Review Roundup: HBO's THE OUTSIDER, Starring Cynthia Erivo - What Are the Critics Saying?

Based on Stephen King's bestselling novel of the same name, THE OUTSIDER is a new drama series that explores the investigation into the gruesome murder of a local boy and the mysterious force surrounding the case. The new series features Tony winning Broadway favorite Cynthia Erivo.

The ten-episode series follows police detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn), as he sets out to investigate the mutilated body of 11-year-old Frankie Peterson found in the Georgia woods. The mysterious circumstances surrounding this horrifying crime leads Ralph, still grieving the recent death of his own son, to bring in unorthodox private investigator Holly Gibney (Erivo), whose uncanny abilities he hopes will help explain the unexplainable.

Let's see what the critics are saying...

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Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter: Erivo is playing an edgier, more independent version of Holly, delivering the only hints of humor in this otherwise glum dirge. She's accompanied by the story's genre transition toward horror and although actual scares are few and far between, the insinuation that a bizarre, faith-crossing entity is involved in the show's central mystery is an improvement over the more general initial confusion about facts not lining up.

Verne Gay, Newsday: Holly Gibney has also appeared in other King books, but when she arrives by the third episode of "The Outsider," it's as if the skies have at last opened, the sun has come out, and the fun can finally begin. Price and Bateman (who also directs the first two episodes) have done a mostly fine job here, but their "Outsider" can be lugubrious. Erivo's Gibney is obviously many things, but lugubrious is not one of them.

Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone: Holly is perhaps on the autism spectrum, and speaks almost entirely in clear, declarative sentences. Her arrival in the third episode helps put certain aspects of the story into better focus, even as things get stranger. But good as Erivo is, the show with her remains mostly an unpleasant march. And the way the story plays out, the audience is able to get ahead of the characters about the true nature of what is really happening, which makes it frustrating to sit through the portions where Holly has to FIGURE IT OUT and convince Ralph and the others to believe her. The performers - also including Mare Winningham as Ralph's wife, Julianne Nicholson as Terry's wife, and The Night Of's Bill Camp as a local lawyer - are all strong, but in service of storytelling that doesn't always deserve them. Imagine the more overheated aspects of True Detective, but with more blatant nods to demons and far less impressive visuals.

Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine: Given the wildness of the story, The Outsider sometimes feels ludicrously tony, but it's undeniably gripping-a beach read rendered by real artists. The series is so clever that it might take you a while to realize that it's essentially Dracula, what with all the Renfield types and secret nesting sites, only dressed up as a police procedural. Or, perhaps even more fitting, The Outsider suggests a merging of Kolchak with Price's The Night Of.

Judy Berman, Time: Erivo-a Tony winner for The Color Purple, whose already-remarkable nascent screen career will continue with a role as Aretha Franklin in the upcoming season of National Geographic's Genius-injects energy into the plodding scripts, giving viewers a unique, multifaceted second lead who's worthy of our fascination. Her captivating Holly is more than just smart, twitchy and full of obscure knowledge; she's sensitive and fragile, always struggling to earn the trust of fellow humans whose motivations she can read perfectly but with whom she has trouble making genuine connections.

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