To skip or not to skip: Is Outer Range worth watching?

Outer Range premiered Friday, April 15 on Prime Video with its first two episodes. The series, starring Josh Brolin, is being billed as a Neo-western, and it does live up to that label. However, this isn’t your cut and dry tale of a small town where the new clashes with the old.

Yes, the Abbotts are pitted against the Tillersons. We’re meant to be endeared to the Abbotts insistence on the tried-and-true method of ranching. They’re no-nonsense folks with a core of family and community that runs through their blood.

In contrast, the Tillersons tend to in-fight. They’re wealthy, obnoxious, and used to getting what they want no matter the means by which they have to get it. The feud between the two families is no more surprising then grass blowing when a breeze drifts by.

If Outer Range was just the Abbotts and Tillersons arguing over land, you’d likely hand wave the show and skip watching it. That’s a story that’s been told over and over again and, while it can draw an audience, it can sometimes feel like if you’ve seen one then you’ve seen them all. Same clash of rivals, different setting and time period. Thankfully, this series is more than that.

Is Outer Range worth watching?

Without spoiling the incident that turns both the Abbotts and Tillersons worlds upside down, we can say that the show isn’t what you’d expect.

First, Royal Abbott (Brolin) comes across a void on his land. It’s located in the western pasture, far enough away from his home that it’s gone unnoticed for a time. The weird phenomenon isn’t like anything he’s ever seen before.

Seemingly bottomless and covered only by wisps of what looks like fog or smoke, the void is located on the very parcel of land that Wayne Tillerson is eager to take from the Abbotts. A man as ruthless as the Tillerson patriarch has no business getting a hold of this void, especially when its mystery has yet to be solved.

This plot point alone is enough to draw the audience’s attention but add that to the end of the series premiere which sees Royal making a drastic decision to protect his family, and you have a show that’ll have you holding onto the edge of your seat.

The Abbotts have been dealing with a lot since Rebecca, Perry’s wife, went missing. With the Tillersons breathing down their necks, a mysterious traveler named Autumn who keeps pushing Royal’s buttons, and this void that’s come from out of nowhere, Outer Range has a plot that’ll twist and twist during its first season one. This is definitely a show you’ll want to tune into on Prime Video.

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