Streaming Spotlight by Cindy Summers
Outer Range – Amazon Originals
Breeze rating from 1 to 4 palm trees, 4 being best.
Outer Range centers around the life of Wyoming rancher Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) who like many other ranchers struggled to live the ranching life and support his family. Though challenging, it would seem nothing compared to the unimaginable mystery he disovered in a remote area of his ranch, while at the same time a nomadic stranger named Autumn (Imogen Poot) appeared asking to camp on the land for a few days.
Royal Abbott was a family man who married into owning a ranch at the edge of the Wyoming wilderness that had been in his wife Cecilia’s (Lili Taylor) family for three generations. They lived a traditional ranching life with their two adult sons Perry (Tom Pelphrey) and Rhett (Lewis Pullman), who helped run the ranch. Perry lived on the ranch with his daughter Amy (Olive Abercrombie) and struggled with the absence of his wife Rebecca, who seems to have mysteriously disappeared and for which the entire family continues holding hope will return.
Wayne Tillerson (Will Patton) was the very wealthy owner the ranch adjacent to the Abbott’s run with the help of his three adult sons Luke (Shaun Sipos), Billy (Noah Reid) and Trevor (Matt Lauria), though they chose a more modern approach like riding ATVs instead of horses. Wayne was suffering from a health condition which left him mostly bedridden, but decided that he wanted to begin a land dispute and sent his sons to inform Royal that his fences included over a mile of adjacent land owned by the Tillerson’s according to the county maps.
This was not good for the Abbott’s, who struggled financially, and neither was the loss of two cattle on their last roundup, though there seemed no explanation as the fencing they normally escaped from was secure. Royal rode off with his sons to look for the lost cattle, all heading in different directions across the ranch, and found a mysterious hole approximatley 30 feet in diameter that had a strange mist over the top and seemed to have no bottom. Whatever he threw in just seemed to vanish and when he put his own hand in was flooded with thoughts of his past.
Royal was startled and returned to his house but said nothing about the hole or his experience. A young woman walked up the road wearing a large backpack and asked if she could camp on the ranch for a few days. Royal said it was private property but strangely agreed to let the woman, who introduced herself as Autumn, camp on the ranch telling her to stay to a particular area.
Little did Royal know how handy that hole would be when his sons brought home the dead body of Trevor Tillerson after a fight at the bar in town. Though he thought he was alone, Autumn saw Royal throw Trevor’s body into the hole, and confronted him about his actions but said she would keep his secret. Shockingly, the moment he let his guard down, Autumn pushed Royal into the hole and he floated backward into the darkness.
What Royal found on the other side was truly unimaginable and turns the story from what seemed to be a traditional modern day western tale of two families into a science fiction thriller filled with surprises. Each episode leaves viewers with more questions than answers and viewers get the benefit of watching two new episodes each week on Fridays.
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 8 – 1hr Episodes
