History Series / TheOutlaws

It is not to be confused with the [[Literature/TheOutlaws 1930 semi-biographical novel]] of the same name.

* OverprotectiveDad: Rani's parents are overprotective of her, which has led to her chronic shop-lifting. Unlike most examples, they are also extremely cold and harsh towards her, threatening to disown her should she ever mess up again and fully prepared to do so.

* VileVillainSaccharineShow: The Dean is an ''incredibly'' dark and serious villain who you'd expect to see on something like ''Series/Luther'' rather than a light-hearted comedy series.

* KnightOfCerberus: The Dean. It's made very clear that he is a brutal and ruthless criminal who has no issues whatsoever murdering people. Whenever he shows up, the show becomes deadly serious.

* IHaveNoSon: Rani's dad makes it clear that if she ''ever'' commits a crime again then he will disown her from the family and kick her out of the house. He later makes it clear he wasn't bluffing and is fully prepared to do just that, only letting her stay on strict conditions.

[[caption-width-right:350:Left to right, top to bottom: [[CoolOldGuy Frank]], [[LoserProtagonist Greg]], [[GildedCage Rani]], [[SoapboxSadie Myrna]], [[NobleBigot John]], [[ForcedIntoEvil Christian]], and [[LovableAlphaBitch Gabby]]]]

** John is constantly living in the shadow of his overbearing father who treats him like an idiot and, despite retiring and not being involved in the hard work, still demands total control over their business and belittles everything his son tries to achieve. A throwaway line in the final episode about how he "can still beat the tar out of John" indicates that he was physically abusive as well.
** The Earl is incredibly cold and dismissive towards his daughter, Gabby, not even consoling her after mother's suicide and simply sending her away to boarding school so as to not have to deal with her when she was only seven.

* ThrillSeeker: Rani turns into this throughout Season 2, getting addicted to the excitement of [[spoiler:running a drug empire.]]

* AllYourPowersCombined: The premise of the show is that the main characters are deeply flawed and on their own they tend to screw up whatever they are doing. However, if they support each other and pool their skill sets, they become quite formidable. Rani is book smart, Christian is street smart and Gabby has media savvy. John has business experience, Greg has legal knowledge and Myrna has street-level political experience. Frank fills in the holes with his ability to talk people into doing stuff for him.

** Rich conservative John and liberal activist Myrna bicker constantly due to their difference in political opinion but usually wind up stuck together.

* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Detective Sergeant Lucy Haines is diligently doing her job, however, her investigations always threaten to put the group behind bars as they get increasingly embroiled in Bristol's criminal underworld.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Among the offenders Gabby is the only one who remains completely clueless about the stolen money and in Season 2 the others decide not to tell her about [[spoiler:them becoming drug dealers]] either.

* ForcedIntoEvil: Played straight with Christian, who only commits crimes to protect and provide for his little sister, and Greg, who is blackmailed into the majority of his worst crimes. [[spoiler: The real Christian is also an example, only dealing drugs to look after his family after his dad got sick]]. Averted with Frank, Rani, John and Myrna who all choose to commit their crimes of their free will.

''The Outlaws'' is a {{Dramedy}} Crime Thriller by Creator/StephenMerchant (of ''Series/TheOfficeUK'' fame). It was released in the [=UK=] on the 25th of October 2021 and is a co-production between the Creator/{{BBC}} and Creator/{{Amazon}}.

* GrailInTheGarbage: An interesting variant: in the very last scene, Frank discovers a graffiti image of a rat, painted and signed by Creator/{{Banksy}}. He tries to draw Diane's attention to it, but she misunderstands and tells him to paint over it. Frank shrugs, and cheerfully slaps white paint over a piece that would be worth thousands in a gallery. Made extra amusing because [[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/christopher-walken-banksy-outlaws-bbc-b1955657.html it was an actual painting by Banksy, made specifically for the series, and it was genuinely painted over by Walken]].

* ObliviousGuiltSlinging: While John is planning to call the cops on Christian once they find him, of course every person he questions for his location goes on about what a good person [[spoiler:Ben]] is and how he's always looking after his sister and treats everyone kindly.

* GrailInTheGarbage: An interesting variant: in the very last scene, Frank discovers a graffiti image of a rat, painted and signed by Creator/{{Banksy}}. He tries to drawn Diane's attention to it, but she misunderstands and tells him to paint over it. Frank shrugs, and cheerfully slaps white paint over a piece that would be worth thousands in a gallery. Made extra amusing because [[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/christopher-walken-banksy-outlaws-bbc-b1955657.html it was an actual painting by Banksy, made specifically for the series, and it was genuinely painted over by Walken]].

* GrailInTheGarbage: An interesting variant: in the very last scene, Frank discovers a graffiti image of a rat, painted and signed by Creator/{{Banksy}}. He tries to drawn Diane's attention to it, but she misunderstands and tells him to paint over it. Frank shrugs, and cheerfully slaps white paint over a piece that would be worth thousands in a gallery. Made extra amusing because [[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/christopher-walken-banksy-outlaws-bbc-b1955657.html it was an actual painting by Banksy, specifically for the series, and it was genuinely painted over in that shot]].

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Frank, played by 78 year old Christopher Walken, is decades older than the rest of the cast, old enough to be the father of most of them and to be Rani and Christian's grandfather, and becomes quite close to them.