Outlander TV Show

Cafe Society
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Even though they embellished quite a bit over what’s in the book, I thought Tobias Menzies did a good job. I wish that the relentless voiceover had included Claire’s shock at being hit: “In a fairly eventful life, no one had ever purposely struck me before.” As **PunditLisa **said, she doesn’t seem nearly afraid enough.

I’m nervous about the Jamie/Randall scenes. When I read the first book I thought they were nearly over-the-top sensationalist, and I was worried that Gabaldon would escalate that kind of thing in later books. She doesn’t - not that there isn’t plenty of melodrama including murder, kidnapping and rape, but nothing I found quite as disturbing. The scene where Randall describes his pleasure in the flogging was intense. I wonder how they will handle the final scene at the prison? I notice they haven’t yet mentioned the part where Randall makes his offer to let Jamie skip the second flogging.

Jamie looks great, except that between the shaggy hair and the vests, he reminds me of a giant hobbit.

122

A one-and-a-halfling?

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Anyone else watching the Scotland Independence referendum with great interest? Of course Outlander is my main source of Scottish history so I’m just watching from afar with not nearly enough context to have an opinion about which way it should go, but this is a very interesting time to be watching Jamie and Claire’s story…

124

My Twitter feed, which includes many of the Outlander cast and fans, has exploded today. Some of the cast members are vocal Yes voters. Sam Heughan especially.

Diana Gabaldon posted something on Facebook today–a quote from a Scot about how this isn’t about romanticized history, Scotland is already a free country, etc etc. It comes down to economics.

Not my country and not my business what goes on under the surface, and yet, I am thinking about it. A Facebook friend compared it to a kilt.

125

If it passes, I have 4 words: The Redcoats are coming!

:slight_smile:

Yes, I’m watching the vote. So far, the no’s are leading by a significant percentage, but they’ve only counted the outlier islands, which oddly were supposed to be pro-UK.

Interestingly, the Highlanders were also pro-UK. The interviewer opined that it’s because they’d rather have London ruling them hundreds of miles away vs Edinburgh. They are an ornery lot.

I don’t think it’ll pass, just based on what the polls were suggesting, but it’s still an interesting vote.

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Sam Heughan is “gutted” and waxing poetic on Twitter. I’d say he’s drunk, but they’re filming today.

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Acc to an NPR expert, this may be the last time the vote for Scottish Independence fails. Apparently, the older Scots are fiercely loyal to the union, whereas the youngsters as in favor of independence. So once the old duded die off, it should be a shoe-in (providing the youngsters of today don’t become more conservative as they age, which is a consideration).

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One of the arguments for independence is that the North Sea oil will make Scotland a rich independent country. Oil production is slowing, though.

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It is impossible to be sure how any Nationalist movement will play out in the future. I am convinced though that there is a correlation between Scotland’s oil revenue and modern Scottish nationalism. If oil revenue (and future prospects of oil revenue) drop significantly then the Independence movement will be fighting an uphill battle.

130

I just saw tonight’s episode referenced as penultimate on another website. Are they not airing all 16 first season episodes in a row? If so, when will it be returning after next week?

???

131

Yep, they are splitting the season–they’re still filming the first season now, believe it or not. The second eight episodes will air sometime in 2015.

132

Wow, that sucks. I thought we were getting all the first season up front.

133

Watched last nights episode, which, all things considered, seemed to be a slow developing thing, designed mainly to allow us to watch some beautiful people simulate sex. Gorgeous, both of them, and, for my two cents worth, a fade away before disrobing would have left a half hour for them to actually advance the plot.

Then I dreamed about it last night…not the sex, but the idea that someday Claire and all the other characters will be sitting in one room, bandying their situation, and they all will be flickering between 1744 and 1944; in the flicker of a candle, the hair and dress will change and change back again…for everyone. The boundaries will be blurred and everyone will move back and forth to whichever side they please at the moment.

Then I speculated about how Claire might somehow change history by convincing the clan leaders that their fate was dire if they followed the strategy of not taking London when it was available to them, instead regrouping in Scotland where many of the clansmen went home to show off and bury their loot from England…and that the reduced army would wear itself out with a night march that failed to surprise the English, and would then charge into the massed guns of the english in a sort of suicide mission.

What would be the risk if she tried to reveal that? I could foresee that if she is able to change history in any way, her very existence is threatened. While in the process of telling Jamie about the future, she might simply vanish…and would never have been… Even if she wrote it all down and left it to find in case that happened, wouldn’t her writing also disappear if she never existed?

Fragly, I don’t see a logical way for her to change events without making her own existence questionable. a paradox. And, even, her presence in the past might also be so questionable as to not have happened at all.

I know this isn’t the way it is handled, but…wouldn’t it be neat to see her explaining to Jamie or the clan leader what will happen, then…‘poof!’

134

My takeaway moment from last night was Jamie’s line “I said I was a virgin, not a monk. If I want guidance, I’ll ask for it.”

In the book, what happens afterward is all gratifying wonder and Jesus God. Claire actually has to guide him in. In the TV show, all of the friendly Jamie goes away, and he throws her on the bed and dives right in.

I thought that was a moment that was well done, and better-than-the-book.

Jamie’s dominance in bed isn’t even hinted at during the wedding scene in the book. We first see it, I think, after the stramash with the Grants–which was shown in the Next Week’s Episode bit–and finally developed in the Blunt Object scene back at Castle Leoch, in which Claire finally meets him on his own turf, so to say. I thought it was canny and appropriate to start that on the wedding night, though, and I think Sam Heughan did a brilliant thirty seconds of acting, there.

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Someone please tell me I’m not alone in finding Graham McTavish so knee-tremblingly attractive as Dougal that I’d be throwing Jamie over for him in the blink of an eye.

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I’ve been saying that I’m on Team Dougal from the beginning. Sam Heughan is slowly changing my mind, but yeah. I adore Graham McTavish as Dougal.

Somebody needs to start a ShitDougalMackenzieSays twitter account. “Grinding your corn” was invented for the TV show, but I’m pretty sure that in the book there’s a “split your peach” and a “plow your furrow”.

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You aren’t alone at all, I would be there with you.

That would be a great Twitter account

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So now we’ve had the totally ‘bodice ripper’ episode. I hope the ladies enjoyed it. The other episodes were better balanced, but I don’t mind looking at a naked woman so it wasn’t a total loss for me. It just didn’t move the plot along much for me, but I can understand that some people may prefer a more in depth look at the emotions of the people. It was soft core porn really, but that’s ok, at least it wasn’t all teasing and metaphor.

The biblical debate was amusing, a nice touch.

139

I know I did. :slight_smile: This episode was total female wish/fantasy-fulfillment, and not in that creepy stalkerish Fifty Shades of Grey kind of way.

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Perhaps the phrase “grinding your corn” wasn’t in the book, but it certainly wasn’t “invented” for the show. The phrase was used in an episode of Six Feet Under, and was the title of the episode.

Urban Dictionary has a fuller explanation.