The Golden Age of the Western drama is seen by many as an iconic period within film history. The period from the late 1930s to the 1960s is often called the "Golden Age of the Western" and saw the work of directors like John Ford and Budd Boetticher at the forefront of the movement, and actors like Gary Cooper and John Wayne as the faces of a genre. Like the iconic imagery of a cowboy riding off into the sunset, these films often relied on what have become tried-and-true conventions within the genre, ones that have become ingrained in the collective consciousness. Directors and filmmakers are now grappling with how to bring these kinds of stories into the contemporary era.
Outer Range is a new mystery thriller series debuting on April 15th via Amazon Prime Video. It is being heralded in the vein of the neo-western, or films that take key themes of classic westerns and apply them in a 21st-century context. What makes Outer Range stand out is the combination of these neo-western themes and a supernatural spin. When Royal Abbott discovers a black hole protruding from the land on the far side of his ranch, it spins his life into chaos. The arrival of the mysterious Autumn and the death of a town local spur Royal forward on a mission to protect his family and his land, unearthing the secrets of the close-knit community he calls home.
Created by Brian Watkins, Josh Brolin stars alongside a cast that includes Imogen Poots, Lili Taylor, and Tom Pelphrey in this retooling of the Western genre.
Is There a Trailer for Outer Range?
The official trailer for Outer Range was released by Amazon on April 5th. In it, aging rancher Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) is front and center in the opening shot. Mounted on horseback, the camera briefly finds Royal traversing the beauty that is the Wyoming landscape. We catch a quick glimpse of snow-capped mountains in the background and a green expanse of grass rolling over picturesque hills before the camera cuts to a dark rodeo, and then Royal again with his granddaughter outside a church. Early on, the trailer draws on the iconography of the American pastoral.
This changes when Autumn (Imogen Poots) shows up looking for the Abbott ranch. She looks out of place: her traveler's backpack is stuffed to the brim. She is wearing bright yellow earrings, rings on her fingers, and carries a water bottle that resembles a Hydro Flask. When she and Royal shake hands, there is a sense of the colliding of worlds, new meets old. When Autumn notices a symbol on the cliff side in the woods, a symbol that she’s been drawing on her sketchpad for years, we realize there is a connection between her, Royal, and their small town. The same symbol appears again, at one point being carved into someone’s chest.
Later, Royal makes contact with the black hole that has appeared on his property. The contrast between the dark unknown of the portal and the flat expanse of green pasture which it inhabits is stark. From here the trailer introduces to us the land-grabbing Tillerson family which has set their sights on Royals land. As the action ramps up, a voice asks: “You ever wonder if the world’s not what you think it is? No law, no order, just chaos all the way down.”
The trailer culminates in a scene with army infantry surrounding the hole, guns blazing, and someone diving into the abyss headfirst. The trailer features an interpolation of the song “Angel of the Morning,” specifically the cover by country-rock singer Juice Newton, a fitting nod to the Western underpinnings of the narrative.
When is Outer Range Coming Out?
Outer Range is being released by Amazon Prime Video on April 15th, 2022. The first season will consist of eight episodes. Instead of releasing an episode weekly or making all the episodes available immediately, there will be two episodes premiering every week.
Who Is In Outer Range?
Outer Range will feature a cast led by star and executive producer Josh Brolin (Deadpool 2, No Country For Old Men). On taking on his first starring role in a television series in nearly 20 years, Brolin told Variety what stuck out to him in Brian Watkin’s script. “It took a very simple, straight-forward genre, and then it took extraordinary twists, whether it be metaphysical or whatever you want to call it,” Brolin will be playing the rancher Royal Abbott, who’s ranch becomes home to a black hole which threatens to uproot them and their way of life."
Alongside Brolin, British actress Imogen Poots (28 Weeks Later, Green Room) will star as Autumn, a traveler with a mysterious connection to the town. On her role in the neo-western, Poots said at a press event for the show that she relates “Being British I was really obsessed with the American west and the myth of the American west growing up,” Poots continues, “so getting to be a part of it and deconstruct it, and have this otherworldly element was just a dream come true.”
A notable addition to the cast is Tamara Podemski who plays Sheriff Joy. “The Western does not include Indigenous ideas and truths,” Podemski told Variety of how Outer Range will approach representation of Indigenous people, something the western genre is notorious for butchering. “Hollywood isn’t really known for its truthful depiction of Native Americans, so this was really attractive to me because we have a great opportunity to bring audiences a very different narrative.” On her character Joy, who is the first queer Indigineous sheriff in their town, Podemski notes “Sheriff Joy, to me, is the light in a very dark world.”
The ensemble is rounded out by Lili Taylor, Lewis Pullman, Tom Pelphrey, Will Patton, Noah Reid, Shaun Sipos, Matt Lauria, Isabel Arraiza, Olive Abercrombie, MorningStar Angeline, and Diedre O’Connell.
What is Even Going on in Outer Range?
The series draws on imagery from the classic western genre and the American pastoral. From cowboys, wide expanses of nature, and a firm connection to the land as a motif throughout, the series pays homage to the classic western genre and the American pastoral. Importantly, as a new series that is being seen by many as a neo-Western, it hopes to flip and complicate the genre. The supernatural element of a black hole adds a sense of deconstruction and otherworldliness. In a genre so focused on the American west, the question becomes how can the series critique or deconstruct the fear of the unknown, of the wild differently than the traditional American western? If it can do this without falling into well-worn genre tropes and stereotypes, then it should be a series well worth the watch.
What is the Plot of Outer Range?
The Abbotts, a ranching family living in Wyoming, are coping with the disappearance of their daughter-in-law Rebecca. The arrival of a mysterious drifter named Autumn (Poots) causes tension on the family’s ranch, as well as the continued ploys of the neighboring ranch tycoon family, the Tillersons, to purchase their ranch land. When the small-town community that they inhabit experiences an untimely death, Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) must protect his family while unraveling the mysteries entrenched within his small town. When a mysterious black void surfaces in Abbott's pasture, events come to a head, and the secrets of a town and a family are laid bare in ever-twisting and mysterious ways. Outer Range examines both the history of the American pastoral and the secrets that lay underneath.