Must Watch reviews The Outlaws Season 2

Thursday 9 June 2022, 9:31

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan review The Outlaws Season 2.

BBC One returns with more community payback and even more danger for the lawbreakers to avoid.

Hayley says: "I really wanted to like it, but I can’t help feeling bored by this show"

My review of this second series is the same as the first one: I think it has good intentions, it’s got good people involved, I really wanted to like it, but I can’t help feeling bored by this show. This might be because episodes are an hour long, when it feels like the kind of show that would benefit from shorter, punchier half-hour episodes.

It starts out as a kind of sweet sitcom and becomes something else. But it’s not quite funny enough to be a sitcom, and it’s not dramatic or interesting enough to be a drama that warrants that runtime. I really did want to love it, but I find the humour relies too much on finding a Bristolian accent funny, especially when they say the word ‘vagina’. And while that is objectively funny, it’s not funny enough to carry a show.

Scott says: "It’s trying to be comedic and do a thriller at the same time"

I think the weakness of it is the running time. It’s one of the shows where I feel as it goes over 40 mins, because it’s trying to be comedic and do a thriller at the same time, it kind of loses its way because it has quite a lot of characters, and storylines and tries to do a lot of things at the same time. If it was just that bit shorter it would be a bit punchier.

However, saying that I do love the fact that the temptation is there with it being on BBC One, particularly with a prime-time audience, to be quite safe, to not take many big risks, to not go down an unconventional approach. I do really admire that this show in its tone and its confidence is unlike anything I have seen over the last year. I don’t think it manages to nail it, but it stands out on its own regard. I also like that with so many shows on now that at the end of series 1 they go ‘that was great now where do we do it?’ And feels like a bolt on for series 2 because it was a big success for BBC One but for me it always felt like they had a plan for where this would go. But please make sure you watch season 1 otherwise you won’t have a clue what is going on.

I also like how it’s another drama which isn’t set in London, you don’t really see much of Bristol in TV and having a different region on TV with Christopher Walken, unexpected but also a nice treat.