The Outsider HBO

[Augustus 3061]

I'd have enjoyed a prolonged back-and-forth with Cuco in the cave.

It wasn't gonna be "try to kill the unkillable monster," so turn the scene into an existential/metaphysical exploration, an exercise in confronting or struggling with the absolute mystery of where we come from, how/why we're here, etc.  A decent writer could've made that scene fantastic.

You had the perfect participants for that type of discussion.  The staunch empiricist, agonizing over the loss of his son, somewhat cynical but kind and decent.  The freakishly gifted Holly, outcast due to her abilities and resulting insecurities.  

Instead of making the creature ignorant or just plain forgetful of his own origin, turn him into a wealth of knowledge and wisdom like the sphere in ST Discovery. Could've made him even somewhat sympathetic.  It's not his fault nature created him to feed on death/grief/fear.  

That could have been really compelling.

Instead, they just shot and crushed the skull of an ordinarily mortal monster with alzheimers.  No insight or exploration whatsoever.  I can't believe King wrote the character like that.  Or maybe I can.

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by Augustus

[futureman 22453]

3 hours ago, Augustus said:

A decent writer could've made that scene fantastic.

[Knoxtnhorn 5974]

6 hours ago, Augustus said:

I'd have enjoyed a prolonged back-and-forth with Cuco in the cave.

It wasn't gonna be "try to kill the unkillable monster," so turn the scene into an existential/metaphysical exploration, an exercise in confronting or struggling with the absolute mystery of where we come from, how/why we're here, etc.  A decent writer could've made that scene fantastic.

You had the perfect participants for that type of discussion.  The staunch empiricist, agonizing over the loss of his son, somewhat cynical but kind and decent.  The freakishly gifted Holly, outcast due to her abilities and resulting insecurities.  

Instead of making the creature ignorant or just plain forgetful of his own origin, turn him into a wealth of knowledge and wisdom like the sphere in ST Discovery. Could've made him even somewhat sympathetic.  It's not his fault nature created him to feed on death/grief/fear.  

That could have been really compelling.

Instead, they just shot and crushed the skull of an ordinarily mortal monster with alzheimers.  No insight or exploration whatsoever.  I can't believe King wrote the character like that.  Or maybe I can.

 

Good call.  Having read almost all of Stephen King's books, I had warned my wife about what might happen at the end.  That is, cast of good guys fight the ultimate evil at the end, some of them die, then the bad guy dies.  The end.

[wild_turkey 3159]

We binged this over the last 2 weeks and finished last night. I really liked it for 4 episodes, then I kinda liked it for 4 more episodes, then I wanted it to be over for 2 episodes.

In the end I kind of regret watching it. Maybe I was desperate for a new show and I thought HBO plus Stephen King would be a winning combination.

I sort of blame myself. I don't typically enjoy supernatural monster type stuff, but I guess I hoped this would be a solid character driven story and that would make it worth the watch. I was wrong.

[futureman 22453]

you didn’t like ralph?

[SimonBolivar 10958]

On 3/11/2020 at 10:47 PM, futureman said:

these are my two biggest questions.  can a bookfag clear this up for the rest of us please?  @South Austin

 

not sure he’s dead. 

Bookfag here and that wasn't in it at all.

[futureman 22453]

32 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Bookfag here and that wasn't in it at all.

well that really grinds my gears

HBO cunt writers tryin to be cute... 

Edited April 5, 2020 by futureman

[Planet Houston 4930]

Super disappointing. I really like Ben Mendelssohn but the final chapter of that story was shiiiiit. 

[Sbbruin 21842]

5 episodes in.  I'm digging it so far.  Will ignore the haters and hope it doesn't crash and burn.

[pied 252]

3 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

5 episodes in.  I'm digging it so far.  Will ignore the haters and hope it doesn't crash and burn.

I listened to the book.

 

 

thoughts and prayers

[mr. sunshine 2824]

On 3/12/2021 at 12:49 PM, Sbbruin said:

Will ignore the haters and hope it doesn't crash and burn.

Keep hope alive my friend lol

[Sbbruin 21842]

On 3/13/2021 at 4:10 PM, mr. sunshine said:

Keep hope alive my friend lol

Finished last night.

[TwiceHorn 31450]

Just goes to show that it's not just King that doesn't end his stories satisfactorily.

First few eps followed pretty close to the book and are yet another glimpse at how well King creates and develops characters and makes them sympathetic.  And conjures some hellacious scenarios in which to stick them.

When it wandered away from the source material, it went astray.

I have read the book, but have forgotten the deets on the disposition of El Cuco.  I seem to recall that it was less 'straightforward."

Also, the exoneration of Terry Maitland was a less explicit theme of the book, so there was little or no dwelling on that purpose, which the series tried to tie up.  
 

One wonders how well the source material would have "filmed" toward the end.  I suspect kind of like Desperation; weird as fuck.  Tak.

Dennis Lehane apparently wrote the last couple of eps.  He's a decent writer.  Regardless, there were some big creative brains in on that, and that's what you got.

Edited May 25, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[Prepuce of Doom 21065]

Tak!