What do cowboys and time travelling voids have to do with each other? Well, if you're a fan of Firefly you'll know that cowboys and sci fi go brilliantly together. It's not as cultish as Firefly, but it's brilliantly done, loaded with easter eggs that beg another viewing.
Royal Abbott is almost a Yellowstone cliche of a ranch owner - gruff and secretive, emotionally distant and hard working, he is trying to keep the Wyoming ranch that's been in his family for three generations. His daughter in law has been missing for nine months, leaving behind her husband and young daughter, and the family are barely coping. The other son is a rodeo star, and his wife of many years is long suffering. Into this atmosphere of worry and tragedy comes a threat to the family farm - their neighbours are taking them to a hearing to contest ownership of their west field. Whilst it seems simple enough to prove it's not theirs, the Tillersons are rich, entitled and happy to bribe the relevant people to get their way.
Into this drama there is also the problem of getting rid of the body of one of the three Tillerson boys, accidentally killed by one of the Abbotts in a bar fight. I'm not spoiling things much here - all of this happens in the first episode. There's also the gay Indian woman (her words) who is running for Sheriff, and a mysterious hippie woman called Autumn Rivers who comes to camp on their land.
It all feels like quite the cowboy story so far. Except it's not. There's a lot of mysteries wrapped up in riddles that thread through the various stories that influence the fate of all the characters, except according to one of the characters, you can't escape from a fate that's already in play.
And then there's also the mystery of the void in the west paddocks, a huge gaping hole shimmering with dust and swirls of nothingness that could be the beginning and end of things, and could be a gateway to different times. Whilst Royal is determined to keep it a secret from the family, that's not how it's going to play out, of course.
There's many delightful moments that enrich the viewing experience - the eldest Tillerson boy and his singing, the wall of dead owls, all given a name, the buffalo that appears with two arrows in it's side (by the late 1800's, there was only 500 left alive - so the buffalo are quite a magical appearance in Outer Ranges). There's also things to puzzle over, such as why the young Royal appeared at the ranch one day with no memory of where he'd been, and what happened to his daughter in law, and whether God exists - a spiritual void that runs as one of the themes of the film.
Threaded through all of that is the story of America and beyond - the things that have been lost, the threat to First Nation people, the problem of land ownership, and how the rich make their own rules at the expense of all else, of violence to other human beings and the beasts of ground and air, relationship with God, our deepest yearnings, and how we deal with the unknown and unknowable.
Reviewers have made comparisions to Twin Peaks and Lost, but I don't think it's as strange as that. Sure, there are some strange moments, such as the relationship between Autumn and one of the Tallister boys, but most of it seems to run as a murder mystery spiced with some metaphysical, sci fi, time travelling pepper. It all reads as fairly normal until you step away from the screen and go - wow, what the hell just happened, how do I feel about it, should I start watching from the beginning right now and will there be a series 2?.
For some, it means it is deeply unsatisfying to not have all the answers. To me this seems the point of the show. I for one am hanging out for a second series.
With Love,
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