Western Is Outer Range Than Weirder
The sci-fi Western on Prime Video has all the elements required to become the 2022 Yellowjackets. Much like Yellowjackets, Outer Range asks you to switch on your wild theory generator and set it to trippy sci-fi with odd cult-like symbols, characters with deteriorating mental states and a plot driven by a strong emotional core. It should be the next hit to slot into your viewing schedule. No stranger to the Western, Josh Brolin is immense as the patriarch of a cattle rancher family living among the mountain valleys of Wyoming. A grandfather figure, rather than a fit middle-aged cowboy, Brolin's Royal Abbott just about manages his family's established ranch. His biggest concern: the West Pasture, where a mysterious presence has disturbed the wild buffalo herds into a frenzy. Everything hinges on a discovery Royal makes there early on. It brings surreal visuals followed by a huge tease, almost in the vein of Yellowjackets' opening gambit showing us a starkly different view of the characters. It signals that everything is about to change. Yet after this banging start, Outer Range pulls on the reins and settles into a slow-burn mystery. The sci-fi elements are used sparingly, so that the reality of these smalltown ranchers shatters as slowly and painfully as possible. In other words, don't expect this story to head anywhere near the high mayhem of spaceship shoot 'em up Cowboys & Aliens or the mind-spinning grandeurs of Westworld.
The focus here is trained on the tensions between the Abbotts and the Tillersons, a rival ranching family whose patriarch is also interested in the mysterious West Pasture. Aside from a murder plotline, Deputy Sheriff Joy (Tamara Podemski) looks into what happened to Royal's daughter-in-law, whose unsolved disappearance two years ago left a void that still threatens to rip the Abbotts apart. But Outer Range isn't all glum ranchers in cowboy hats. At times, it's incredibly weird. At one point, a character belts Angel of the Morning over the recovery of a dead body, what feels like an intentional dash of Westworld panache.
Outer Range pushes its moments of levity even further, cutting through the bleak seriousness with more country pop songs and a memorable saliva-dripping makeout scene to rival any teen rom-com. The tone is occasionally all over the place: emotional family drama gives way to an offbeat Fargo-style thriller; grizzled, preoccupied characters cast stunned looks at their over-the-top townsfolk neighbors.Noah Reid's Billy Tillerson will be a shock for anyone who binged Schitt's Creek over lockdown. Reid is best known for playing sweet and sensible Patrick. Here, he plays a blond-tipped, doe-eyed (read: dumb), brawny cowboy who only uses the right, more creative side of his brain. The other Abbott and Tillerson sons (there are no daughters) are defined more by their situations rather than discernible character traits. A lost wife, a rodeo career and a legacy to inherit give them a stake in the story -- a stake that still brings the occasional lull.
The West Pasture mystery picks up steam again when a stranger comes to town. Imogen Poots puts in a huge shift as hippy-type Autumn, the impulsive young antagonist with cryptic beliefs challenging everything Brolin's old cowboy knows.
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