Outer Banks

Netflix’s Outer Banks is a hot mess that takes three episodes to decide on what audience to aim for, before it doubles down on the shlock. It feels and looks like the film Mud with Matthew McConaughey, yet it is pigeon holed with the editing and direction into a Riverdale spinoff on the CW channel. The problem, though, is that the show’s structure and development would not last two episodes if it were not protected by the binge-culture of Netflix.

There are a lot of shows like Outer Banks. A lot. But none of those shows are as bizarre. The actors are spectacular, the scenery is beautiful, the chemistry is contagious… yet somehow the end product feels unfinished. Elements of the show present in the first episode are dropped by episode three, one episode goes on a complete detour and becomes a zombie flick involving a blind woman, no one is misunderstood as a murderer—they actually are, in every way, murderers. The romance is rushed yet enjoyable. The class struggle is cheesy yet emotional. The hatred is phony yet enraging. The show is so fake as it shows up for a paycheck, yet when it arrives, confetti and spotlights shine on it. It took me an entire day to watch the full season, beginning to end. Do I want another season? Not in any way, but it is not just because I did not like the show. When the end credits rolled, I had never been more relieved to be finished with a story, yet I actually cheered in applause (it was a long day). So as payback for everyone recommending me to watch whatever this show was supposed to be: here is a very serious review of a very slapdash product of entertainment.

This show is so unorganized and sloppy, it was infuriating just to sit there and watch the hours slip away. If I did not commit to writing this review, I would have checked out within the first 40 minutes. Netflix’s strategy with its TV series is to hook the viewer in by the third episode, which makes the first three episodes the most important in the season… so why are the first two episodes of this show the worst ones? It felt like the directors did not have the right footing until the third episode, where they decided to really commit to the melodrama and psychotic tendencies of every character.

Similar to the CW show Arrow—where in the first season only two characters knew how to shoot bow and arrow, but by season three, half the core cast has a bow and arrow in a world with guns—this show jumps to that level of insanity within four episodes, where every single character either is, was, or will eventually become a serial killer. In every episode there is a moment where one character is seconds away from killing another character and does not realize it until the end of that scene, only for them to continue their rampage in just the next episode. “Dude you almost killed him!” is said in every episode. Why is this island so blissfully fond of choking people? How do the writers show a character is a bad guy? Have them choke a teenager. How do the writers show a character is a good guy? Have them punch their father, or father figure, in the face. The show is so close to being like some episodes of Game of Thrones, where they needed to entertain audiences by having a fist fight with fake blood and swearing so the viewers would not reach for the remote. It is so over the top and repetitive that in hindsight a group of friends should make bets on which character would get the black eye that episode, or which rich snob would have a crying fit while the other has oddly vulgar racist banter that is twisted into a class struggle underlying the show, or which cheap shortcut the directors would take and hope no one would notice—which leads into my main complaint.

I watched this show in one sit through. The full 10 episodes in one day, and I regret every minute of it. I would rather run a mini marathon by myself than rewatch those episodes again. It is not because of the characters or the schlocky drama of teens punching each other. It is because this show took every chance it could to trick its audience into thinking they tried. The visuals and great actors are a thin veil hiding a quick production for easy money. The editing feels rushed and sloppy, and the directing has no personal or clear path. The show may look nice and pretty, but the sound editing is atrocious. There are scenes where, instead of letting the empty space breathe with the characters, the show adds loud sound effects in between lines of dialogue to, again, keep the audience's attention on the screen. One scene in particular, where John B and Ki are talking after escaping the lighthouse (yes that scene), they have an awkward pause when John B commits to what JJ told him, but the audience does not have that awkward silence because the show interjects it with the sound file of a horse neighing. There are no horses in the scene, but that neigh came out of the blue and smacked me in the face—and this was only the second episode. Other scenes interrupt the flow of scenes with cheap sound files like “generic crowd reaction - 1” or a tacky song track that is not edited with the scene, so instead of it building with the action it just floats over the shots like a music video. Apart from multiple sudden shifts in character blocking—with camera angles breaking in the middle of arguments—and the forced shaky cam in the drawn out chase scenes, the visuals are really the best part of the show. It looks professional and passionate, but then you listen closely to how the audio plays out… and suddenly it feels like a youtube fan series. It feels so cheap and lazy at times that even when the characters grew on me, I was laughing at the show more than with it.

Overall, this show pretends to be the next big hit until it ultimately commits to what it really is. The lucky timing of its release in quarantine might save it for a second season, but in reality I loved the ending. It was a good conclusion of events without a true wrap up of characters finding each other again after the fallout. The best ending for a teenage, coming of age story, is an unfinished ending, because it should just be a glimpse of their life, not their full development when their lives have barely started. The characters are very well done, even the antagonists have something to grant them screentime. I thought the sudden twists and turns knocking John B. down every time he finally clung to a new chance at victory was fantastic, but I was never struck by the magic spell the directors thought they had. The steps they took to save money and sell out to people’s emotions never faded from my mind. As a whole, this show is entertaining, but the attempts to discuss wealth and the consequences of past actions are shallow and gimmicky; though, that can be forgiven. I just wish the creators were as passionate as the show's fans, cause then maybe this show would have something special to remember once school opens up again.

The average score calculated from the 384 scenes, 500 minutes and 41 seconds of runtime:

6.4/10