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Outlander

Guy Gardener

Guy Gardener

Fleet Admiral
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Outlander.

40 minutes of a girly mills and boon laconic wax about how glad a trauma nurse from WWII, is on cruise control after the war ended, is on a second honeymoon with her fuddy duddy husband in the Scottish countryside carrying a mood that I swear was indistinguishable from a rerun of All Creatures Great and Small... Which is when she falls through a wormhole to 1745, and then spends 20 minutes on a horse getting from A to B before the curtain falls and the meat of the story starts week... Well not next week, it was a preview, in a month they'll show the pilot again and then a week later, I'll finally be disappoined by the second episode.

Outlander is a new Syfy (barely!) romantic drama made by Starz, so they can be as graphic with language and flesh as they feel like, which they don't seem to feel like, but it's still very, very well made. Clearly some bastard backed up a truck full of money and dumped it all on this project to make sure that everyone behind the camera and in front of the camera were very good at their jobs.

I can only assume that I am not the target audience.
 
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Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

Outlander is based on a series of historical/fantasy books by Diana Gabaldon. They're basically adventure / romance novels with a slightly less formulaic bent than your typical Harlequin fare.
 
Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

Is the first episode on demand or something because it premieres next week.
 
Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

I have read the first four books. I almost bailed mid fourth but made myself finish it. The first three have some great moments as far as person in the wrong time stuff goes, and there is some very tingly romance because of lovers being separated by centuries. It is also has homoerotic rape scenes that take like 300 pages to build up to, as does the first sex scene. Like many huge historical novels it waffles on describing things for dozens of pages. When it's in Scotland it's fine, but eventually it gets super silly with the protagonists fopping around in all kinds of major historical events, fucking the King of France etc.. there is also Jamaican voodoo.

When it moves to America, revolutionary war as I recall, it gets incredibly dull but that may be me because I would rather read about shipwrecks and voodoo than muskets and early US politics.

At it's best it was a pretty cool time travel historical sexy bits series. It satisfied my time travel interests. It was also HUGE and the expectation it will be an amazing series would be pretty high. I'm not rushing to see it, but if people say it's great and if the time travel part is satisfying I will.. as long as she doesn't adapt in 3 minutes and it becomes nothing but a historical romp.
 
Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

I watched it, as my wife has been waiting for ages and is a huge fan of the books. I'm keen to see it with BSG and DS9 alumni Moore, Behr and McCready attached to it. It was ok, a little slow and some hand holding (the flashback (flashforward?) to the cock rocks really wasn't needed). Will see how it unfolds, but it's nothing that I haven't seen before.

FYI to anyone coming in cold, the first 16 eps refer to the first novel only.
 
Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

I thought this was about the film which was enjoyable nonsense.
 
Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

Ok I can understand why this show might not be for everyone (especially on a scifi board like this one), but I finally saw the first episode and thought it was really surprisingly good. The show just has a very elegant look and feel to it, and the lead actress is charming as hell.

I do admit though that so far I found the 1940s setting to be far more interesting than the 1800s, but it's obviously still early yet.

And it'll be interesting to see just how much jumping back and forth through time she'll be doing. I realize this isn't trying to be a typical Quantum Leap-style time travel show, but I still hope it's a fairly frequent occurrence and not just something that happens a couple times a season. Because watching her have to constantly make the adjustment is what really interests me, more than learning all about 1800s Scotland.
 
Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

I think I'll watch the first ep, I'm curious to see how they capture the attraction between Jaime and whatshername. It was quite vivid in the books.

The jumping isn't frequent, but it's used for some badass dramatic tension and romantic despair :)
 
Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

I definitely got an "All Creatures Great and Small" vibe until the "sex" scene in the castle.. LOL..

For me it's definitely teetering on the edge of being too much romance and not enough "meat" (no pun intended), so we'll see how it plays out... I like the time travel, fish out of water aspects it presents, much as I do with Sleep Hollow..

I can only assume the lead being a nurse AND a student of herbs as medicine (plot convenience) will come to play in the distant past... As will the point of her husband pointing out the outcropping of rocks that the Brits used as an ambush point.
 
Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

Ha, yeah I admit it seemed a bit overly convenient that her husband was such an expert on his ancestors and the history of the place.
 
Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

I'm probably not the intended target audience, but I actually liked the pilot a lot - much more than I expected to. I think the main actress is great, and it's very well-written and well-shot. I also liked that they took their time fleshing out the character's 1940s identity before going back in time. I'm definitely going to keep watching for a while.
 
Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

I'm not the target audience and definitely enjoyed it. But it will have to have some pace and not fall too much into the romance. So far so good though.
 
Re: Outlander is mercilessly dull.

I can imagine a couple tucked into each other innocently, under a blanket, on the sofa in front of the new episode of Outlander, and she's rapt. It's a girl falling in love while falling through time! SQUEE! Come about the ten minute mark, she nudges her husband awake gently, whispering curtly "Look, honey ...Boobs."
 
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