Touching evil

It’s a good time to be a Stephen King fan.

- Jason Bateman Plays a man accused of a child murder in a new Stephen King thriller

Barely a month goes by, it seems, without another chilling story from the prolific US writer being adapted for film or TV.

This week’s offering is The Outsider, a new 10-part _ supernatural drama on Sky Atlantic, based on King’s bestselling 2018 novel of the same name.

The story begins with the gruesome murder of 1 1-year-old Frankie Peterson outside a small Georgia town, with the case investigated by seasoned detective Ralph Anderson (Bloodline’s Ben Mendelsohn).

The prime suspect is local man Terry Maitland (Ozark’s Jason Bateman), a popular English teacher and baseball coach who once coached Ralph’s son, who has since died. But although Terry insists he’s innocent, DNA evidence says otherwise and, with his fingerprints all over the crime scene, it seems an open-and-shut case.