‘Outer Range': The Secret to Cutting Together a Hybrid Science-Fiction Drama

thewrap.com:

This story about “Outer Range” first appeared in the Comedy & Drama Series issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.The Amazon Prime Video series “Outer Range” dropped in April to lots of huzzahs and hoorays, but even its rapt audience was confounded when pressed to describe exactly what type of series it is.

It possesses the rural family drama of land ownership a la “Yellowstone“, the science-fiction dread of “The Twilight Zone”, the sinister personalities of “Twin Peaks” and even musical interludes (sung by “Schitt’s Creek” star Noah Reid, as a very strange country boy) that could come right out of “Glee”.

And yet, these still don’t quite nail the exacting tone of the series, centered on a Wyoming rancher (Josh Brolin) who is not only battling a rival’s potential takeover of land and the machinations of a young drifter (Imogen Poots) but also a mysterious black hole on the land that he finds himself repeatedly drawn to.Editor Trevor Baker is well aware of the conundrum for audiences. “The biggest challenge as far as tone was, ‘How far should we push it’?

And also, how much do we sort of take it back?” said Baker, who also serves as one of the show’s producers and counts “The Twilight Zone” reboot and “Breaking Bad” among his TV credits. “You don’t want to go all-in on that first episode, even though the first episode’s pretty wild and it’s an even more wild ride to get to Episode 8.