Outlander

[reallyhateskateonlost]

Encore and Starz are FREE this weekend. I have no idea what Outlander is or who is in it, just that there is a lot of fuss about...lol

[EricMontreal22]

I was just writing an Outlander post!

LOL

[EricMontreal22]

Starz has offered the pilot online for the past week.

I've heard about the Outlander series for at least a decade--a close friend of mine loves the series, and I know it's considered to be one of the more literary works while still being somewhat of a historical romance novel series (with fantasy overtones.) But I never got around to reading them. Frankly, the covers of the early editions with roses and lace were a bit of a turn off (and I say that as a soap opera fan.)

Funny thing is, two weeks ago I was taking a cab to the airport and had an annoying talkative, mid 60s, really macho seeming cab driver. At one point he mentioned the series and passed me the third book which he was reading. The edition he had had a very Game of Thrones style cover--black with just a symbol on it. He said that he rarely reads female writers, but he was really loving these books and went on about why--all the historical stuff, the time travel, etc. I didn't have the heart to tell him that when they first came out they were categorized as romance novels for women...

Anyway, so I always planned to watch the series, especially since it's being developed and head-written by the creator of the Battlestar Gallactica reboot, Ronald D Moore. I didn't love Gallactica as much as many of my friends, but I always felt Moore had a clear talent and idea of where he was going with the show. The show has also gotten some really strong reviews (many of them, annoyingly, give the caveat that some of it does seem like romance novel cliches--and annoyingly, when writing about the show I have to say the same.) Metacritic has its overall rating at 74%, but Starz also gave critics the first *six* episodes (out of 16,) and not just three as networks usually give reviewers. After watching the pilot, I think I know why this is... it is very deliberately paced, but I think that will prove to be smart (ie we don't get to the time travel bit until 2/3rds into the show.)

I like it a lot. I don't love it, yet, anyway. I thought having three sex scenes in 30 minutes between the same characters seemed like overkill, but I appreciate they are trying to show the bonds between the lead and her husband in their "normal time,"--which is partly based on sex and also an equality in their marriage, so that the contrast with 150 years earlier makes more sense. Even if someone had never watched a soap or read a romance novel, the fact that she would fall for the only Scottish dude who is her age (sorry, I still don't have a handle on the names,) and is hot comes off seems ridiculously inevitable as does the fact that he only has one working arm and yet it is with him the other of his brigand insists she rides with, etc. These are cheezy cliches, and yet, I am willing to go with it. I think they do a good job of showing how a woman who has always felt her right as an equal to any man has to deal with being in a situation where nobody else feels that way. The show looks gorgeous. The music is Enya-celtic but works, and I really like the acting. I've not been spoiled about the books, so really know nothing about where the story is going, but I'm enjoying it.

[EricMontreal22]

I think the fuss comes from how incredibly beloved the novels are. As I implied in my post, originally they were kinda deemed romance novels with a fantasy element (before that was trendy,) but then critics started paying attention to how strong the writing and characterization was, and now they've crossed over into being read by a lot of readers who would have never touched anything aimed at that audience. The show has a lot of potential, and attracted a great showrunner--certainly better than the planned tv movie from about ten years back.

[EricMontreal22]

Wow, I thought on a soap forum more people would have checked this out.

[~bl~]

I read the early books about 10 years ago. The premiere episode is streaming free online as well, as not everyone has free Starz this weekend. (My service has free Cinemax due to the premiere of "The Knick".) When I got them back then they weren't fully promoted as romance or as a science fiction, but in general fiction...

I think the big deal about this also is because Starz may finally have a show that has a built-in fan base and may actually get some ratings. (Every original series they've tried has been a bust.)

[dragonflies]

[Juliajms]

I saw it, didn't love it, but will watch another episode. All I can say is her love interest in her past life, is way hotter than the one in her present life.

[EricMontreal22]

This show has completely won me over.

Emily Nussbaum's New Yorker review is (as, I feel *most*, though not all of her reviews are) pretty much how I feel:

"

“Outlander” is a new show on Starz that is smartly made, but it, too, falls into a tricky genre category: the female-skewing action adventure. The series is based on a hit literary fantasy series by Diana* Gabaldon, which is to say, a romance novel—but that shouldn’t block snobs like me and you from watching such a lively, rich, and emotionally satisfying story. We all have our demographic kinks, but if you take a brazen brunette from the nineteen-forties, send her back in time to eighteenth-century Scotland, dress her in corsets and furs, and leave her torn between her twentieth-century husband (a witty, ardent scholar) and her eighteenth-century crush, Jamie (a well-built redhead who is capable of “gentling” horses), well, welcome to my TiVo’s Season Passes.

Caitriona Balfe stars as Claire, a nurse who, in the aftermath of the Second World War, goes on a second honeymoon with her historically minded husband, hoping to rekindle a marriage that has been strained by years of wartime separation. In the Scottish Highlands, she finds herself transported, via witchcraft, to an era when brawny laddies are fighting the redcoats—and nobody knows about disinfectant or germs. (Between “The Knick,” “Outlander,” and “Call the Midwife,” cable television these days is practically an advertisement for Obamacare.) As Jamie, who leans very close to Claire during all their conversations, Sam Heughan helpfully fills the shirtless-male-redhead slot left empty by “Homeland” and “Dexter,” so that the couple’s protracted game of Scottish footsie flares with convincing eroticism. Yet this love affair has gravity, too, because it’s woven into a tragedy: Claire is embedded among Jacobite** rebels, a culture that she knows is on the losing side of history, doomed to be crushed by the English. With each episode, the series intensifies, invoking interesting parallels with modern political issues—about nations whose enmity is so ancient that it feels indelible, links between wartime violence and sadomasochism, and the ethical questions raised by conflicts of unequal foes.

The show has sumptuous cinematography and gorgeous period costumes: everything is lushly green, or covered with mud, and, for anyone interested in details of the era, there are fascinating sequences set in the castle where Claire is trapped, suspected of being an English spy. Instead of panicking, she uses her nursing skills to make herself invaluable. The ensemble is full of great characters, including one of her husband’s ancestors, the vicious English officer Black Jack (Tobias Menzies, who also plays Claire’s husband, Frank); a hilariously witchy Lotte Verbeek, as a trophy wife who advocates that Claire adopt feminine wiles to survive this violent, patriarchal universe; and Graham McTavish, as a Scottish elder who begins as Claire’s enemy but becomes her ally. Claire is a satisfying character—alternately sharp and naïve, cunning and impassioned—but, then, she’s a fantasy herself: a feisty avatar for female viewers, in much the same way that brilliant male characters have operated on so many adult cable shows, both good ones (“Mad Men”) and bad (“Californication”). The female perspective is a welcome change, particularly in a cable landscape that finds every possible excuse for a middle-aged male detective to interrogate a teen-age stripper in her dressing room. But the show is more than tit for tat: it’s sheer pleasure, no guilt allowed. ♦"

[Juliajms]

I guess it's growing on me. I haven't read the books, so I didn't come into it with a love for the characters or story. I can only assume that Jamie is a Stewart or is it Stuart. Anyway, since they won't tell us which clan he is from and his name is James, I figure he must be.

[EricMontreal22]

Pretty sure he isn't (I've never read the books, either.) He is genuinely related to the McKenzies', I know though (a real clan, of course,) and Colin is genuinely his uncle. A friend who has read the books id tell me that all of that should be clear by the end of this batch of 8 episodes.

[Juliajms]

He's a McKenzie for sure, but remember that he got out of swearing the oath of loyalty to the McKenzie's by saying he had allegiance to another clan? I figure he's a McKenzie on his mother's side and his father's clan is the Stuarts or at least some clan they aren't bringing up yet. I think Claire even asked in that episode and was rebufffed.

[EricMontreal22]

You actually may have a point... Hrmm.

[Juliajms]

Thanks Eric, but then this episode forced me to rethink, since they mentioned James Stewart and then said his sons name is Charles.

Randell is such a freak. I can't believe Claire fell for his act, even after he practical admitted getting off on what he did to Jaime. She is incredibly lucky she was rescued.

[reallyhateskateonlost]

I've been watching on line. No new shows till April 2015.