Bateman needs to come back to life on HBO’s ‘The Outsider’
I’d been missing actor Jason Bateman.
Netflix’s “Ozark” has been one of my favorite shows for the past two seasons. Its third series of episodes won’t air until later this year.
Part of the reason for that is “Ozark’s” star, Bateman, has been busy as an actor, director, and adaptor of HBO’s “The Outsider,” which debuted its initial two episodes back-to-back Jan. 12.
I enjoyed those two shows, and I know I’ll watch the third, which HBO released yesterday, if only to see how the mystery adapted from Stephen King’s 2018 book of the same title advances and what role Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”) plays in possibly solving it.
That mystery is whether one person can be in two different places, 70 miles apart, at the same time, as evidence in a grisly murder case seems to attest.
As with too many shows, curiosity is all “The Outsider” had going for it by the time the second episode signed off.
For a while, it looked as if the crux of the story — I didn’t read King’s novel — revolved around the guilt or innocence of a wellliked baseball coach played by Bateman. Evidence taking contradictory directions, equally convincing and constantly mindchanging, added to the suspense.
So did Bateman. As he does on “Ozark,” he creates an amiable Everyman persona while criminal intent of a complex order lurks underneath.
Alas, in the middle of the second show, Bateman disappears. Or seems to.
I have a theory that, if true, could bring him back, if as a different character.
But my theory may not be where “The Outsider” is leading and would be contrary to the supernatural plots of which King is the ranking master.
The problem for me is curiosity has stopped being enough to bring me back to a series more than three times, usually more than two.
I want plots to thicken all along, from Episode 1 to the finale, as they do on the best shows, such as “Ozark,” “Fargo,” or the greatest example, “Breaking Bad.”
More often than not lately, series have revealed just enough to keep you guessing in the early shows while saving their headiest plot ammunition for the later episodes.
This makes sense, but only to a point.
It’s fine to plan for a big finish. It’s natural even. Viewers are owed a payoff for slogging through a season’s worth of material.
That said, all the best bits cannot be crammed into the last three episodes.
Simple withholding of information is lazy and facile. I want to see more of substance from a show’s start.
“The Outsider” needs more build, more clues in various directions to generate interest, to persuade viewers to make what amounts to an appointment to watch it. Planting curiosity falls into the category of “won’t do.” I’d rather keep searching for the next show that satisfies me like “Ozark” does and “Breaking Bad” did than stay loyal to a show that takes too long to play the aces up its sleeve and does so on purpose. HBO lured me honestly to Episode 2 of “The Outsider” but diminished my trust and didn’t get it back by the end of that show.
That’s because Bateman and his character took “The Outsider” beyond curiosity to genuine interest. We had someone to care about, someone to cheer for, and someone, perhaps, to doubt. Like the far superior “The Night Of…,” which was written by “The Outsider’s” scenarist, Richard Price, “The Outsider” worked best when evidence conflicted so much, you didn’t know whether to be sympathetic to or leery of the lead character.
“The Outsider” lost that edge when it killed off Bateman’s suspected murder midway through Episode 2, called “Roanoke” because of large entities, like the 1587 settlement in Roanoke, Va., vanish from sight without leaving a trace they existed.
I was happy to get Bateman back, even in a different show from “Ozark.” I’m sorry to lose him again so soon and wonder if “The Outsider” can survive his absence.
Ratings will tell. I’ll be studying them to see.
Very funny Renee Taylor in Bucks County
Renee Taylor is a show business entrepreneur on a par with Madonna and Lady Gaga.
The difference is Taylor plied her talents in the theater, the big and little screen, and in nightclubs, not pop music, so fewer have heard of her ability to create vehicles and images for herself.
It’s not as if Taylor is totally unknown. TV audiences are quite familiar with her as Sylvia Fine, mother to Fran Drescher’s Fran Fine on “The Nanny,” which ran on CBS for six seasons in the 90s.
Sylvia, in her tight, overly youthful outfits and penchant for taking food off of other people’s plates, is an indelible character to viewers who saw “The Nanny” more than once.
Taylor is an equally indelible character.
The woman can’t help being hilarious. This master practitioner of humor, Jewish and otherwise, just knows what phrase, expression, or sentence should follow another to build a huge laugh.
Here’s an example. While appearing on a talk show in New York, where she lives and which she exudes, Taylor meets Jerry Lewis who praises her timing and material and tells her to look him the next time she’s in Los Angeles.
“I flew out the next day,” she said.
On that day, she landed a part in a Lewis movie that led to other work.
One example doesn’t have to do. Taylor will be giving a rambling and rollicking recitation of her life and experiences in a onewoman show, “My Life on a Diet,” at New Hope’s Bucks County Playhouse for one weekend, Jan. 30Feb. 2.
Besides “The Nanny” and Jerry Lewis, Taylor talks about oodles of people she didn’t merely encounter but knew well, such as Marilyn Monroe, with whom she attended acting classes, and Barbra Streisand, who opened for her at Greenwich Village cabarets.
Story follows story, and each is a gem, artfully structured, and hilariously told.
I know because I saw “My Life on a Diet” during its recent run at New Brunswick’s George Street Playhouse.
The laughs that night were tonic. Taylor sits on a thickly pillowed chair and regales her audience while occasionally noshing on food nearby. A master raconteur is at work.
“The Nanny” is nothing compared to all Renee Taylor has to offer.
I have enjoyed her work since seeing her on Jack Paar’s “Tonight Show” decades ago. I adore her 1971 movie, “Made for Each Other,” and because of it still refer to mismatched but perfect couples as Giggy Panimba and Panda Gold, the characters Taylor and her late husband, Joseph Bologna, created in that movie.
Taylor and Bologna created a lot. “My Life on a Diet” is the latest, and Taylor fan or not, it is worth heading anywhere to see.
How lucky to have it so nearby in New Hope!
New host for ‘Brain Games’
I may have to go back to nailbiting.
One of my favorite shows for several seasons has been National Geographic’s ‘Brain Games” which starts its new season at 9 p.m. tonight.
With a difference.
A big difference.
A new host.
Part of the charm of “Brain Games,” a series which sets up tests that allow viewers to see they way the brain works, and particularly how it compensates for missing information or lets you glide through the clutter when’s there’s too much provided, was the offhand, boy-scientist manner of its host and games master, Jason Silva.
Silva gave the impression of being a quirky brainiac who was curious to discover and display all the brain could do. He made his presentations cerebral but fun.
His interests and his personality made him the right man for the “Brain Games” job for the last six seasons.
Tonight, Silva will not be part of “Brain Games.”
He has been replaced by entertainer Keegan-Michael Key.
Key may do a great job and make me forget how big a fan I am of Jason Silva.
He may get excited by science and by showing you interesting ways the brain functions.
Or, he may be one more in a line of hosts who is at the helm of a program because he’s famous.
All of the quiz show revivals on current air were better and more satisfyingly played when they were presided over by a professional emcee who kept the games going and managed time but didn’t look to bring too much attention to himself.
Today, the hosts scream for attention. Worse, the panelist cheer their victories and greet correct answers with bombast akin to football players scoring a touchdown or sacking a quarterback.
For me, that takes the fun from a show. I prefer time to be used posing more questions or playing more games. Celebrities woo-hooing or high-fiving themselves make them look like kindergarteners. And not very bright ones at that.
Can you picture Arlene Francis or Kitty Carlisle behaving so crass and undignified?
As I said, Key might be wonderful addition to “Brain Games,” but my usual halffull optimism is waning.
I don’t want to disparage or dismiss Key without seeing him, but I already miss Jason Silva, and I wonder why producers think they have to fiddle with success.