Outcast 1x02 Review: “(I Remember) When She Loved Me” (Memory and Belief Drive Us All) [Guest Poster: Amir]

“(I Remember) When She Loved Me”

Original Airdate: June 10, 2016

Belief is a hallmark of any religion, and it’s powerful enough to drive any man or woman to do what they feel is right, because they believe it so. Reverend Anderson believes in the war between good and evil so devoutly that any other option doesn’t exist for him. Considering what went down last episode, it’s not that much of a surprise really. Memory has just as strong an effect on a person, driving us to make a decision based on the past. It’s what drives Kyle Barnes as a person these days. But what if the memories and beliefs we held so sacred and true are wrong? How far are you willing to go to make it true in spite of what you already know? “(I Remember) When She Loved Me” touches on these themes in a number of interesting (and spooky) ways and further solidifies that Outcast is a show to keep an eye one with this great follow-up episode.

Following the events of “A Darkness Surrounds Him,” we see Reverend Anderson giving a sermon to his congregation after having defeated an evil force and saving a small boy. With the knowledge and insight of before, Anderson is ready to preach the word and to prepare people, but getting people to believe anything is always harder than it seems. It doesn’t help if people don’t bother to show up to church at all. It almost mirrors the way people view religion today, and how few of them bother to believe in the stories of God anymore. “People will tell you this is full of stories but what good are they if people don’t believe them,” says Reverend Anderson to Kyle, and there’s a point to be made. For all the work that Reverend Anderson and Kyle will inevitably do together in the future, what good is it if people don’t believe them? Even Kyle has his reservations about what’s happened, but his reasoning stems a lot deeper than just simple denial of the facts. “I don’t remember it happening like that with her,” Kyle says, and no matter how much Reverend Anderson tries to reassure him, he just can’t seem to believe it.

One of the things that make Outcast really great as a show is how we’re not just following two men and how they deal with things, but how the town of Rome deals with things. In the previous episode we had Kyle’s adoptive sister Megan write off his mother as being sick, while Megan’s husband and cop Mark doesn’t believe a word of anything that Reverend Anderson says in regards to demons. Allison opts to just not talk about what went down with her and Kyle, and hopes her daughter learns to avoid it too. We even get Reverend Anderson’s small group ready fight off the demons by trying to get more “asses on those pews.” Everyone in this show has an angle and everyone believes in something different, which gives everyone a unique quality to them. They all just want what’s best for everyone, even if sometimes what’s best is a bit reckless — as we find Kyle breaking his mother out of her nursing home to tend to her himself, out of guilt or out of fear that maybe whatever demon claimed her isn’t finished with her.

This launches into an incredibly heartbreaking scene as Kyle is desperate to save his catatonic mother, all because he didn’t remember seeing the demon actually leave her. The truth of the matter is — as we learn at the end of the episode — the demon did leave her, but he has no memory of it. Kyle still believes he can make amends and try to save her, but even Reverend Anderson knows that she’s already been saved and there’s nothing Kyle can do for her. Kyle just needed to see for himself, and that’s always the hard part of believing anything. That the good memories Kyle had with his mother, which we get to see in a wonderful flashback sequence, will never return, and that Kyle has to move on.

Outcast still delivers its promise of providing spooky things with engaging characters and situations in “(I Remember) When She Loved Me” and still it sets us up for something much darker to come, as we meet a mysterious stranger speaking to Kyle’s mother at the end of the episode, as well as Chief Giles and Mark stumbling upon dead animals nailed to trees out in the forest. Something wicked this way comes, and hopefully it’s not just Kyle and Anderson who need to be ready to take it on, but for the people of Rome to believe them when it happens.

And now some stray observations:

• Apparently saying “putting asses in pews” is saucy language. Interesting to know how conservative some people of Rome are. 
• Special shoutout to Howard Deutch, director of Pretty in Pink and one of my all-time favorite teen films Some Kind of Wonderful for directing this great episode. 
• The relationship between Reverend Anderson and Chief Giles is briefly touched on and further supports that they scratch each other’s back when necessary. 
• Atticus and Leopold, and Claudia Sarne are the composers of this show, and their music suits it perfectly, especially during the opening flashback scene. 
• Kyle gives his daughter a copy of Homer Price, which is pretty interesting considering Home Price also delves into the lives of a small town and a boy caught up in a series of crazy incidents.

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Outcast 1x01 Review: "A Darkness Surrounds Him" (Bringing Horror Back) [Guest Poster: Amir]

"A Darkness Surrounds Him" 

Original Airdate: June 3, 2016

Horror on television has seen better days. When The Walking Dead and American Horror Story debuted, they changed the way we see horror on television by providing genuine thrills, while also keeping the promise of sustainability. Times have changed though and so have the shows that set the standard for horror on television. Where The Walking Dead gets by on killing off characters to keep its pulse raised, American Horror Story has all but given up, swapping out horror and terror for extreme shock value. On top of that, we've also had Scream and Scream Queens, but neither of these shows really fill the gaps that The Walking Dead and American Horror Story leave us viewers with, given that the latter is a horror trope parody and the former is just not good.

Whatever case can be made against horror television gets erased pretty quickly upon watching the newest offering to the genre, Robert Kirkman's Outcast. Offering genuine thrills with an engaging premise, and a stellar combination of crew and cast, Outcast does something that hasn't been seen on television in a long time — be scary.

Demon possession is nothing new, and yet many movies manage to not only pump out films on the subject every year, but manage to find new ways to tweak them. In a post-Insidious landscape, telling demon possession stories comes with a certain “been-there-seen-that” mentality. So it's refreshing that Outcast takes a bold approach by not trying to reinvent the wheel, but instead maximizing its atmosphere and ambience for an unnerving feeling that's hard to shake throughout the pilot. It doesn't help that the town of Rome in West Virginia, where the show takes place, is a gloomy and quiet overcast town, not unlike what Stephen King has written about in countless novels. Crickets can be heard at night, dead trees hang ominously, and in the first scene alone we're witness to a child in the throes of a demonic possession; he bashes his head against his wall where an insect was sitting, devouring its remains, and scratching himself repeatedly. This sequence works because of its restraint that director Adam Wingard (You're Next, The Guest) pulls off magnificently, and it's very telling that the only real instance of gore comes a second near the end of the sequence with a bitten off finger. If Outcast was looking to pass a litmus test, they succeeded.

We meet our bearded and wayward hero Kyle Barnes sleeping on a mattress in a very dilapidated family home, where mirrors are broken, trash is strewn around, and children's drawings are seen on the inside of a pantry door. A dream of him with a woman — who we find out is his ex-wife — harkens back to simpler times, and not one but two horrifying flashbacks all serve to paint a picture of who Kyle was and who Kyle has become. Patrick Fugit plays Kyle as a shell of a man and a recluse from society, but the outside world comes knocking (literally) in the form of Megan, Kyle's adoptive sister. Kyle is desperate to get away from his own personal demons and is in no rush to deal with actual demons that plague the town, but he certainly can’t catch a break.

Neither can Reverend Anderson (Philip Glenister), a devout Christian tasked with dealing with the demonic possession of a small child. One of the strengths that "A Darkness Surrounds Him" has as an episode is that it establishes a world that feels very lived-in and has an authentic quality to it. Where most pilots would spend precious time feeding us exposition, this pilot opts to give us tiny glimpses that will certainly grow as the series goes on. Reverend Anderson plays poker with law officials, while Kyle can’t seem to connect with his ex-wife and child. There’s a lot to grab at in this episode, and hopefully as the series goes on, it’ll deliver.

It doesn’t take long for Anderson and Kyle to link up and take on this possessed child. The relationship between the loner Kyle and devout Reverend Anderson is an intriguing one that gives off a promising dynamic as Anderson treats Kyle almost like a surrogate son. The minute the two of them are in a room together handling the endlessly creepy possessed child, watching them go to work attempting to exorcise him becomes extremely entertaining. While Reverend Anderson has God on his side. Anderson — exhausting all of his knowledge in handling the boy — turns to Kyle and asks, “Will you pray with me?” Kyle, looking at Anderson, opts to just remove the blinds, which he knows has a better effect on the child. It’s a darkly amusing bit and one that shows promise that these two will have a good rapport together as they take on other cases. By the end of the episode, some questions get answered, but those only lead to more questions as Kyle and Anderson now have to deal with what's to come.

Horror, like comedy, is a very subjective thing, but Outcast knows the key to good horror is to build it slowly — shroud our possessed child in darkness, add an unsettling score, and let it all play out. Boasting strong performances, atmosphere, mood, and technical prowess, Outcast comes out the gate ready to stake its claim and ready to be the horror show that TV has sorely needed. While American Horror Story and The Walking Dead prepare to carry on with their new seasons, it's good to know we have an alternative. It just happens that the alternative is also a really great show.

And now, some stray observations:

• I just wanted to say that I'm happy to be writing reviews for this series for Just About Write, and wanted to thank everyone with the site for allowing me the chance to do that!
• Seeing Kate Lyn Sheil, who is probably one of my favorite actresses working right now, is always a pleasure, as is seeing Reg E. Cathey! I look forward to seeing how the two of them shape this story. 
• "Did you run out of minutes or something?" was something I wasn't expecting to hear in the year 2016, but here we are. 
• I may be wrong on this one but I believe Adam Wingard and Robert Kirkman slipped in a Prince of Darkness homage. It could be coincidence, could not be. 
• Kudos to Adam and company for going through with Patrick Fugit beating up a demon-possessed kid. 

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