Review – Outland – Episode 2

Outland – ABC1 – 9:30pm Wendesday – AUS
Episode 2: Rae

To say that Outland had a lacklustre debut would be somewhat of an understatement. The show pulled in only 324,000 viewers which is a number so horrible that it’s lower than the number of people that watched Ben Elton: Live From Planet Earth’s SECOND episode. Premiere ratings don’t reflect the quality of the show itself, they reflect the marketing and the ABC marketing team are apparently so bad at promoting a new Australian comedy that Nine trying to salvage the biggest flop of 2011 after a week of horrible press can somehow draw in more viewers; as much as Outland didn’t really do it for me last week those numbers are just another damning example of how the ABC are mistreating this long-shelved comedy.

The only good thing about that uncomfortably low number of viewers is that not very many people got to watch the first, not terribly good, episode of Outland. While it’s doubtful more viewers would have suddenly tuned in for this second episode, if they did they would have been treated to a far funnier show than the one on display last week. After last week’s dire effort I was hesitant to even bother with this second episode but it was such a surprising joy that I’m really glad I did.

Each episode of Outland focuses on a different character in the sci-fi group and this week we followed home Rae, the wheelchair bound lesbian played by Christine Anu. Rae had a large nude photograph taken of herself that the artist wanted to hang in a gallery but Rae wasn’t convinced it was a good idea. Over the course of the episode Max stumbles across the nude photograph and as each of the boys see it they become increasingly horrified. The running gag of the boys confused and appalled faces at the sight of female genitalia, specifically belonging to Rae, was one of the better running gags in the episode. Rae’s ex Simone (played by the talented Roz Hammond) drops by to pick up some her stuff and the pair get into an argument about why Simone really left.

What this second episode had that the premiere lacked was heart. Now, that sounds ridiculously corny but there was no point in the first episode where I thought ‘yeah, I can see why this group of misfits hang out together’ because all they did was yell at each other and invade each other’s space and it was kind of tiresome. This week did a far better job of establishing them as a gang who sometimes annoy each other also need each other. Fab and Toby sneak behind Max’s back to create an internet dating profile on VanillaDude.org for him, and even though it’s similar to the way they crashed his date last week this week it felt more like they were doing it to push him out of his comfort zone and not simply to be annoying jerks.

Some of my quibbles from last week still stand, like the show’s over-the-top musical score which sometimes works to highlight a joke but often sounds like they’re putting on a school musical, but overall this was a vast improvement from last week. Everybody was funnier, especially Fab who was grating in the first episode, and the dialogue which felt stilted last week flowed smoother. Even Christine Anu, who isn’t the greatest acting talent, was able to really show Rae’s vulnerability and strength. I don’t want to overpraise the show as it could just as easily revert back to the crowded, noisy, unfunny show that it was last week but if this episode had been the first episode I would have easily recommended you watch the whole season.

Good, Alright, Bad Or Ugly?
Good

This review is part of Change The Channel’s episode by episode coverage of Outland. The full list of episode reviews can be found under Series.