I can help you with that.
The North won.
My DVR might run out!
Outlander returns Saturday night
Mad Men returns Sunday night
Wolf Hall premieres Sunday night
Broadchurch s2 continues on Wednesday night
I better go out and get some more popcorn!
Game of Thrones comes back too!
I was very worried they’d be on on the same day. But they aren’t. Phew.
Also, what happened to all the commentary? How did the first episode fare in everyone’s opinion?
blink blink Well hello, stranger.
I continue to be perturbed by the divergence from the book. From a storyteller’s perspective I can see where the changes come from, but it still feels like the episodes are written by committee and trying to dumb down a story that already has a massive, and rabidly loyal, following. A following that isn’t getting a scene it wants every time the scriptwriters pull a different scene out of their asses.
For people who haven’t read the book, the only things taken from it in that episode were the spanking scene and a few lines of dialogue at the end (put into a scene that was emotionally *very *different from the book).
If I was Diana Gabaldon, I would be pissed.
So there’s no jealous ex-girlfriend in the book?
Laoghaire Damn-Her-Eyes Mackenzie is in the book, but it plays out differently. She’s a lot skulkier and a lot less forward after Jamie and Claire are married.
Edited to add: Diana Gabaldon also wrote a graphic novel version of Outlander, told from Jamie’s perspective instead of Claire’s. I have not read it, so it’s possible some material is being drawn from that source.
As I’ve already said, I haven’t read the books, but I can see she’s gonna fuck up our heroine’s happiness. Because, for sure with a whole season to go, they cannot live happily ever after yet.
Orphan Black is also returning and Daredevil hits Netflix on April 10.
Goodbye, life. I’m kidding. I never had a life, anyway.
In the books, Jamie remains completely in the dark re Laoghaire’s obsession with him. NOTE: Do NOT read the spoiler if you haven’t read the series, as it reveals several major plot points that you really don’t want to know ahead of time. Seriously. And I don’t know how they’re going to explain Jamie’s subsequent marriage to Laoghaire in Book 2 if they don’t keep him COMPLETELY in the dark re her feelings. This happens to be one of my major beefs with the book: Claire never reveals that it was Laoghaire who betrayed her, which paved the way for Jamie’s ill-fated marriage to her. As if that little tidbit wouldn’t have ever come up in conversation. In the book, Jamie continues to believe that she’s nothing more than a harmless teenage girl with a crush. (IOW, the scene in the woods where she throws her goose-bumped boobs at him doesn’t happen, and he doesn’t think “Laoghaire” when she finds the ill wish.)
For me, the other major change that I HATED was the circumstances re Claire’s “walkabout.” In the book, she has no plausible claim of just going out for an innocent walk. It is abundantly clear that she meant to leave him, as she left her horse behind, and was several miles away when she was captured. It just so happened that her capture was witnessed by a clansmen or Jamie would have never known what happened to her.
This makes Jamie even more sympathetic because even though it’s obvious that she betrayed him at her first opportunity, he still tried to save her from Black Jack. He’d made a vow to protect her with his body, and he kept that vow, even though she broke her vows, and with it, his heart. It was only the clansmen’s esteem for him that led them to assist him in her rescue, because she was personae non grata after that stunt. She hadn’t just disobeyed Jamie, she’d betrayed all of them.
So his “punishment” was both deserved and necessary, not just because Jamie was angry, but because it paved the way for her to be reconciled with both him and his clansmen, who would have never forgiven her had Jamie let her off scot free (pardon the pun).
So that’s the setting that explains their estrangement when they return to Castle Leoch. The fight/violent sex scene was a culmination of that tension. The fight was pivotal because it’s the first time that they decide that they WANT to act as man and wife, not because of a forced marriage, but because that’s what they freely choose to do.
Damn, I missed the new season premiere. My current nomadic abode doesn’t have the channel.
But my NEW nomadic abode does, and I move Friday morning. I should be able to catch up on it this weekend, then watch the 2nd episode as it airs. Yay!
Listening to the Ron Moore podcast (free, iTunes) they actually filmed an extra 10-15 minutes that they had to cut.
I think that’s when it really hit home for me, the difference between books and their adaptations. Established authors can make the book as long as they want. But if you only have 55 minutes, you have to pick and choose. I see this watching Game of Thrones too. We may take a detour here and there, but we will end up in the same place.
P.S. Hi, Sattua! Just poking my head back in.
There hasn’t been any mention of how killing Black Jack Randall will prevent Frank from being born yet? (Not a spoiler, just a consideration for now - I have read all of the books, loaned someone Outlander, so can’t check to see if this has come up there by now - I have read all of the books, so no need for anyone to box a spoiler for me).
It will be covered next season. Patience, grasshopper.
Going on to Episode 10…loved the opening scenes. Jamie is a quick study. Rawr.
I loved witchy Geillis. Did anyone else get an Oracle-from-the-movie-the-300 vibe while she was writhing around in the dirt?
Claire, Claire, Claire. We love you honey, but you still have this “I am wise because I am from the future” complex that keeps getting you in trouble. She doesn’t know how to interact with the locals. Changelings and faerie hills? Posh, my good woman, it’s just a sick child and I will try to help it. You cannot bring 20th century logic to uneducated 18th century folk, becaus they will bring 18th century justice to your cute 20th century behind.
I want to have tea with Simon Cowell and exchanged well-mannered barbs. With politeness and a properly crooked little finger, of course.
Colum may be the tiniest man in the room, but he wields the most power.
Simon Callow?
I don’t believe Simon Cowell understands the concept of “well-mannered.”
You’re right…I misread the name.
You might recognize him as John Hannah’s lover from Four Weddings And A Funeral, or the Master of Revels (“This woman is a WOMAN!”) from Shakespeare In Love. Bombastic, flamboyant cads are his stock-in-trade.
I never saw Four Weddings and I only saw Shakespeare in Love once, so the actors don’t stick for me. I thought he did a fantastic job.
He was also Charles Dickens on Doctor Who.
Strike three…it may be heresy around here, but I never got into Dr. Who. :eek: