Television series

The Outsider

Name: The Outsider
Genre: Drama, Crime, Horror
Released: 2020
Cast: Bill Camp, Mare Winningham, Paddy Considine, Yul Vazquez, Jeremy Bobb

Other titles called The Outsider: the 1967 film, the 1979 film, the 2015 film, the 2018 film.

Mystery
Crime
Very dark

A small-town murder investigation spirals into something far stranger when a detective and a private investigator pursue evidence that seems to point in impossible directions. Adapted from Stephen King, it's tense procedural that pivots into genuine horror, building dread through character work as much as plot. For people who loved True Detective's obsessive detective work but want the supernatural to be real.

TVMaze rating

3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a slow-burn detective story where grief and a supernatural question sit side by side, and you can live with answers that arrive sideways.

Skip it if the subject is a child's murder rendered in grim, unflinching detail, and the pacing is deliberate enough that a slower hour may feel like a test of patience.

What it asks of you: Ten hour-long episodes that take their time, asking you to sit with dread and sorrow rather than racing toward a reveal.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

True Detective2014

A detective consumed by a case that won't let him go, investigating something the rational world can't explain. Cary Joji Fukunaga's direction is hypnotic, and Matthew McConaughey gives one of his best performances as a man being eaten alive by what he knows.

But The second season exists and is significantly weaker. Some find the first season's darkness exhausting rather than compelling.

Mare of Easttown2021

Kate Winslet as a Pennsylvania detective investigating a murder in the town she's never left, while her own life crumbles around her. It's grief and rage and competence all tangled together, and the writing finds humanity in every frame.

But Deliberately paced in places. The local accent takes concentration. If you need plot momentum over character, this will test your patience.

MINDHUNTER2017

Two FBI agents inventing criminal profiling while interviewing serial killers. It's procedural but strange, meticulous in a way that becomes genuinely unsettling. The show trusts you to sit with discomfort.

But Cancelled after two seasons on a cliffhanger. Slow-burn in the extreme; some episodes are conversations in basement rooms.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Outsider

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The OA2016

Both move from procedural logic into the genuinely inexplicable, and both insist that impossible things are real and must be investigated seriously rather than explained away.

A woman returns from captivity blind but able to perceive impossible dimensions. It's surreal, genre-defying science fiction that trusts nothing except what's genuine about its characters' need to survive. Visually and narratively unlike anything else.

But Cancelled after two seasons on a massive cliffhanger. Extremely weird and asks patience. If you need stories to conclude, this will infuriate you.

Mystic River2003

Three childhood friends reunited by a murder in their Boston neighbourhood. Clint Eastwood's direction is economical and devastating, and the cast—Penn, Robbins, Bacon—is perfect. A masterclass in how past trauma shapes present violence.

But Heavy and occasionally bleak. The ending asks you to sit with ambiguity about justice rather than providing catharsis.

The Killing2011

A Danish procedural about detectives investigating a teenage girl's murder. It's meticulous, atmospheric, and genuinely propulsive once it gets hold of you. Sarah Lund is one of television's great characters.

But The Americanized version exists and is worth skipping. Subtitles required. The final season divides viewers.

Broadchurch2013

A child is murdered in a tiny English seaside town and David Tennant and Olivia Colman tear into each other trying to solve it. Expertly plotted, beautifully acted, and the setting itself becomes a character—beautiful and suffocating.

But British television pacing means it's not fast. The later seasons lose some of the first season's grip.

The Night Of2016

A Pakistani-American college student is arrested for murder and his public defender fights to prove his innocence. Riz Ahmed is extraordinary, and the show is about the justice system eating people alive as much as about guilt or innocence.

But Limited series format might feel truncated to some. The ending doesn't wrap everything up neatly, which some find frustrating.

Dark2017

A German series about children going missing in a small town, which unravels into something involving time travel and interconnected families. Complex and ambitious, rewarded by close attention. Genuinely strange in the best way.

But Deliberately intricate plotting requires memory or rewatching. Subtitles. If you dislike serialized narratives that withhold answers, don't start.

The Fall2013

Stella Gibson hunts a serial killer in Belfast while he stalks her pursuit of him. Gillian Anderson is magnetic, and it's psychologically sophisticated about obsession and control. Tense in a quiet, thinking way.

But Graphic depictions of violence. Paces itself slowly. The third season lost some viewers' patience.

Le Samouraï1967

Both are about investigators pulled deeper into mysteries that stop making rational sense, but treated with complete seriousness. Both suggest that looking too closely at something breaks your sense of who you are.

Alain Delon as a hitman in Paris whose identity becomes uncertain as a job spirals into questions about who hired him and why. Melville's film is austere, atmospheric, a procedural about a man becoming a ghost. Purely visual storytelling.

But 1960s pacing. Minimal dialogue. Black-and-white. If you need exposition and plot clarity, this is ice-cold distance.

The Leftovers2014

Both insist that some mysteries cannot be solved through investigation and logic alone—that the unknowable is a permanent condition and meaning must be made despite that, not after solving it.

Two percent of humanity vanishes without explanation and the show follows people trying to make sense of it. It's a grief narrative disguised as science fiction, with episodes of staggering emotional power. Damon Lindelof at his absolute best.

But Unrelentingly bleak. Answers are spiritual rather than rational. Some episodes break format entirely. It demands emotional investment and gives devastation in return.