octaviosolis

I gave this movie a shot but it just kept letting me down. It was unevenly paced, which made it draggy when it should have been building, and the action sequences seemed wholly out of place. Yes, Mel Gibson is in this, but there's very little of him in this picture. I have a lot of respect for actors, having spent most of my life around them, and I know they try to elevate the material they are given, but they are only as good as the writing and the directing they receive. And the script frankly stinks. The director never had much a vision about the film he wanted to make. And even though, this is set in Albuquerque, there is almost nothing that feels like New Mexico in this film. Most of the force is of Mexican descent, but there's hardly one cop in it who is brown. Even Ortega is cast white. Not a great picture.

This is one of the best series I've seen in a long time. I was expecting a crime procedural, but as the investigation deepened, a clearly supernatural dimension came into play.

The Outsider has a top-notch script too, which allowed the fine actors to really sink their teeth into their roles. Ben Mendelsohn, Jason Bateman, Bill Camp, Cynthia Erivo, and Julianne Nicholson are instant standouts. But the rest of the cast add to the high caliber feel of this work. There is just enough back-story into the investigators' lives to deepen their motivations, but never do we stray far from the chief story-line.

This series has all the earmarks of True Detective, the brutality of the murders, the noirish atmosphere, the tortured consciences of everyone involved, the overwhelming sense of dread and darkness that reigns over the proceedings. It is superior to TD in those aspects. And the supernatural elements are not red herrings or misdirections, but essential to the story. Indeed, they ARE the story.

Camera work on this show is exceptional. Viewpoint angles are carefully chosen, many of them cornering the main characters on the edges of the frame. Beautiful somber tones make Ohio look like Blair Witch country. The manner in which some harrowing suicides are filmed is so effective, often maintaining a horrified distance to the brutal act. (A body crashing through a plate-glass window; an act with a sharpened eyeglass lens; a car speeding at an ungodly rate down a narrow street)

The expectation was that a following season was forthcoming, but nothing has come to light. I'll be waiting for it patiently till it does.