The thing about this show is that it starts off pretty weak, and that's being generous. I would say it's safe to ignore the reviews from people who only watched a few episodes and then gave up on it. While their reviews are probably accurate for what they saw they don't take into account that the people involved in the production really upped their game as the show progressed and made something which I at least found entertaining.
The acting is the most obvious flaw, at least for the first couple of episodes. A lot of the actors had little to no experience of appearing in a show and you can really tell. Thankfully the main cast grew into their roles as the show progressed, which is prevalent season after season. Some actors / characters were introduced later who added to the show positively. In my view as well some (though not all) of the more annoying characters were removed from the show as it went on.
It's not just the acting. The writers upped their game in terms of story telling and world building too. For me at least the world didn't really make much sense at first and there were a lot of hammy and cheesy aspects about it that were thankfully ironed out. The show really peaks in season 3 too, where a lot of the elements came together to make this low budget production a joy to watch. That's not to say that season 2 or the end of season 1 are poor, it just continued to get better.
Another great aspect about The Outpost is that it doesn't overstay its welcome. Not every show needs to be run into the ground over 8 seasons, and for whatever reason that didn't happen here. 4 seasons was enough to get the full story arc and end the show on a high.
Despite what I've said, beyond perseverance to sit through the rocky start you do still need to make some allowances for the fact that the budget simply isn't that big. Don't expect epic large scale battles and glorious special effects. Go in knowing this and in my opinion you'll have a good time with The Outpost, especially if you're a fan of fantasy.
The acting is the most obvious flaw, at least for the first couple of episodes. A lot of the actors had little to no experience of appearing in a show and you can really tell. Thankfully the main cast grew into their roles as the show progressed, which is prevalent season after season. Some actors / characters were introduced later who added to the show positively. In my view as well some (though not all) of the more annoying characters were removed from the show as it went on.
It's not just the acting. The writers upped their game in terms of story telling and world building too. For me at least the world didn't really make much sense at first and there were a lot of hammy and cheesy aspects about it that were thankfully ironed out. The show really peaks in season 3 too, where a lot of the elements came together to make this low budget production a joy to watch. That's not to say that season 2 or the end of season 1 are poor, it just continued to get better.
Another great aspect about The Outpost is that it doesn't overstay its welcome. Not every show needs to be run into the ground over 8 seasons, and for whatever reason that didn't happen here. 4 seasons was enough to get the full story arc and end the show on a high.
Despite what I've said, beyond perseverance to sit through the rocky start you do still need to make some allowances for the fact that the budget simply isn't that big. Don't expect epic large scale battles and glorious special effects. Go in knowing this and in my opinion you'll have a good time with The Outpost, especially if you're a fan of fantasy.