Heck, even Grace's 12-year-old boy comes into the spotlight in a shocking moment. Or maybe it was Grace herself who did it! She knew the woman, too, after all.
By far, the most interesting character dynamic was between the lead actors during the trial. Despite all that has happened, Grace somehow sticks by her husband. She refuses to accept that her husband, whom she knows better than anyone else knows him, could possibly have committed what was a very graphically disturbing murder. As a therapist, she plays a witty, theological mind game when she takes the stand in court, and it was hard to tell if she was better or worse off for doing so. She has a commitment to her husband that is not really common today, but is that because she has ulterior motives?
I won't spoil anything, but the ending was a little bonkers. We finally see what actually happened at the scene of the crime and who the actual murderer is. Once that suspense was gone, though, the rest of the finale wasn't all that interesting, even though it turned into quite the action sequence. But the show was gripping and entertaining otherwise, and it truly forces you to keep an open mind on who the killer could be. In the end, despite all that you think know about a person, you never truly know what a person is capable of doing.