Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Rhianne Baretto, Darren Boyd, Gamba Cole, Jessica Gunning, Clare Perkins, Eleanor Tomlinson, Grace Calder, Stephen Merchant, Kojo Kamara, Charles Babalola, Christopher Walken, Tom Hanson, Ian McElhinney, Claes Bang, Rhys Yates, Patrick Robinson, Nicholas Rowe, Harry Trevaldwyn, Richard E. Grant, Matilda Ziegler.
If there is somebody to whom can bring a group of well-intentioned misfits be people that you want to be friends with, then Stephen Merchant is to be considered a master of the art.
The Outlaws returns to television for a third series with what might be seen as the culmination of the tale of the unlikely heroes who were thrown together in their rehabilitation via Community Service and who prove that at times the family we want, and need, is not bound by blood, but by circumstance and how we often fall foul of the law.
Stephen Merchant, alongside Nathaniel Price, Nikita Lalwani, Jess Bray, and Jessica Gunning, in this third series pushes the characters even further in their attempt to bring down the evil of a drug lord and the smug façade of respectability he has surrounded himself with, whilst all the time finding themselves as figures of contempt within society.
This third series deals beautifully with the final acts of redemption for the intrepid outcasts and misfits, from letting go of anger, of finding a kind of family with someone who is perceived to be a social better, and becoming the person you always knew you could be if life was fairer; and in many respects these people are exactly like us, we are all capable of running foul of laws created to make even the most law abiding would be confused and bewildered with; all we can hope that we are placed alongside people who can see the good in us as we give back to society.
The return of Rani Rekowski, played with force and ambition by the wonderful Rhianne Barreto, brings chaos once more to the lives of the group, and as The Dean, played with cunning sophistication by the great Claes Bang, vows to wreak havoc on all who have stood in his way, so the tension and light relief, given huge substance between the pairing of Stephen Merchant’s hapless lawyer Gregory Dillard and Eleanor Tomlinson’s Lady Gabriella Penrose-Howe, and the majestic Jessica Gunning as PCSO Diane Pemberley, are magnificently drawn upon to give the series its potential final outing the greatest of respect and accountability possible.
The Outlaws is a wonderful reminder that ambition in writing is only surpassed by its delivery; and throughout it all, the three series of the tremendous situation is to be regarded as excellent.
Ian D. Hall