Teddy Wilson of CRAVINGS: THE AFTERSHOW Shares Thoughts on Where HBO’s THE OUTSIDER is Headed – But He Hopes He’s Wrong!

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede For an inside scoop on HBO’s THE OUTSIDER, Lainey Lui and Teddy Wilson have been providing it with their companion series CRAVINGS: THE AFTERSHOW. Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Crave, THE OUTSIDER – starring Ben Mendelsohn, Jason Bateman, and recent Oscar® nominee Cynthia Erivo, and based on a novel of the same name by Stephen King – has been taking viewers on a creepy ride. Streaming on Crave immediately after each new episode, CRAVINGS: THE AFTERSHOW sees Lainey and Teddy sharing strong opinions and having heated arguments about where the story is headed. As THE OUTSIDER reaches its midway point this Sunday, Feb. 2, we caught up with Teddy for his take on the tale: Q: Are you generally a Stephen King fan? TEDDY WILSON: “I am, yes. There are a lot of super hardcore Stephen King fans, and I haven’t read all his books, but I’ve read a good chunk of them. That includes his book On Writing, which is really fascinating, in terms of a peek into his craft and also autobiographically.” Q: If you were stranded on a desert island and could bring one Stephen King book with you, which one would it be? TEDDY WILSON: “That’s a great question, because there are some I haven’t read yet, and it might be nice to have one that I haven’t read. But The Stand would be up there for me, and it’s a long read, which would be good for a desert island situation. And probably Different Seasons, if you allowed me to have both a full novel and a short-story collection.” Q: How about if you also could bring one Stephen King TV or movie adaptation to the desert island? TEDDY WILSON: “Stand By Me, which is a bit of an odd pick, because there are a lot of Stephen King works that are much more terrifying. But I really like Rob Reiner as a director and I really like that adaptation. But then, I would probably have to amend my short-story pick, because I wouldn’t need The Body (a short story included in Different Seasons on which the film Stand By Me is based).” Q: Given your recent on-air conversations with Lainey, if she were here right now she might say, “Typical Teddy, hedging his bets.” TEDDY WILSON: “I’m definitely guilty of that. I find it difficult on CRAVINGS to narrow down my number of predictions and narrow down what I want to talk about. But for me that’s rooted in being a Stephen King fan and now a fan of THE OUTSIDER. I really like it. And I think there’s a lot to talk about. Whittling things down is not my strong suit.” Q: But that’s good with Stephen King material, because he has said that he really isn’t overly interested in the ‘why’ of things, which means there’s usually lots to mull. TEDDY WILSON: “I think you’re bang on there, but then in the same breath, he also is great at twists. My favourite TV show of all time is the original Rod Serling Twilight Zone, those original seasons. That really turned me into a sucker for pulling the rug out from under the viewer or the reader. So I like that Stephen King tends to do that as well.” Q: So what would you like to see as THE OUTSIDER continues? TEDDY WILSON: “I hope it’s not just as simple as a boogeyman, a kind of extremely evil, terrifying, folkloric monster. On CRAVINGS I have been gunning for the idea that this is building toward more of a meta-fight between good and evil. Also – and I think they might go here – I wonder if there’s some historic connection between the families and the people that are being targeted. It definitely would be interesting to find out that the victims are not necessarily random. But all that being said, I also hope I’m wrong with everything that I think, because there’s nothing better and more entertaining than thinking you know where a story is headed and being completely wrong. Luckily I’m wrong most of the time, so I’m often thrilled.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv