Jason Bateman, America’s Sweetheart, takes an unexpected step into horror as a producer and director of, and actor in, “The Outsider,” a miniseries adaptation of the 2018 Stephen King novel that premiered Jan. 12 on HBO. Some fright fans may find it slow, and anyone not equipped with night-vision goggles will find it literally dark, but there’s a lot to like here, even for viewers temperamentally liable to give grim creepshows such as this a wide berth.
Bateman plays Terry Maitland, the nicest guy in Cherokee City, Ga. — the action has been moved from Oklahoma, presumably for the tax credits. He’s an English teacher, Little League coach, husband to wife Marcy (Julianne Nicholson), father to Jessa (Scarlett Blum) and Maya (Summer Fontana). One day, in the middle of a game, in front of his friends and everyone, he is arrested for the rape, murder and mutilation of a neighborhood boy. Evidence says he did it, and yet equally convincing evidence puts him miles away at the time of the murder. How. Is. This. Possible?
Developed for TV by Richard Price, whose novels (“The Wanderers,” “Clockers”) and screen credits (“The Color of Money,” “The Wire,” “The Night Of,” which he co-created) are all distinctly demon-free, “The Outsider” proceeds in its early stages — six of 10 episodes were available for review — largely as a police procedural. Naturally, the authorities favor the incriminating evidence over the exculpatory. But circumstances make allies out of opposing teams and set them together, like an argumentative Scooby Gang, on a search for the truth.
“I have no tolerance for the unexplainable,” says Det. Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn, appealingly low key), who is technically on leave after a line-of-duty shooting but still hunting for that explanation.