Binge-r #283: The Outlaws + Abbott Elementary
Going Straight: Stephen Merchant (Greg) and Christopher Walken (Frank) in The Outlaws
THE OUTLAWS S1
Streaming Service: Amazon Prime
Availability: All six episodes now streaming
There’s plenty to like about this British comic-drama, but my number one pleasure is that it has 79-year-old Christopher Walken – an actor whose audacious idiosyncrasies I’ve been fascinated by for 35 years now – playing an incorrigible American grifter. “What’s the agenda, Brenda!” Walken’s Frank exclaims when the roll is taken at the community service program he’s joined after finishing his latest stint in jail, and the veteran actor adapts to every angle of this subtly demanding story while shining a light on his disparate co-stars. Walken is genuinely heartbreaking in Apple TV+’s Severance (sorry, not going to stop praising that amazing series), but even as the stakes build in The Outlaws he’s simply delightful.
The show was co-written and directed in part by Stephen Merchant, the beanpole creative partner of Ricky Gervais on The Office and Extras. At first glance it’s a misfits comedy, with the detail fixing up an abandoned Bristol building in lieu of incarceration including a housing estate lad (Gamba Cole), a socialite influencer (Eleanor Tomlinson), a wound tight Tory businessman (Darren Boyd), and a lawyer who cheerfully says the wrong thing (Merchant, naturally). But the show’s ambitions run deeper, starting with the comic friction of their broom-pushing shifts alternating with harsher back stories – perfect student Rani (Rhianne Barreto) is a kleptomaniac, while gags give way to guns when a bag of money is discovered by the clean-up crew and they have to figure out what to do even as its nefarious owners come looking for it.
“Everyone’s a type,” Rani says, looking at her unlikely companions, but Merchant twists that in unexpected ways. Sometimes it’s awkward, as a heist sequence butts up against deadpan punchlines, but when the storytelling clicks those same contradictory approaches start to feel quirky and illuminating. Without Gervais, Merchant has a genuinely warm streak that is prominent in The Outlaws. Frank and his ankle bracelet are staying with his daughter Margaret (Dolly Wells), and despite failing her repeatedly the old man she’s bluntly labelled a liar and thief to her grandchildren starts to forge a bond. There are four or five shows folded into one here, including a sitcom about the crew’s officious supervisor, Diane (Jessica Gunning, who has a little power and a lot of expectations. But any failing comes with a ready-made fix of Christopher Walken.
Blackboard Bungle: Quinta Brunson (Janine) in Abbott Elementary
ABBOTT ELEMENTARY S1 (Disney+, All 13 episodes now streaming): Set in a West Philadelphia public school, this warm, witty workplace comedy is my go-to sitcom right now. The 22-minute episodes deliver a smart and socially relevant quota of gags and character development that less than a dozen episodes in feels like it has numerous threads it can draw on and tie together. Creator Quinta Brunson plays Janine, a young grade two teacher whose optimism runs headlong into the wary experience of her colleagues and her own best interests. Set in a Black neighbourhood, the ensemble is staffed with distinctively sketched foils, with every scene she strolls into stolen by Ava (Janelle James), a wildly unprofessional principal with a knack for the (PG-rated) inappropriate. The mockumentary format, with the characters nervously interacting with the camera and giving explanatory interviews, puts Abbott Elementary firmly in the lineage of Parks and Recreation and The Office, which is a worthy recommendation for this show.
>> Further Reading: For The Age I wrote about Servant of the People, the 2015 sitcom then comic Volodymyr Zelensky made where he plays a history teacher who suddenly finds himself elected as Ukraine’s President. SBS on Demand has put the first season up, which has a harsh, telling resonance now that Zelensky really is the Ukrainian President and the country has been invaded by Russia.
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