More OUTSIDERS

Article first published as OUTSIDERS Season 2 Premiere Review on Seat42F.

WGN America’s OUTSIDERS is back this week! The drama about the Farrell clan who live up on a mountain, apart from society, and those in the town below, including a businesswoman (Francie Swift) who wants the resources the Farrells are sitting on, begins its second season. The action picks up right where the freshman year left off, and I dare say, there are a few surprises in the first hour alone.

The premiere picks up on the mountain, where the police have come to confront the clansmen and women. It’s chaos and battle and everything you want, which I don’t feel like it’s much of a spoiler to say. What is interesting is that immediate aftermath of the fight, the scene we see right after it, and the result of it, which does change the course of season two. How far it shifts direction, that remains to be seen, though it seems like quality and style will be maintained.

Up on the mountain, G’Winveer (Gillian Alexy) is having trouble settling into her role as Brennan. This isn’t surprising if you remember the way she got the chief position, by poisoning Big Foster (David Morse) and then getting Asa (Joe Anderson) to shoot him. That Big Foster is a bad man in his own right, having murdered the previous Brennan, his own mother, is not known by any other characters, and so doesn’t help G’Win’s soul rest easy.

I like that OUTSIDERS has kept the murder a secret. Often on television shows, there’s a piece of information that only certain characters are privy to, and then it inevitably comes out at a dramatic moment. Since Big Foster was the only one in the room when he committed the act, while others may have suspicions about him, there is no way for anything to ‘come to light’ short of Big Foster confessing. That’s an interesting scenario, the Farrells having neither video cameras nor forensic science, and it sets the series apart.

G’Win, who is mainly a character to root for, did some nasty things in season one. While I like that she is a bit haunted by them, because it makes her more sympathetic, I also applaud OUTSIDERS for not totally excusing her actions. The Farrells may be willing to fall in line behind her, for the most part, but she is not a black-and-white hero, which makes her more fascinating.

By the same token, Sherriff Wade Houghton (Thomas M. Wright), who should be in the right, is not a likeable person. It’s not necessarily any specific action Wade takes that makes my opinion of him go down (though he does do something pretty cowardly in the premiere that doesn’t help). Yet, while he is a non-corrupt cop, viewers won’t necessarily want him to win, which is a cool element that most television shows don’t have.

The closest thing OUTSIDERS has to a truly good person is Li’l Foster (Ryan Hurst), and I can’t help but admire that man. As naïve as he can be at times, and while he has fallen for tricks and lies, he is still someone who seems noble. Part of the warm feelings toward him are not dissimilar from wanting to protect a little brother, yet I can’t help but hope he will come to be great in his own right, and I hope he doesn’t lose himself along the way. Who he is now is terrific, and he’s easily my favorite character.

I won’t spoil anything, but I will say there is a not wholly unexpected, but still very exciting, development in the Sally-Ann (Christina Jackson) / Hasil (Kyle Gallner) relationship. The premiere also ends with a shocking thing happening to one of our main players that I kind of hope sticks, not because I want ill to befall this particular person, but just because I find it interesting and a neat story twist.

Get ready for OUTSIDERS, which returns Tuesday, January 24^th at 9/8c.

OUTSIDERS Interviews!

Article first published on Seat42F.

I had the good fortune to be invited to New York City recently to sit down with the cast and producers of WGN America’s Outsiders, who were filming their second season. Set in rural America, the show tells the story of an isolated mountain clan and the near by townspeople, with political intrigue and clashing cultures. Season one was very exciting, and with season two premiering in January, I was very excited to interview some of those involved in the show. I hope you enjoy our conversations!

Click below to watch the interviews.

OUTSIDERS RETURNS TUESDAY, JANUARY 24 AT 9:00 PM ET/PT

David Morse and Ryan Hurst

Christina Jackson and Kyle Gallner

Gillian Alexy and Francie Swift

Rebecca Harris and Thomas M. Wright

Peter Mattei and Peter Tolan

Inside OUTSIDERS

Article originally published as OUTSIDERS Review on Seat42F.

Not quite a year after the excellent Justified left the air, a new drama takes us back into the hollers and wilds of Kentucky. OUTSIDERS, which premiered last night on WGN America, is the story of a small town and the feral Farrells who inhabit the mountain beside it. While civilization and tribal culture have existed peacefully beside one another for two centuries, modernity is moving in from the outside, which threatens to shake up everything.

The Farrells themselves have an interesting culture. Led by the current “Brennan,” Lady Ray (Phyllis Somerville, The Big C), they brew their own moonshine, abhor money, marry cousins, and yet seem to get along pretty well. Sure, they go into town and steal things occasionally, but the locals have learned to put up with it, partially out of fear, and partially because the clan knows the limits of what they can get away with. A few, like Hasil (Kyle Gallner, Veronica Mars), push boundaries from time to time, such as when he tries to take up with a non-Farrell, Sally Ann (Christina Jackson, Boardwalk Empire), but mostly, they know their place. So it has been for two hundred years, and so it shall continue, or so some hope.

But the status quo is shifting as Big Foster (David Morse, Treme) seeks to take the leadership mantle from his mother, even after Lady Ray is reluctant to give it to him. When one of their own, Asa (Joe Anderson, Hannibal), returns from the outside with new knowledge and skills, there becomes a choice as to who the Farrells should be listening to. Events conspire to shift loyalties of some one way and some the other, and suddenly there’s a decision to make instead of a guaranteed line of succession.

This is where OUTSIDERS begins, with a people on the precipice of change. It will take someone strong to usher then into a new era, someone who understands the parties involved, but can see beyond petty feuds and backward traditions. It could be Asa, who has shunned the rest of the world after living apart from his family for unknown reasons. But if it’s not him, it’s not certain who else it could be.

In Justified, there was a lawman who kept the hill people in line enough. OUTSIDERS has its own deputy, Wade Houghton (Thomas M. Wright, The Bridge), but he’s far from another Raylan Givens. Instead, Wade is beset by his own demons, and may just be the person in town most terrified of confronting the Farrells. Which is too bad because, pushed to do so by the coal companies, Wade’s boss assigns him the unenviable task of evacuating the mountain.

OUTSIDERS is fascinating because of the various personalities it portrays, some of which will seem rooted in folklore more than reality to potential viewers. Yet, even with the superstitions present, the series is pretty solidly grounded by terrific performances and an interesting, natural story (more reality-driven than the network’s Salem). Perhaps most of those displaced by industry aren’t as violently resistant as the Farrells are bound to be, but it’s certainly a scenario that has played out in some form or another in numerous areas of the country.

I find little to complain about this show. WGN America is getting a reputation of shining a spotlight into dark corners of American culture and doing it well, and OUTSIDERS is a part of that proud tradition. It won’t appeal to everyone, to be sure, but it makes for good, quality television that many will enjoy if they just know where to look for it, WGN America not being a channel the majority of viewers typically keep an eye on. I recommend making the effort to check this one out.

OUTSIDERS airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on WGN America. If you missed the first episode, it repeats numerous times throughout the week. Check your listings.

THE WALKING DEAD "Without An Accident"

Article first published as THE WALKING DEAD Recap Season 4 Episode 1 30 Days Without An Accident on Seat42F.


It’s been months for both fans and the characters of AMC’s THE WALKING DEAD since the last new installment. So in this week’s season four premiere, “30 Days Without an Accident,” it’s not surprising that things have changed. The group is now under the leadership of The Council, rather than a single man. New recruits have been welcomed. There’s a school and children present, as well as crops and livestock. It seems things are finally getting good for the survivors.

Of course, by the end of the hour, that has started to change, but we’ll get to that. First, what this episode revealed about our heroes.

Daryl (Norman Reedus) is happy! He is part of the leadership for the prison, his romance with Carol (Melissa McBride) has clearly progressed, and young’uns like Patrick (Vincent Martella, Phineas and Ferb, Everybody Hates Chris) worship him. Daryl still goes out on raids, but that allows him to feel important and needed. Even bringing home a deer wins him admiration and appreciation, so he has been fully accepted by those he cares for.

This is a shift from wounded loner who follows orders. This is a step up for the guy who really deserves a break. If anyone wasn’t getting what they should be getting in this new world order, it was Daryl, so it should please fans to no end that his station has improved.

And he’s not the only one. Carol is running a school. Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman) has a girl, too, Karen (Melissa Ponzio, Teen Wolf), and gets to decide if he wants to kill walkers at the fence or go on supply runs, neither of which he enjoys, but the choice is his. Carl (Chandler Riggs) is acting like a kid and obedient son again, and gets to bond with Michonne (Danai Gurira) over trivial things such as comic books. Rick (Andrew Lincoln) has settled into farming under Hershel’s (Scott Wilson) tutelage. All is right in the world.

One would think that these characters wouldn’t relax. They’ve been comfortable before, on a farm no less, so why should this time be any different? I think they’re likely feeling secure because this is an improvement over other places, with a larger contingent and stronger barriers. But they shouldn’t take it so easy that they lose their edge.

Glenn (Steven Yeun) realizes this. He hopes Maggie (Lauren Cohan) isn’t pregnant because he doesn’t want to bring a child into this disaster. This, despite the fact that there are relatively normal children in the group already. Still, Glenn has been burned before, and he’s not about to just sit back and relax.

Carol, too, has a sneaking suspicion. Although not as overt about her concerns as Glenn, she secretly instructs the children of the compound on knife fighting after story time. It’s not a bad idea, of course; anyone living in the walker world, even kids, should know how to defend themselves. But it’s telling of everyone else’s complacency that Carol doesn’t make her skill session publicly known.

Glenn and Carol have a right to be concerned. There are walkers pressing against their fence, more every day, and starting to gather in select places, making the barriers less than sure. Is this a sign of growing hoards coming together, something the comic book version faced, or is something else afoot, with the walkers being lured there, as Nathan Fillion suggested during the aftershow, Talking Dead?

And there’s trouble within. A pig, whom Carl names Violet, is sick, and then so is Patrick. Is there a new virus threatening our heroes? Why now, and where did it come from? Isn’t it enough that they have to fight walkers and psychos like The Governor (David Morrissey), who still hasn’t been seen again yet, but will be soon enough? Do new and sudden illness have to present a problem, too, and how will they defend against them?

THE WALKING DEAD is a story of survival, so I guess it’s not surprising that these dangers must come, even on the heels of so many other threats. These characters face anything and everything, and it’s their ability to persevere that is admired and celebrated. They wouldn’t earn such respect from viewers if the path were an easy one. And while “30 Days Without an Accident” may not be extremely action packed, there is definitely promise (and plenty of rumor from those involved with the show) that this is just the calm before a very intense storm.

Is Beth (Emily Kinney) the most emotionally prepare to weather such events? She seems uncaring when Daryl tells her that her boyfriend, Zach (Kyle Gallner, Veronica Mars), dies in a raid. Admittedly, Zach’s demise is a cool one, with a literal raining of walkers and a helicopter crashing through the ceiling of the store the supply run party is in. But for Beth to be so callous is sad. Yes, death is a part of her life, but has she turned humanity off completely?

Rick also faces someone who may have forgotten what it is to be human, a girl named Clara (Kerry Condon, Luck, Rome). Clara looks a bit like a walker herself, dirty and disheveled, clothing in tatters, hunched over and not walking so well. Of course, that’s because she’s been alone in the woods with her love’s walker-turned head in a bag, so anyone in her shoes would go crazy, as she clearly has.

Yet, this speaks to a greater trend, the slipping away of what makes a person a person, and a new kind of moral compass. One of the themes of the series has long been how far can one go and retain who they are? What kind of changes must one make to adapt to this new lifestyle, and is life still worth living after those sacrifices are made? These questions aren’t answered, but “30 Days Without an Accident” gives us much to ponder.

There are still the old-fashioned problems, too. Newcomer Bob (Lawrence Gilliard Jr., The Wire) is definitely wrestling with alcoholism. But that may be the least of his problems for the time being.

I don’t know that I’d count “30 Days Without an Accident” among my favorite episode of THE WALKING DEAD. However, it does a good job resetting the stage, and I’m glad the show slows down enough to show us the new normal before ripping it apart again. There are some intriguing new characters and surprising problems, and it’ll be interesting to see how both are dealt with in the coming weeks. Plus, the visuals of the raining walker scene are cool, and Clara is very artistically created, with clues to her intent before her true nature is revealed, such as the shot of a spider and its web. Neat.

THE WALKING DEAD airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.