The Kilkenny Observer Friday 29 April 2022
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Advertisement TV & Streaming The gaping maw at the centre of the new Amazon Prime series Outer Range is — understandably — a mystery that makes you want to know what it is, where it came from, and what it’s for. It’s tempting to compare the spacetime hole, and by extension all of Outer Range, to Stranger Things and the Upside Down. And yet, for all the superficial similarities these two shows share, the Upside Down is not like the hole on the Abbott ranch, and Outer Range is so much more than a western version of Stranger Things. What makes Outer Range the antithesis of so many science fiction narratives can be found in an opening monologue from Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) in Episode 3. He waxes poetic about the formation of the Earth and the way human beings have changed and grown, concluding: “There was storms and seasons and fences and blood, wonder and vengeance and regret... and the land and the sky didn’t give two s*!@#.” If Outer Range were an older show from a bygone era, you could almost imagine this as the opening monologue that accompanies every single episode. It invites the audience to think profound thoughts about the nature of existence and the march of time, and then it mocks you for trying to draw a connection between your human philosophising and the crushing indifference of the natural world. Everything you need to know about Outer Range can be found in this idea: The complex events of the series don’t revolve around any kind of ‘chosen ones’ or destinies for heroes. The land, the sky, and the massive time portal don’t give two s*!@#., and the characters are just going to have to deal with that. In contrast, a series like
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New Outer Range
gripping sci-fi Stranger Things makes it seem like nearly everything that happens to the kids could only happen to them. While there’s a certain kind of Steven Spielberg zest to both shows (and creator Brian Watkins cops to being inspired by Spielberg movies), the difference is that Outer Range doesn’t romanticise or go out of its way to explain the massive time-space hole. In Stranger Things — and a lot of science fiction TV — unraveling the mystery of a sci-fi MacGuXn becomes the only way the characters can move forward. In Outer Range, there aren’t any complex discussions about the nature of the hole, which makes it a lot different from the endless discussions of the Upside Down in Stranger Things. Yes, we see a few books
on quantum mechanics in Autumn’s (Imogen Poots) tent, but it’s not like she lectures Royal about the nature of time travel. There’s no “wibbly-wobbly, timey wimey” speech here, which is important. Sure, the audience is wondering what the hell is going on with the time portal, but nobody is breaking character to directly address the audience about those obscured machinations. Just like the land and the sky don’t care about the people, the characters in the show don’t care about the audience. This last detail is crucial. So often discussions about big TV shows become conflated with what audience culture wants the show to do. Because Outer Range doesn’t have nostalgia-evoking aspirations like Stranger Things, it avoids what you can think of
as a Ready Player One-style nostalgia trap. In other words, the gaping time portal in Outer Range can remind you of the Upside Down in Stranger Things without it having to slavishly become some sort of homage to everything. As a piece of new science fiction, this puts Outer Range ahead of many shows that may have similar subject matters. It’s not beholden to other tropes you’ve seen in time travel or sci-fi stories before. But because the characters seem self-contained in their actual reality, the show isn’t overly self-conscious about its independence, either. The time portal in Outer Range doesn’t care about the audience, and neither do the characters. This makes the series not only frightening, but it’s also the reason we can’t look away.
Why Netflix is not looking good Neflix is cancelling multiple shows and movies after its recent subscriber and financial problems. According to The Wrap, the streaming giant has pulled the plug on numerous in-development Netflix shows. The company’s animation department has been hit hardest by the issues currently plaguing Netflix, which has suffered downturns in its market value and subscriber base since the turn of the year. It has lost lost more than 200,000 subscribers since the beginning of 2022. The streaming company’s recent decision to pull out of Russia over the war in Ukraine cost it 700,000 viewers, although that loss was o!set by the acquisition of 500,000 new
to watch right now on Amazon
subscribers since the start of 2022. Even so, Netflix’s recent subscriber drop-off is its largest for a decade, and the streaming company estimates that it’ll lose another two million paying customers before June 2022 – news which led to the company’s market value plummeting by $50 billion. The company’s 9.8% year-on-year growth, according to its Q1 2022 shareholders’ letter, is Netflix’s slowest quarterly growth since Q1 2021, too. Although, it has noticed a gradual downturn in its financial expansion over the past 12 months. According to Bloomberg, Netflix is also in the midst of restructuring its engineering
department to create senior and junior roles for its employees. Given the internal upheaval, Bloomberg also claims that former and current employees believe that the streamer could lose some of the best creative influences on its staff – a talent drain that would surely impact development on its most popular shows and movies. Not only that, but the streaming giant also cancelled many in-house animated projects, including an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Twits. A highly-anticipated animated series based on Jet Smith’s beloved comic book series Bone, plus Lauren Faust’s Toil and Trouble, were other productions unceremoniously dumped
by the streamer. Since news of Bone’s cancellation broke, Smith has taken to Twitter to voice (and illustrate) his thoughts on the comic series’ latest adaptation setback. But it isn’t just keenly-awaited Netflix series that have been dispensed with. Netflix movies including Bright 2, a sequel to the Will Smithstarring fantasy film, have also been dropped by the streaming company. Bright 2’s cancellation is likely to have closer ties to 2022’s Oscars ‘slapgate’ incident, which saw Smith physically assault Chris Rock live on stage. We had previously reported that Netflix and Sony had pulled back on in- development Will Smith projects in the wake of the incident.
Amazon’s first original young adult offering is an intriguing combination of Lost and the Breakfast Club -- and it works. Crucially, the cast of characters who find themselves stranded on a deserted island are all teenage girls. To them, that makes life even more excruciating. Each has a very different background -- from spoiled rich girl to Native American -- but they have to put aside their differences to survive, learning a thing or two about themselves on the way. Things get even more dark and thrilling when Rachel Griffiths’ Gretchen Klein comes into the picture as the head of the secretive Dawn of Eve programme.
Con man Marius walks free from jail, only to be hunted by the gangster he once robbed. So, he assumes the identity of his cell mate Pete and walks back into the lives of Pete’s estranged family, who are none the wiser. Bryan Cranston brings all the gravitas to gangster Vince in this part-drama, partycomedy. The twists and dicey situations will carry you through the addictive episodes.
Matt Bomer, Lily Collins and Kelsey Grammer star in this 1930sset drama about a brilliant Hollywood executive. Self-made prodigy Monroe Stahr (Bomer) faces a constant struggle with studio head Pat Brady (Grammer). The series takes an interesting angle, exploring the influence of the Nazis and the German market on Hollywood politics in a world on the brink of war. The Last Tycoon is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last book, unfinished and posthumously published.
If you like your fashion and historical drama, The Collection aptly brings the two together. Set in a post World War II Paris, the eightpart series follows two entrepreneurial brothers who clash as they build their fashion empire. Rivalry, betrayal and Nazi occupation are the provocative elements that light a fire under this handsomely shot family drama. Note of warning, once you become hooked on the deftly layered intrigue, you’ll have to face the disappointment of no second season.
This unique series uses the Rotoscoping animation technique to tell the story of a young woman who, after suffering a near-fatal car accident, discovers she can manipulate time. Bob Odenkirk plays Alma’s dead father, who enlists her help in investigating his murder. Bending both time and space, Undone is surreal and beautifully existential deep material.
