Still cracking on with the Guardians' top TV of 2022 list and I'm down to "The Outlaws", a show I knew about and meant to get around to but needed this little push to get me to start it. I did, naturally, go back and watch the first season first. Whilst I'm not perhaps quite as high on the show as others have been I thought it was certainly enjoyable enough that I'll watch the second run.
A group of offenders, carrying out community service refurbing a leisure centre, discover a large bag of cash in the roof. Unbeknownst to them, the bag was put there by one of their fellow offenders, Ben (Gamba Cole) a young man who robbed a drug dealer under duress but plans to use the money to get him and his sister out of Bristol. As they decide what to do with the money, the head of the drug dealing operation, 'The Dean' (Claes Bang) start to use his influence to recover it.
Oddly, for me, I think I liked "The Outlaws" more in its lighter moments, than in it's darker ones. Each of the characters has their own personal drama, which is feeds both into the crimes they committed to get here and into their decision to take the money. It's quite cleverly plotted in that way, as the characters occupations and history give them at least an opportunity to get away with it. There is an edge of make-believe to the darker crime elements though. Claes Bang gets to be more of a pantomime gangster, and doesn't actually feature that much, but Charles Babalola plays Christian, who actively runs the gang and though violence is threatened at times, it's never particularly convincing. This is never more evident than in the season's final moments, when a legal situation is sidestepped, but the whole angry drug dealer element is rather glossed over. I assume that'll feature more in the second season though.
It's quite funny, at times, mostly with Stephen Merchant cracking jokes at his own expense. Christopher Walken just has to deliver any line in his usual cadence for it to be amazing. Darren Boyd and Claire Perkins are reliable performers, but the shows heart is with Gamba Cole and Rhianne Barreto, as the young potential couple for whom life keeps getting in the way. I wish perhaps it was just the bit more consistently funny though.