# The Outsider (2020)

> A small-town Georgia child murder investigation slowly opens onto an evil supernatural force that unsettles two investigators' certainties.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/72074

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 10
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, mystery, horror
- Created by: Richard Price
- Network: HBO
- Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Bill Camp, Jeremy Bobb, Julianne Nicholson, Marc Menchaca, Mare Winningham, Paddy Considine, Cynthia Erivo
- TMDB rating: 7.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8550800/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: brooding, dread-filled, melancholic, claustrophobic, harrowing

## What critics say

Viewers find a gripping, atmospheric start that loses momentum as the mystery resolves early and the middle episodes drag.

## Synopsis

The Outsider (2020) is an American HBO limited series created by Richard Price, adapted from a novel and built as a single ten-episode season. Ben Mendelsohn plays Ralph Anderson, a seasoned detective whose hunt for the killer of a young boy in a Georgia town grows strange when an insidious supernatural presence seems to be involved. Bill Camp plays Howie Gold, an unorthodox private investigator who questions everything he believes as the evidence resists rational explanation, while Cynthia Erivo plays Holly Gibney, an investigator drawn into the case. The engine is a conventional police inquiry that keeps running into things that should not be possible, and each episode is built from interviews, witness sessions, and long stretches of driving between suspects and crime scenes. The mood is dread-filled and brooding, with alcoholism, grief, and small-town secrets pressing on every frame. Fans of True Detective, Twin Peaks and the Stephen King adaptations will find resonance in its blend of crime procedure and creeping supernatural horror, though the pacing is deliberate and its middle stretch can feel slow to some viewers.

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