The Outsider, HBO’s latest drama based on the book by Stephen King, is a bigger hit for the cable network than Watchmen and True Detective.
The Outsider has finished its run for HBO, telling a creepy tale from horror mastermind Stephen King. Starring Jason Bateman and Ben Mendelsohn, events see a demonic entity feeding off the sorrow of those it leaves in its wake.
It turns out that The Outsider has done very well for HBO, even better in fact than high profile series like Watchmen and the most recent season of True Detective. Variety reports:
“Through its first nine episodes, The Outsider is currently averaging 9 million viewers across all platforms, the best performance for a new HBO drama series since the first season of Westworld in 2016. For comparison, Watchmen drew 1.6 million viewers across all platforms to its finale. The much talked about Regina King series averaged just over 7 million viewers per episode, while season 3 of True Detective averaged close to 8 million.”
Bateman, beyond starring in the show, was also instrumental behind the scenes, setting the tone for the show and directing the first two episodes. Apparently, he took inspiration from the seminal Stanley Kubrick adaptation of King’s The Shining:
“I was trying for ‘Shining’ in that there’s a certain kind of horror that exists in some of Stephen King’s books and there’s a certain kind of dread in others. This aligned better with the dread, the impending doom of The Shining, the moody, atmospheric kind of stuff. I’m a huge Kubrick fan composition-wise and in terms of lighting, he was a huge inspiration for me.”
SEE ALSO: Stephen King series The Outsider arriving on DVD and Blu-ray in June
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The Outsider follows police detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn), as he sets out to investigate the mutilated body of 11-year-old Frankie Peterson found in the Georgia woods. The mysterious circumstances surrounding this horrifying crime leads Ralph, still grieving the recent death of his own son, to bring in unorthodox private investigator Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo), whose uncanny abilities he hopes will help explain the unexplainable.
The Outsider features a cast that includes Ben Mendelsohn, Cynthia Erivo, Jason Bateman, Bill Camp, Mare Winningham, Paddy Considine, Julianne Nicholson, Yul Vázquez, Jeremy Bobb, and Marc Menchaca.
