\n<\/p>\n
Season 1 of \u201cOuter Range,\u201d on Amazon<\/a>, was intriguing and unsatisfying \u2014 lush, expansive and compelling, but also marred by abundant faux-deep nonsense and a total lack of resolution. It\u2019s a \u201cthis is my family\u2019s land, grumble grumble\u201d ranch drama ostensibly starring Josh Brolin, but the real star of the show is a big hole. And not just any hole \u2014 a magic hole! A hole that transports you through time! Sometimes people disappear. Sometimes the hole disappears.<\/p>\n I happily devoured that first season but didn\u2019t think I cared much about it. And yet, I kept thinking about \u201cOuter Range\u201d in the two years since its debut. When I watched other shows in which people dejectedly shook their heads, slowly put on their cowboy hats and then sadly \u2014 maybe \u2026 sexy-sadly? \u2014 stammered wisdom, I thought, \u201cWhat ever happened to that hole show?\u201d When I saw other dramas include bar fights that went way wrong, I wondered, \u201cIs that the exterior of that bar from that hole show?\u201d What was that other series where people were constantly tripping on earthy psychedelics? Where did I just see that actress play a different zany lady? Ah, right: the hole show.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if Season 2, which premiered last week, rewards my devotion per se, but I also marathoned its seven episodes, bouncing between enchantment and eye-rolling. I love my dumb show! Sometimes you just want to see a Native American sheriff fall into a hole, travel back to 1882, reconnect with her Shoshone ancestors, meet another time traveler \u00e0 la \u201cOutlander,\u201d come back to the present day and be driven to the hospital by Josh Brolin under tense circumstances. Sometimes you want to see people\u2019s eyes go black like in that episode of \u201cThe X-Files\u201d with the snake lady. There\u2019s something invigorating about a show that just does not care if the actors playing the younger and older versions of the same person resemble one another whatsoever.<\/p>\n \u201cOuter Range\u201d emphasized drama over sci-fi in Season 1, but Season 2, all of which is available now, cranks up both the time-travel-portal aspect and the outrageous soapiness. The hole is less a profound mystery and more an incredibly handy mechanism for creating bananas telenovela moments. I\u2019m your son! <\/em>Or I didn\u2019t die! <\/em>Or I\u2019m \u2026 you! <\/em>Work your magic, magic hole.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The show loves its musings and mantras about time. \u201cTime doesn\u2019t have a beginning or an end, it just is,\u201d we\u2019re told. \u201cTime is a river.\u201d \u201cTime reveals all.\u201d Such lines are fine on their own, though they inevitably recall \u201ctime is a flat circle,\u201d the \u201cTrue Detective\u201d quote that has become synonymous with TV shows getting high on their own supply.<\/p>\n The performances in \u201cOuter Range\u201d hail from different planets. Brolin grounds his work as Royal, who is secretly a time-traveler from the 1800s, in a simmering, fragile stoicism, whereas Lili Taylor, as his long-suffering wife, channels the aggression and frustration of a Melissa McCarthy character. Imogen Poots is the dreamy, dangerous boho blonde, out of the \u201cOrphan Black\u201d Rolodex of crazy sages, while Shaun Sipos and Noah Reid, as embittered brothers, would be at home in \u201cThe Righteous Gemstones.\u201d<\/p>\n But oh, what fun. What menace. What a total bonanza. \u201cOuter Range\u201d has so much to give, even if some of that is time-loop baloney. Are we perhaps spinning on an axis rather than rolling forward, story-wise? Well, what of it? I\u2019m too dizzy to care.<\/p>\n SIDE QUESTS<\/strong><\/p>\n If you like \u201cOuter Range\u201d but want a different mystical-blonde-lady show that is also unsatisfying, \u201cThe OA\u201d<\/strong> calls to you. (Netflix<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n It is with deep irritation I report that \u201cThe 4400\u201d<\/strong> (the original version) is not streaming at the moment, but I hope that will change. That show, in which 4,400 people who vanished at various points in history have all returned at once, shares a lot with this one. \u201cThe 4400\u201d was more of a welterweight drama than big epic, but it was a summery good time for a while.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Buffalo are central figures in \u201cOuter Range,\u201d so I thought often about the fantastic two-part documentary \u201cThe American Buffalo.\u201d<\/strong> (PBS Passport<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n If you like expansive-landscape shows in which crusty people make strange decisions, but you want one where they actually do call a lawyer at some point instead of flailing their way through the legal system unguided, watch \u201cGoliath.\u201d<\/strong> (Amazon and Freevee<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n