Outlander Season 1

I have longed for Outlander to be filmed since I first read the novel over twenty years ago.  As the years progressed and rumors of a movie version popped up here and there, I hoped they were wrong.  I wanted such an epic book to get a mini-series treatment.  When Starz picked it up as a series, I was overjoyed.  Especially with Ron Moore as the director.  His other series, Battlestar Galactica, is one of my favorite series of all time.  It had great characters, complex storytelling, a compelling narrative, and a fantastic world.  These are elements of the Outlander story that I felt assured he could bring to the screen, especially with his wife as a super fan.  

I wasn’t a fan of how Season 1 was broken up into two parts.  My husband and I watched the first part when it first aired on Starz, but got rid of cable before Part 2 was available.  I purchased it when it became available digitally on Amazon.com.  We just finished it.  We do better keeping on track when we watch it live.  I’ll also admit that since I knew what was coming at the end of the first season I put off of watching it.  I may have spent most of the last episode with my head under a cover.  I didn’t want to watch the brutality and the rape. I also skim that part of the book.

The following are my brief thoughts on the elements of the series.

Story:  you can’t go wrong with working with Diana Gabaldon and having her in an episode herself was every fan’s dream.

Setting:  Scotland is beautiful and is a star of the series itself.  It’s been amazing seeing all of the pictures on Facebook of various blogging/Outlander fans making the Trek to Scotland.  I would love to do that one day myself.

Characters:  Everyone has their own version of how they think Jamie and Claire should look.  I’ll admit that I always considered Jamie to be more of a strapping man than Diana Gabaldon has stated he should be.  Actors Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan have done an outstanding job bringing these characters to life.  I’m still a bit sad that Claire isn’t shorter with a nice “round arse” (which I took to be that Claire wasn’t so skinny), but actress Caitriona Balfe is outstanding in her performance.

Favorite Episode:  The first episode was my favorite as I loved seeing my dream of Outlander finally on screen.   My other favorite episode was the wedding episode.  It was passionate, Claire’s dress was beautiful and it was beautifully filmed.

Music:  I am a fan of Bear McCreary and actually own the Season 1 soundtrack of his work on Battlestar Galactica.  I know happily also own the Season 1 soundtrack of Outlander.  I love the song in the intro to the series, the adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem Sing me a Song of a Lad that is Gone.  It really sets the mood to the series.

Ben’s thoughts:  “Whatever makes you happy” My husband Ben was forced to watch it, but he had read the book and found it enjoyable.  Ben liked that it made me feel romantic and was also intrigued by the Scottish clan system.

Ben and I are going to get Starz now to watch Season 2.  Trying to find time to watch it without kids with busy work schedules is hard, but we want to be caught up before Season 3 starts.  Overall, this is a series not to be missed.  Even if you aren’t a book fan, it’s an epic story with great acting, costumes, music, and setting that is not to be missed.

Have you watched Season 1?  What was your favorite episode?  Who was your favorite character?