Overlooked 2020 Horror Show Might Be the Best Stephen King Adaptation Ever
If you’ve been sleeping on this 91%-rated horror gem, now’s the time to wake up.
Stephen King ’s very name is like a tease to moviemakers and showrunners. If the King of Horror has a novel or a novella, rest assured it’s either been adapted at least a couple of times or someone’s working on an adaptation at this very moment. In this sea of King adaptations, both poor and brilliant, it’s easy to miss out on some real gems — and this overlooked TV show from 2020 is one of them.
Don’t Mess with The Outsider
Based on Stephen King’s best-selling novel of the same name, HBO’s The Outsider is a golden classic in its own right. The series follows a seemingly straightforward investigation into a gruesome murder of a young boy. An unorthodox investigator and a seasoned cop have the perfect suspect lined up for them, with the man’s fingerprints ultimately incriminating him.
However, camera footage reveals that in fact, the suspect was miles away at the time of the murder, and the case is falling apart. Nothing is what it seems, and the deeper down the rabbit hole the investigators go, the more they realize they’re dealing with something far more insidious than a human being, challenging their previous lives and beliefs.
Fans Loved HBO’s The Outsider
Despite being “yet another King adaptation,” The Outsider came as a pleasant surprise for the author’s fans and general horror audience by both staying faithful to the original and adding that modern breath of fresh air into the novel. The TV show’s scores and reviews across all platforms reflect how grateful the audience was for it.
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Outsider boasts a great 91% Critic Score and an 82% Audience Score, followed up by the series’ 7.6/10 IMDb score. This TV show has proven itself as a worthy adaptation of the King of Horror’s best-selling novel, so if you’ve been sleeping on The Outsider thus far, now’s the time to wake up… Only to find yourself in a vivid nightmare of the events transpiring on your small screens.
You can watch The Outsider on Max, Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV, and Prime Video.