There’s no question that Amazon Prime has been good to the 2024 TV schedule this year. Between massive critically acclaimed hits like Fallout and The Boys, the success the streamer has found with wild sci-fi and action content cannot be denied. However, not every show can stay, and sadly, amidst this success, Josh Brolin’s series Outer Range has been canceled after two seasons.
To me, all three of these series belong on the list of Amazon Prime’s best shows. However, despite dethroning Fallout after its release and receiving solid reviews, Outer Range was axed two months after the release of Season 2, Variety reported, adding to the evergrowing list of shows that were canceled or ended in 2024.
The series, like Fallout and The Boys, had a lofty and creative concept behind it, and the cast and crew of Outer Range committed to it with full force.
The series followed Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) as he and his family dealt with the complications of a black hole on their property. The hole was how people time traveled in Outer Range, and it was the cause of pretty much all the conflict in the show.
Along with Brolin, who also directed and produced on Outer Range, the cast was star-studded. Lili Taylor played Royal’s wife Cecilia while Tom Pelphrey and Lewis Pullman played Royal’s sons Perry and Rhett, respectively. Along with them, the Abbott’s rival family and neighbors, the Tillersons, were portrayed by Will Patton, Noah Reid and Shaun Sipos. Rounding out the ensemble, Tamara Podemski played Deputy Sheriff Joy and Imogen Poots was the mysterious antagonist Autumn.
This series reminded me a lot of Yellowstone because it was a modern Western that’s gorgeously shot. However, the added elements of science-fiction made it incredibly compelling and unpredictable, especially in Season 2.
In the second season of the Western, we saw multiple characters traveling through time, and by the end of it, I was left with many questions about when people were and how the effects of time travel would damage the Abbott family further. Sadly, we’ll never get answers to those questions.
Like Amazon Prime’s biggest hits this year, Outer Range was wildly creative and it really made you think. However, in comparison to the shows that have come out around it, I can’t say I was shocked to learn that it got canceled.
All of Outer Range’s second season was released in the couple of months between Season 1 of Fallout and Season 4 of The Boys, and it feels like it never received the same attention the other two shows got and are getting. While Amazon doesn't release their viewership data, both the video game adaptation and the beloved supes show from Eric Kripke have been consistently present in the streamer’s top ten. Right now, The Boys sits at No. 2 out of all TV and movies while Fallout is at No. 7. Sadly, Outer Range never found that level of success.
Along with Fallout and The Boys, Amazon is also releasing the sophomore season of its wildly popular and very expensive Lord of the Rings prequel, Rings of Power later this summer. Sadly, not every project can survive, and it means tough choices have to be made. With the streamer having such massive successes with series like the aforementioned ones, it sadly means other smaller and less popular shows will be canceled, and this time Outer Range met that sad fate.
Overall, it’s unfortunate that Outer Range got canceled amid what has been a stellar year of Amazon Prime. However, you can still support the sci-fi Western by streaming its two seasons with a Prime Video subscription.
