This being an Open Thread, I will of course leave the dissection of last night's The Outsider to you in the comments below, but here was my big takeaway: this series seems absolutely committed to taking us through every last step of the increasingly bizarre case at the heart of HBO's sprawling new Stephen King adaptation, and I've gotta wonder how much people are enjoying that.
Typically speaking, when you adapt a 600 page novel, you're gonna streamline some things. Events and conversations will be consolidated, the pace will be picked up, things will reach their resolution(s) faster than they did on the page. WithThe Outsider, though, it feels to me like we're getting pretty much the whole thing. On the one hand, that's a pretty ballsy approach, particularly for an adaptation of a novel that's not as universally beloved among King fans as, say, The Shining or The Stand. I gotta respect the fact that Richard Price (who developed the series) and company are so determined to document every twist and turn of a seemingly unsolvable murder case. On the other hand, we are now four episodes into The Outsider's run with a full six more episodes to go, and I wonder if many in the audience will stick with it.
It has me wondering: did you read the book upon which The Outsider is based? And if not, where are you at with this? Are you enjoying the slow burn nature of it all, or do you wish it'd pick up the pace? Are you surprised to see the show taking a slow turn towards the supernatural? Happy that's the case, or not so much? Sound off in the comments below and let us know what you think (for the record, I read the novel and I'm enjoying the series; so far it's scratching my True Detective itch in a very satisfying way, and I think they're pretty much nailing everything across the board).