What’s the name of this show? Outcast
You mean the rappers? That’s Outkast. This is a show that premieres on Cinemax on Friday 3 June at 10pm ET.
Is this show about the rappers? No, it’s about demons and exorcisms. It’s based on the comic series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, who writes The Walking Dead comic. He developed Outcast for television and wrote the pilot.
What happens in the first episode? Kyle Barnes (Patrick Fugit) returns to Rome, West Virginia, his small home town where his mother abused him at a young age. No, she wasn’t a monster, she was just possessed by a demon. Patrick helped a local priest, Reverend Anderson (Philip Glenister), exorcise his mother back in the day and upon his return there is a host of possessions in the town that Kyle and the Reverend need to stop.
So take me through what happens when someone gets possessed by a demon. The possessions are exactly the same as we’ve seen in The Exorcist and every other subsequent knock-off. The possessed’s limbs whirl around and snap into place. They have scary faces and dark eyes and sometimes they levitate for no good reason. There is an especially gnarly bit in the very opening where a young boy gnaws off his own finger. But once Kyle and the Reverend burn some sage and say the Lord’s Prayer to cast out the demon, the host vomits out some black goo that floats up to the ceiling and then disperses into the air.
How does it look? It looks pretty cool, actually, and the film crew has gone to some expense to make the series look just as slick as it is gloomy. One of Outcast’s strengths is that it can take something ordinary – going to the supermarket, bowling pins being reset, a trip to a hospital – look creepier than any of the hellspawn that is taking over the population.
Is there some kind of demon conspiracy? It’s leading that way, as more and more of the townsfolk turn out to be latent satanists. Once a bunch of raccoons end up mutilated in a nearby forest, police chief Giles (Reg E Cathey) starts stumbling into a conspiracy. Also, there is something about Kyle that makes him special and his touch and bodily fluids freak the demons out, but we’re not sure exactly why. That strain of mystery is what tethers the series together from one possession to the next.
Is it any good? I hate to break it to you, but not especially. Yes, it looks dark and creepy, but there’s little here you can’t get from any of the horror movies that glut the movie theater every winter or any of the other demon-hunting shows currently on TV, like Grimm, Supernatural or Lucifer.
Just as Buffy the Vampire Slayer made hunting monsters into an allegory for growing up, Outcast tries to make the demons about the evil that lurks inside every small town, but it comes up short (and Twin Peaks did it better two decades ago, anyway). The problem is in the characters. Kyle and the Reverend Anderson are just your standard-issue antiheroes who are struggling with their own personal demons while trying to fight others. Kyle’s foster sister Megan (Wrenn Schmidt) gets more interesting as the series progresses, but even her demon is one that can be easily guessed.
Still the demon as allegory construct falls apart quickly. If the demons represent the evil we all want to commit, why is the first victim a blameless young boy? Mildred (Twin Peak’s Grace Zabriskie), one of the possessed women asks: “What if we like what we’ve become? What if we’re better this way?” which is an interesting question, but the pseudo-philosophy is empty because we don’t know anything about her either before or after her possession.
So The Walking Dead is better? Infinitely. Even at its weakest, The Walking Dead has heaps of interesting characters for the audience to root for or hate, as the case may be. Also, the strength of The Walking Dead is in creating an end of the world scenario in which viewers can easily picture themselves and question how they would react. No one really thinks that an army of evil spirits is going to come invade their town. Outcast is just full of sad victims and exceptional demon hunters and never manages to get to a deeper emotional center.
Should I watch this show? Even though Cinemax has already renewed it for season two, I say take a pass. There is nothing new or special here and if you’re looking for real frights it’s better to get them from an R-rated scare fest on Netflix than this comparatively tame and superficial series.
