‘Outer Range’ Season 2 Review – New Season Challenges Audience’s Expectations

Some may not know what to make of the funky, totally rad science fiction western Outer Range. The first season has a strange sense of humor and even morality. It can be labor-intensive, finding solemn grace in stoic moments because the show challenges the viewer instead of placating the audience’s expectations. The result is a show with an uncompromising vision that is unique and unwavering.

The first season of Outer Range ended on a cliffhanger of sorts. A magnificent buffalo stampede catches up to the characters. After Autumn (Imogen Poots) and Billy (Noah Reid) chase them, Royal (Josh Brolin) evades their gunshots, and their truck crashes, presumably killing Billy. Royal takes Autumn back to his home, where Cecilia tells Royal that their granddaughter, Amy (Olive Abercrombie), has gone missing.

Oh, yeah, and that dark void known as the hole lying in the middle of Abbott’s land still remains as ominous as ever.

The big cliffhanger is that Royal notices a scar on Autumn’s head. (Any eagle-eyed viewer with exceptional recall will remember Amy’s scar on her forehead from last season’s penultimate episode.) Meanwhile, in the present day, their son and Amy’s father, Perry (Tom Pelphrey), has disappeared. Their other son, Rhett (Lewis Pullman), has taken off with Maria (Isabel Arraiza), who was also caught up in the herd. They are about to start a new life together in Montana.

The second season delves deeper into themes of the supernatural and spiritual and intentionally blurs the lines between them. Is the hole in the middle of the ground a portal to other dimensions or a passageway back to Earth? For example, is Royal currently living in purgatory with his family? Are the Royals and Tillerson families prophets? If so, which are the false ones?

It seems creator Brian Watkins lifts pages from the New Testament, the good and the light versus the dark and evil, where Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13 put Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness on trial. Is that the story the series is trying to tell? Brolin’s Royal versus Boots’s Autumn in a supernatural-spiritual hybrid showdown? Or are all these simply different dimensions, allowing for expansive, rich science-fiction storytelling?

The answer is probably somewhere in between. The show’s symbol, an “A” in the middle of a circle, is used in atheism to challenge the belief in God and other deities for a reason. The sophomore effort explores the characters’ journeys as they drift apart. In an effort not to ruin spoilers, just for enjoyment and others by studio directive, that opens a mountain of possibilities. The arcs of Pelphrey’s Perry and Tamara Podemski’s Deputy Sheriff Joy Hawk are fascinating, and the storylines intersect in eye-opening ways.

Outer Range’s second season often exceeds expectations. Yet, we need to admit, at times, it tends to keep the story neutral when reaching episodes 5 and 6. Abercrombie’s growth spurt also makes jumping through different narrative timelines difficult. That being said, of the performances, Will Patton’s Wayne is the most memorable and deliciously diabolical. Patton and Reid’s Billy gives the series most of its pure funk personality, which many will say makes Outer Range an uneven experience, but the change-up is welcome and then ties the themes together.

Ultimately, the second season of Outer Range succeeds in setting up a third (and my bet is final) season. You can’t help but think some of the story comes across as filler. Not in the sense that there is less story to tell, but to get to the final chapter that will enlighten the audience (and possibly the creators) on where the show is headed. Brolin tends to simmer more this season than boil, and Pullman is strangely absent from too much of the series. Let’s hope this season, while still suspenseful and enthralling, is a necessary bridge to a grand finale.

The second season of Outer Range saddles up this Thursday, with the entire season streaming May 16th at 3 a.m. ET/midnight PT.