'The Outsider' is the worst possible adaptation of Stephen King's book. It's a failed blend of 'True Detective' and 'Castle Rock'. It deviates a lot from the book and the original story, adds too many new and unnecessary characters viewers couldn't care less about; too much psycho babble about nothing, too little active police work and sticking to the original story. This show is marred by childish writing, bad editing, terrible lighting and overall sloppy pacing.

Every episode starts out well lit, and ends in complete darkness. It gets tiresome after a few episodes. The show made an established character like Holly Gibney into a Mary Sue, while miscasting others as well, like Ralph Anderson and his wife. They kept just the overall structure of the story - which they butchered with too many episodes and awful pacing - and made it into a boring drama.

It's telling the truth when they claim the TV show is just based on the novel. The dark color grading and ominous music is ripped off from another Stephen King inspired TV show, Castle Rock. If you've read the book first, this show will make you despise its makers. I had such high hopes for this, but was ultimately disappointed, especially since HBO usually does a good job at adapting books.