After watching the first two episodes of HBO's new drama "The Outsider", some viewers abandoned the show and complained that the narrative pace was too slow. Some fans who have "carried" over compare it to the combination of "True Detective", "Murder" and "Sin Night Rush", not only enjoying its unique slow pace, but also obsessed with the entangled part of the drama. Deep feeling of sadness.
This drama, adapted from the novel of the same name by Stephen King, is like an ancient beast with an invisible body, releasing fear and devouring sadness. Whenever we update an episode, although we are one step closer to the truth of the case, we are a bit more dangerous. The breath of death buried in thrills makes this 2020 opening work full of stamina.
An innocent anger, deceitful resentment, an 11-year-old boy was brutally raped and murdered, which opened the curtain on the show, but the detection of this case was extremely easy.
Under police officer Ralph’s verification, the identification, DNA, and video footage all pointed to a suspect, Terry, a well-known baseball coach in the town.
But when the evidence was conclusive, Terry’s lawyers produced completely opposite evidence, which was sufficient to prove that Terry was not at the crime scene on the day of the crime. When the case fell into a treacherous and unpredictable way, Terry was shot to death by the dead boy’s brother on the way to a public trial and fell in a pool of blood.
When such a complete story is finished in less than one and a half episodes in the play, we know that this play is by no means only focusing on whether Terry is the murderer. Instead, starting from this confusing case, tell a shocking story.
In this story, there are two groups, one is the victim's family and the other is the suspect's family, both of which have been devastated. The mother of the murdered boy went to the hospital because of grief and died soon afterwards; the boy's brother was shot dead by the police on the spot after shooting Terry; the boy's father saw the tragedy and hanged himself.
As a group of suspects, the Terry family has also suffered endless disasters. After Terry was shot and killed, his wife Glory was ostracized everywhere in her life. The two daughters were treated unequally at school because of the "murder father", and they had to stay at home.
And this kind of tragedy is more than just Terry. Private detective Huo Li, hired by Ralph, found two other similar cases during the investigation. The victims are also children around 10 years old, and the suspect’s criminal evidence and alibi are sufficient witnesses and DNA material evidence.
Not only were the cases similar, but the subsequent tragedies were also the same. The families of the victim and the suspect in the two cases were either shot by the other side or committed suicide.
But in the follow-up plot, we know that whether it is the murdered child or the so-called suspect, they are all victims. The real murderer is not a human with conclusive evidence, but an indescribable supernatural being.
Family conflicts that can be triggered by child abuse and murder can never stop. As the rupture deepened, both sides were destroyed in resentment. The suspect’s family tastes innocent anger, while the victim’s family pervades the resentment of being deceived. Both can only quench their thirst with death and grief. Besides, they have no other way.
2. The epidemiological decoding of "criminal disease" was killed in Terry, and when his family was subjected to various discriminations, Ralph gradually realized that everything he affirmed may not be accurate.
Because, regardless of Terry's character or alibi, Ralph had to admit: Terry can't rape and kill the little boy. But Terry's DNA is all over the crime scene, which makes Ralph, who has a background in criminal investigation, have to face a common sense: It is impossible for people to appear in two different places at the same time. At this time, this common sense has become a paradox.
But to the private investigator Huo Li, there is nothing impossible, because she is a "supernatural phenomenon."
By visually inspecting the tall buildings, you can know how many meters there are, and the error is only six inches; not only can recite the lyrics of all rock songs from 1954 to the present, but also tell the ranking of each song on the bulletin board; when he was 8 years old, he was psychiatric and behavioral. I studied by experts in 6 different fields, and only got one reply: I don’t know what's the situation with this girl! ?
Therefore, when Huo Li appeared in the third episode, the case really entered the investigation stage. All previous evidence to the contrary was just smoke bombs.
However, as the investigation gets deeper, the incident gets more bizarre. In the process of Huo Li's search and investigation, not only two cases of child abuse and killing of the same type were discovered, but more importantly, she discovered that the three cases were related to each other.
The female suspect in the first case had close contact with the black suspect in the second case, and the former cut the back of the latter.
The black man in the second case had accidental contact with the suspect Taylor in the third case. Similarly, the former cut Taylor's arm. Based on this, Huo Li came to a bold conclusion: This is a serial homicide that spreads the "criminal virus" by cutting through the flesh and skin. evidence of.
From then on, the original confusing murder case turned into a supernatural incident. When Huo Li confessed the truth to all those involved in the incident, most people thought she was deceiving the crowd.
But the reality is that when science cannot explain the case, there are only two ways before us: one is to settle for the failure of cognition, and to attribute the reason why science cannot explain to our temporary ignorance; the other is to extend the right to The perception of the real world recognizes that there is another set of rules governing the operation of the world in addition to the laws of science.
At first glance, the latter view seems to make us surrender to ancient sorcery, but in fact, it is the original author Stephen King’s suspicion of the “scientific supremacy” doctrine.
Three unknown fears. Known threats. The fear itself comes from the unknown. However, in a series with fear and suspense as the main theme, if "The Outsider" is just the unknown that has remained unchanged, it is difficult for people to feel this way. Supernatural phenomena generate more expectations. Therefore, the brilliance of "The Outsider" is that it plays with the unknown, and even delays and magnifies the known threat elements in an unknown way.
In the process of the Holi investigation, although we learned many details of Terry's case, the answer to the riddle always retains the factor of fear while trying to reveal it.
The real murderer of these cases is the "sleeping fairy" whom we laughed at as dark fairy tales since ancient times. In all ethnic cultures, there are archetype stories like "sleeping fairy": once a child is disobedient, he will be eaten by the sleeping fairy.
In China, the sleeping fairy may be a tiger on the mountain or a fairy in the water. However, the appearance of the sleeping fairy in the play does not always appear as a face, but the characters who have been seen before the sleeping fairy are presented to us in a hand-painted way.
In addition to this playfulness with the unknown image of the instigator, the show also allows those extremely threatening characters, such as the policeman Jack Hawkins, or the addict Crowder, who works in the bar, to wander around the world in the show.
They may "clone" to abuse and kill children at any time, but this has not happened prematurely, but has been changing all the time. For example, Jack, the policeman, was infected the moment he walked into the barn.
But for a long time in the play, he was just thinking about the blade of pain and violence. Even in order to create this known threat, the play sets an Asian policewoman to give birth to a certain death connection between Jack and the baby. With the torture of nightmare and sin, the terror factor evaporates and hits directly. To our optic nerve.
Perhaps, Huo Li heard another name of "Sleeping Fairy" from a mysterious woman, which best describes the core of the play: the Devourer.
Shang, which means "to die before reaching adulthood", corresponds to the child who was tortured and killed in the three cases in the play. But in addition to the main course of "the death of a child", it also includes adults who died because of hatred and pain, and their death is a snack.
Many scenes in the play appear in the mid-to-long range, and then slowly advance, while at the same time, lower the brightness, trying to make these people who are enveloped by death and pain in a dark corner. The sluggish movement of the camera and the dullness of the color of the picture undoubtedly serve as a footnote to the three words "The Eater".
Some fans say that although "The Outsider" is set to take place in the United States, many scenes in the play always remind people of Nordic countries such as Norway and Sweden, just like the cold and hard texture of "The Hunt".
Indeed, in this supernatural crime drama series, the constant smell of death makes people feel like being in a foreign land, from the perspective of an outsider, witnessing moments of tragic scenes and hearing hysterical crying in a vacuum.
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