Anyone else watching? I’ve been highly anticipating this series. Didn’t see any other thread for this already. Lets allow unboxed spoilers from any episodes that have been officially released online or on TV, but no book spoilers.
Well now I have to admit I really enjoyed Episode 1. After all the hue and cry over casting and so on, I found Claire, Jamie and Frank/Black Jack really well cast. I didn’t think that Claire and Frank had much chemistry but there was more than enough between her and Jamie.
A few cheesy moments - like when she walked into the room in modern-day Castle Leoch and looked around portentously. The witches scene laid it on a bit thick, but on the other hand did a good job of having all the women walk away chattering. The tea leave scene, also was kind of heavy-handed.
I thought the actual time travel moment was handled well - I think the director promised no lame swirly falling-thru-a-portal moments. Then I liked nearly everything once she made it to the past.
Claire swears beautifully, except ironically enough, her signature “Jesus H Roosevelt Christ”, which comes out way too over-delivered. I always figured it to be muttered under her breath…
I’m not one to look too deep in my entertainment so all I was asking for this was to not be disappointed, and I am already looking forward to Episode 2.
I just finished up watching Episode 1, and although I can’t say “OMG! I Loved IT!”, I will say I was very satisfied with how they handled the story writing to reflect all the things that needed to be included in the inaugural episode.
Overall, I was very pleased with the casting, excepting a few minor details (Claire’s hair color, Frank/Jack looks too hard). I thought Heughan was spot on, though.
The first four episodes were shot in one month, before Christmas. The subsequent twelve are being shot from February through September. This tells me that the first four episodes are going to be rougher than the rest, because not only were the actors only just learning the characters, they were rushed.
Having said that, it was much better than I’d feared, based on the clips they released ahead of time. Jamie and Claire will settle into their characters, in the meantime Dougal completely steals the show, and the cherry on top is that Ronald D. Moore is back to doing what he does so well: handling Klingons. They happen to be in kilts and tams this time, but they’re still Klingons, and they make me very, very happy.
Starz is offering up the first episode for free online (with an App) or at Starz On Demand (with participating cable networks).
I watched it, and enjoyed it, but definitely saw some improvement areas. I didn’t think that Black Jack looked different enough from Frank, for instance, to be a different man. Clearly the voice and the prominent creases in his face, were the same actor.
I hated Claire’s hair color. It was way too dark and monochromatic. And she was too old to play a 20ish woman, though I realize that the casting director has a very difficult task if they should carry this over to the 2nd book, where the characters age 20 years.
Claire is also too tall and too thin and her eyes aren’t whiskey-colored. Alas. There’s been so much complaining that Sam isn’t “big” enough to be Jamie… well, he’d look a lot bigger if he was actually ten inches taller than Caitriona. Which he isn’t. Not even close.
Alas. As Herself says, it wasn’t ever going to look exactly like what you’d pictured in your head.
My biggest complaint when I saw the casting was that Caitriona was so thin. They make so many references to how round certain parts of her are, I was a little disappointed.
Oh, just dropping back in to say how much I loved the opening score of the show. It seems to be a variation of the Skye Boat Song (Robert Louis Stevenson’s version) with the muscial done by Bear McCreary. Very lovely!
No, the un-subtitled Gaelic wasn’t a problem. It’s always pretty clear what they’re talking about anyway.
Something super cool is that they’ve coached Sam to speak Scottish English with a Gaelic accent. “Didnae” = “dih-duh-nay”, “you’re coming” = “yoor a-comin’”. Linguist geek is happy.
Claire is 28 in the first book (Jamie is 23) and it’s not until the 3rd book, Voyager, that they age 20 years. It will still be a trick to pull that off, though, if the show lasts that long. Caitriona might work well as a 50-year-old who looks very young for her age (especially compared to other 18th-century women).
It’s ridiculous that Jack Randall looks just like Frank, but that’s pretty much straight from the book.
The first episode was better than I thought it would be - although one of my favorite scenes, where Claire bandages Jamie’s gunshot wound, seemed rushed. I watched on a laptop where the sound wasn’t great, so I need to watch it again this weekend.
Claire has far too delicate a quality about her. I hope the actress will grow into the stout-heartedness and determination of Claire. Otherwise I really liked it. The reverend’s house was utterly perfect, especially the kitchen.
I really liked the way they handled the Wiccan’s dance. They were so very human and modern, and just going about their religious ritual; momentarily transported by spirituality but otherwise normal local women. Excellent!
It’s nice to see Starz grow past the 13-year-old-boy demographic and into grownup territory with their original series.
The pilot was pretty good, though my eyeballs have already rolled out of my head reading the complaints here about hair color and other minutia. I’m having flashbacks to the Constantine threads.