A killer is in two places at once in HBO’s limited series adaption of Stephen King’s The Outsider

I’ll be damned if we’re not in the midst of a massive Stephen King adaption frenzy, with new movies and TV series popping up every few months. The Outsider is the latest adaption based on the best-selling and incredibly prolific horror author’s work, and is based on his 2018 novel of the same name. It’s a limited series that’ll premiere on HBO this coming January, and stars Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Captain Marvel), Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, Ozark), and Cynthia Erivo (Bad Times at the El Royale, Widows).

Mendelsohn stars as a police detective, Ralph Anderson, investigating the violent death of a young boy whose body is discovered in the nearby woods. All the physical evidence points unerringly a popular local teacher (Bateman), but there are also confirmed eyewitness accounts and security footage that place him nowhere near the scene of the crime, making it impossible for him to have committed the crime. As the contradictory evidence mounts up he turns to an unconventional private detective, Holly Gibney (Erivo), who has a reputation for helping to solve the inexplicable.

If you’ve read King’s more recent works, or watched the Mr. Mercedes TV series that’s based on them, the name Holly Gibney should ring a bell as she’s been a recurring character in his recent Bill Hodges trilogy, 2014’s Mr. Mercedes, 2015’s Finders Keepers, and 2016’s End of Watch.

The show’s official synopsis is as follows:

The 10-episode series follows police detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn), as he sets out to investigate the mutilated body of 11-year-old Frankie Peterson found in the Georgia woods. The mysterious circumstances surrounding this horrifying crime leads Ralph, still grieving the recent death of his own son, to bring in unorthodox private investigator Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo), whose uncanny abilities he hopes will help explain the unexplainable.

Let’s take a look:

I love a good whodunnit, and knowing what we do of King’s writing there’s bound to be a whatdunnit too. I haven’t read the book this is based on, so I appreciate the trailer not going out of its way to spoil that. This looks like an intriguing murder-mystery full of twists and turns and dark secrets to unravel, and since it’s a short-ish limited series we shouldn’t have our resolution dragged out too long.

The Outsider will premiere on HBO on 12 January. It also stars Bill Camp, Mare Winningham, Paddy Considine, Julianne Nicholson, Yul Vázquez, Jeremy Bobb and Marc Menchaca.

Last Updated: October 18, 2019