In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our revitalized TV and streaming podcast, co-hosts Mike DeAngelo and Rodrigo Perez dive into Prime Video’s new western sci-fi mystery drama, “Outer Range” from creator/writer/showrunner Brian Watkins. “Outer Range” centers on Royal Abbott (played by Josh Brolin), a rancher fighting for his land and family, who discovers an unfathomable mystery at the edge of his property that’s nestled in Wyoming’s wilderness. After an incident with a rival rancher family, Royal and his family are plunged into an ever-mysterious metaphysical tale that examines how we as humans grapple with the unknown. The show also stars Imogen Poots, Lili Taylor, Tamara Podemski. Lewis Pullman, Tom Pelphrey, Noah Reid, and Will Patton. (read our review here).
After our hosts discuss the show, creator/showrunner Brian Watkins stops by to discuss writing a western about the unknown, working with Josh Brolin, and having literally no other credits on IMDB due to him being predominantly a playwright.
“I grew up in the west. I grew up in Colorado, and I’ve always told people that the west, for me, is a place that is equal parts wondrous and dangerous. And it’s the kind of place where you can walk up to the edge of a forest or treeline and feel like your looking into another world or another dimension. It’s a place where the land shapes you. Where these exterior forces inform our interior selves in really specific ways. So, from that, this idea about a Wyoming rancher that one day stumbles upon this metaphysical void on his property and it begins to reveal the voids within him and within his family, and it sets him on a catastrophic chain of events.” Watkins said of the origins of the show.
And while the show has heavy leanings toward sci-fi, Watkins was quick to discuss that he never set out to make an alien sci-fi tale with heightened characters.
“I never set out to write a sci-fi show in that we never describe the sci-fi in the show as something that is not extraterrestrial but terrestrial. That way, it’s very much about the people on the land discovering the secrets right beneath their feet. That way, it’s really a story about these real people grappling with the unknown where we’re asking these questions of what happens when the unknown comes and visits you in your very back yard.”
“Outer Range” debuted its first two episodes on Prime Video on Friday, April 15th, and will post two episodes a week through April. You can listen to the entire podcast below.
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