TV Review: Outcast Episode S1E5 The Road Before Us
Kyle urges his estranged wife to meet with him; Chief Giles is suspicious of his best friend and shadows him.
Outcast really ups the tension with this episode as Kyle is convinced his estranged wife is still possessed but is she? I seriously have no idea!
Based on the Skybound/Image comic by creator Robert Kirkman and artist Paul Azaceta, the series is a fantastic religious horror story brought to television. And it’s one that is slowly teasing out exactly what’s going on. At its heart, the series is much like Kirkman’s other work and its true focus is the characters, not the scares.
This episode really dives into Kyle’s relationship with his wife and by having us question all the exorcisms that have been completed we wonder if this one was successful too. But, his wife has no idea what occurred and has been fed the story that Kyle was abusive towards her. Their child unwilling to speak up, she’s just uncomfortable around her mom and wants to be with her dad. It’s an interesting discussion around spousal rights and abuse and I’m sure much can be written about this aspect alone.
And it’s that tension of who and who isn’t possessed that works so well in the series. There’s clearly failures, but, is it everyone? Have there been some successes? We don’t know for sure, but from what we’ve seen, not likely.
The series has done an amazing job at building the tension with each episode and drawing us into the mystery. There’s all sorts of allegories that can be discussed about the idea of sleeper possessed individuals, and that’ll get explored at other times, but right now, this continues to be one of the best comic television adaptations out there.
Overall Rating: 8.35
Loving this show. I’m not generally a fan of the comic book adaptation to TV Series, generally they don’t feel gritty enough for me, and it seems adaptations *cough* Preacher *cough* take a lot of liberties and diverge from the text a bit too much sometimes.
Outcast however, I find as brilliant. I’m a huge fan of the quiet, slow brooding horror, the kind with Lovecraftian sensibilities, where its more about atmosphere and characters responses to the creeping dread that something is seriously wrong.
This episode was a fantastic one, the scene with the pet shop owner? Wow. Tense. The characterization of Kyle and his wife was tragically beautiful, the pain in his face over being unable to tell her the truth for fear of hurting her was brilliantly acted, I could imagine how it would feel to be in that place, to want to keep it secret from her because knowing what really happened would destroy her. Looking forward to the rest of the season.