The Outlaws: What the Must Watch reviewers think
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan review The Outlaws on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Stephen Merchant and Christopher Walken star among a group of strangers completing community payback sentences in Bristol.
BBC/Big Talk/Four Eyes
Scott says: "A comedy that turns into a drama"
"It really takes you on a journey. It purposely sets itself out to be a light hearted comedy and then it turns into a suspenseful drama.
"The inspiration for this series comes from Stephen Merchant’s parents. They worked with people who were in community service and were always surprised by the variety of people from across the UK who were made to take part. People forced to work together makes a great premise for a workplace comedy. It is intentional with this in that everyone has different beliefs, principles and they are all at loggerheads with each other.
"It is very funny, and it has great, compelling characters. It also feels original in style. My only gripe is that each episode feels that little bit too long. It feels like it could’ve been 40 minutes/45 minutes and it has been dragged out to a full hour. Sometimes I worry that as a result, you end up losing that real energy the show has."
BBC/Big Talk/Four Eyes
Hayley says: "Absolutely bored me to bits"
"I think it has good intentions, and it has good people involved, but it absolutely bored me to bits. It starts out as a sweet sitcom and like Scott says it becomes something else, but it’s not quite funny enough to be a sitcom and it’s not dramatic or interesting enough to become a drama.
"I really wanted to like this one. The fact they’ve got Christopher Walken is WILD and apparently they had to fax him the script because he doesn’t have a phone or a computer - they had to get a dusty old fax machine out of the BBC to try to send it to him. I also really like Stephen Merchant. But I didn’t like this."
BBC/Big Talk/Four Eyes
The Outlaws continues on BBC One Monday’s at 9pm. You can also catch up on BBC iPlayer.
Must Watch is released as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds and all other good podcast providers.
This week, the team speak to Celine Buckens from Bridgerton on Netflix about her latest role in BBC One’s Showtrial. Plus, the team also review The Long Call on ITV.
