The Outsider - HBO *Spoilers*

Agent Coulson

Snake Plisken wrote: »

I agree, silly decision by the producers of this show. It would be different if Mr Mercedes was off the air but the actress on that show nails the Holly from the books. It's a shame HBO didn't do a deal with AT&T Audience to use the same actress in both series.

AT&T owns HBO and Warner Bros and they will be closing down The Audience Network original shows later this year and move them into HBO Max.

So they could quiet easily have used the same actress however she is a very in demand actress at the moment so maybe she wasn't available.

nc6000

Episode 4 was another good one although I think the guy from the stripclub, one of the cops and a character from this episode all look a bit similar.

Homelander

Without reading spoilers - incredible show. Please watch it. It kills me that shows this good fall by the wayside.

Butson

A lot of people on the reddit page not impressed with the supernatural route its going down.
Surely that's whats going for it?

Otherwise its just another detective show?

I think its great.

Standman

Liking this but my god it's a bit on the slow side.

Cina

OmegaGene wrote: »

I haven’t read the book/books but I thought that it was clear from day one that’s where it was going

In the books it (not plot spoilers but I'll add a tag anyway)

comes out of absolutely nowhere around 60% of the way through, with essentially

"hey y'know this thing that happened that we can't explain, uh... what if it's something supernatural that I saw in this film once".
"oh yeah, cool, why not"

Up until then it appears to be a mystery who-dunnit thriller, and it completely spoilt the book for me as a result.

They're going the right approach with the TV show for getting it in much earlier.

DvB

Cina wrote: »

In the books it (not plot spoilers but I'll add a tag anyway)

comes out of absolutely nowhere around 60% of the way through, with essentially

"hey y'know this thing that happened that we can't explain, uh... what if it's something supernatural that I saw in this film once".
"oh yeah, cool, why not"

Up until then it appears to be a mystery who-dunnit thriller, and it completely spoilt the book for me as a result.

They're going the right approach with the TV show for getting it in much earlier.

Bizarre how different people can have different perspectives.
When I was reading the book, to the best of my memory anyway, I was barely into it when I was aware of there being a

supernatural element, in fact IIRC it was well identified by the events in the barn, surrounding Terrys murder at the courthouse & the appearance of the outsider to Terry's daughter & the other cop

I certainly had been well aware of it prior to Holly Gibneys appearance & subsequent suggestion displayed through

playing the movie on her laptop

I might have to go back & read it again. To be fair it wasn't a long read.

DvB

Standman wrote: »

Liking this but my god it's a bit on the slow side.

My Mrs said the exact same thing last night.

Cina

DvB wrote: »

Bizarre how different people can have different perspectives.
When I was reading the book, to the best of my memory anyway, I was barely into it when I was aware of there being a

supernatural element, in fact IIRC it was well identified by the events in the barn, surrounding Terrys murder at the courthouse & the appearance of the outsider to Terry's daughter & the other cop

I certainly had been well aware of it prior to Holly Gibneys appearance & subsequent suggestion displayed through

playing the movie on her laptop

I might have to go back & read it again. To be fair it wasn't a long read.

Right but in the book

Terry's murder only happened around half way through, as I recall, the events of the barn were after that. The first two episodes of the TV show actually cover the first 300 pages of the book, in the first two episodes there's nothing potentially supernatural beyond the elephant faced hoodie guy, and he's not even mentioned in the book at that stage.

The barn (second half of the book) is where things get a bit weird but it's not until Holly comes along that they start talking about some non-human killer instead of giving us a rational explanation for a murder we've spent 300-400 pages trying to piece together.

Effects

nc6000 wrote: »

Episode 4 was another good one although I think the guy from the stripclub, one of the cops and a character from this episode all look a bit similar.

I didn't even recognise him as being played by Paddy Considine at first.
I saw his name in the credits and had to look back through it.

DvB

Cina wrote: »

Right but in the book

Terry's murder only happened around half way through, as I recall, the events of the barn were after that. The first two episodes of the TV show actually cover the first 300 pages of the book, in the first two episodes there's nothing potentially supernatural beyond the elephant faced hoodie guy, and he's not even mentioned in the book at that stage.

The barn (second half of the book) is where things get a bit weird but it's not until Holly comes along that they start talking about some non-human killer instead of giving us a rational explanation for a murder we've spent 300-400 pages trying to piece together.

Maybe it was my perception of the authors back catalogue affecting my judgement but i remembered the direction towards

supernatural

stuff starting earlier, in saying that you may have read it more recently than I have & I have a skewed perception looking back but I definitely felt long before half way into the book that this wasn't a straightforward murder hunt/detective novel, so i'd be very surprised at many being caught out and percieving it as a 'twist' or suchlike.

Slydice

4: Eerie music but not as creepy this time. The investigation feels really compelling. The

cop dumping all the stuff in the woods was wierd. Feels like he's been body snatched but I could've sworn the thing that dropped into the horse stall in the barn before the attack seemed bigger.

naughto

Very good show if it is supernatural then he it has his helpers with spreading it around a bit like a ........ virus

brevity

Feels a bit like a long X-Files episode. Really enjoying it though

Slydice

5: Ok I thought the creepiest bit this episode was

the dream the Asian cop had where the hoodie looming over her baby.

Guessing that maybe

Hoodie is like a controller and the cop is being remote controlled. That the guy who died by SWAT team was a previous controlled.

Snake Plisken

OmegaGene wrote: »

I find it a little strange how the detective is being given two warnings to stop investigating or he will die, but anyone else just gets killed along with their entire family

The actress playing holly has really nailed it, I don’t think the one from mr Mercedes would come across as good she isn’t as mature imo

Disagree this Holly is nowhere near the socially inept lady portrayed in the book and the actress who plays her in Mr Mercedes. I'd go as far as to say they should have just introduced this character as a new character.

Snake Plisken

OmegaGene wrote: »

I’m not going from the books at all just purely the tv, the screws in mr Mercedes came across like an awkward teen than a private investigator and I couldn’t imagine to police even listening to her
Maybe they should have changed the name totally

That's how she is portrayed in the books and Mr Mercedes TV series my memory might be wrong but I don't recall her having a love interest like in this show. So I agree they should just gone with a different character.

Millicently

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Disagree this Holly is nowhere near the socially inept lady portrayed in the book and the actress who plays her in Mr Mercedes. I'd go as far as to say they should have just introduced this character as a new character.

Absolutely agree. No doubt I'll be leapt on and accused of racism but the actress isn't right for the role. She feels like she's playing a role and she's playing it badly imo. I read the Mr Mercedes books and watched the TV versions, her character is white and this actress was a diversity pick. Holly's character was well established and choosing an ethnic minority actress to play her is ridiculous. It would be nice if they started being true to the books and stopped trying to force diversity down everyone's throats.

Snake Plisken

It's not even a race thing probably blame the screen writers on this but here is an example from Mr Mercedes and that Holly I said to myself when watching that she nailed it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQOvj9RGigY

Effects

I haven't watched Mr. Mercedes. But that actor seems to play her a bit less mature than in the outsider.

DvB

The character is described in the book as being

almost childlike with limited social skills but incredibly intelligent & most definitely autistic. The character develops through her relationships with Bill Hodges & Jerome to a point where she breaks free from her overbearing parents & establishes a life of her own

Justine Lupe did a superb job portraying the character in the TV series and is a million miles away from the character being presented in the outsider. As mentioned above the change to the character is a most definite change for the worse IMO & if they were going down this path I have no idea why they didnt just make a clean break & change the name/character completely from the one already established in SK's universe.

Mantis Toboggan

Must say I'm enjoying it so far but finding it hard to stay interested with just 1 episode a week.

Millicently

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

Must say I'm enjoying it so far but finding it hard to stay interested with just 1 episode a week.

Have you read the book? The book has so much more detail, especially with regards to the warnings given to the little girl, it makes a lot more sense.

Mantis Toboggan

Millicently wrote: »

Have you read the book? The book has so much more detail, especially with regards to the warnings given to the little girl, it makes a lot more sense.

Nah i'm not much of a book reader tbh.

Millicently

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

Nah i'm not much of a book reader tbh.

It's amazing how much gets left out of the books. Perhaps the series will introduce more about what's going on in the house with the little girls.

Millicently

OmegaGene wrote: »

We know what to look out for now lol

Nope, I was careful not to let anything slip, I hate when people do that.

Effects

DvB wrote: »

The character develops through her relationships with Bill Hodges & Jerome to a point where she breaks free from her overbearing parents & establishes a life of her own Justine Lupe did a superb job portraying the character in the TV series and is a million miles away from the character being presented in the outsider.

Sounds like they just didn't want to character to be like the one in the book or Mr Mercedes.

BoroMan32

As someone who had praised this show previously, I must say the last two episodes have been pretty underwhelming.

Millicently

BoroMan32 wrote: »

As someone who had praised this show previously, I must say the last two episodes have been pretty underwhelming.

Yeah, there are huge chunks from the book missing from the series. I get that they can't put everything in but they are leaving out too many important things which really lets the show down. I think the problem is that there's so much of a rush on to cash in on as many Stephen King things as possible while the iron is hot that they are really just making a mess of things.

Cina

Millicently wrote: »

Yeah, there are huge chunks from the book missing from the series. I get that they can't put everything in but they are leaving out too many important things which really lets the show down. I think the problem is that there's so much of a rush on to cash in on as many Stephen King things as possible while the iron is hot that they are really just making a mess of things.

I don't even know why they're leaving stuff out. They covered the first half of the book in the first two episodes. They have eight episodes for the next half, and are plodding along at a snails pace and introducing loads of stuff that wasn't even in the book.

Anyway, much like the book, it started off great and is getting worse and worse as it goes along.