The Outsider

When evidence suggests that Oklahoma Little League coach Terry Maitland is guilty of a gruesome child murder, his friend, police detective Ralph Anderson, arrests him. Maitland swears his innocence, and alibi witnesses suggest that he might be telling the truth. Anderson then teams up with private investigator Holly Gibney to unearth the actual culprit before he claims more victims.

Though still synonymous with horror, Stephen King has penned a growing number of mystery/crime/detective novels with his Mr. Mercedes trilogy perhaps the best-known examples. As Holly was an important character in those books as well, The Outsider functions as a quasi-sequel of sorts, and as with the last of the Mercedes books (End of Watch), the investigation takes on supernatural overtones. This isn’t exactly laziness on the author's part: King still does due diligence in developing characters and settings before throwing monsters in the heroes’ path. While the title character – a skin-changer based on Mexican folklore – packs plenty of menace, his victims and pursuers are more compelling, whether it is the devastating ripple effect that besets the murdered boy’s family or the tenacity and resourcefulness of the team of cops, lawyers, and investigators that coalesces around putting an end to the killing spree. That being said, The Outsider tries, perhaps too hard and too obviously, to forge a connection to the Mercedes books, and Holly’s overt comparison of Ralph to her previous investigative partner Bill Hodges makes Ralph seem like a second-rate imitator. Holly herself is still a problematic character. Though King’s gotten better at writing her since her debut in Mr. Mercedes, she still has a tendency to evoke Magically Capable Mentally Ill, to cringeworthy effect.

Earlier this year, Richard Price took a swing at adapting The Outsider as an HBO miniseries, bringing with him a considerable amount of talent (Ben Mendelsohn, Cynthia Erivo, Jason Bateman, and Paddy Considine in the cast with Price himself and Dennis Lehane writing episodes and Bateman directing a few). A broadly faithful adaptation that tinkers with some of the details, the series avoids a few of the book’s pitfalls (there are zero Mercedes references) while creating others. The casting is half-inspired, half-head-scratching. Bateman plays Terry Maitland sympathetically and helps sell the charges against him as shocking. But Mendelsohn, best known for playing sleazy, overmatched corporate villains, is a questionable choice for a heroic lead. He’s OK here: the performance is a bit stiff and his American accent has a scratchy, nasal affectation yet he captures Ralph’s dogged sincerity just the same. Erivo’s take on Holly is markedly different from the source material, and it’s definitely an improvement. This version is troubled-yet-crafty/capable without inviting a slew of stereotypes and unwanted implications. The series also makes good use of a sinister score to add tension, but even still, the middle episodes feel terribly slow. While the explosive final two do, to some extent, make up for it, this was a ten-part series that could – and should – have been done in no more than eight.

Whether in book or screen form, The Outsider will likely please King fans as well as those who like their police procedurals with a dash of mythical menace. It is no one’s best work, but it is far from a wasted effort.