Episode 1 Sassenach

Introduction: My introduction to the Outlander series of books came from my older sister telling me about them and the wonderful writing, the characters, the history, the time travel fantasy aspect, and the sex. She raved about the sex. I’m a guy, I like reading about sex, and history and fantasy elements, but I had to just find out what she was talking about. So, I picked up the first one, and started reading.

Then I put it down about twenty pages in. I admit, I didn’t like it. It was rather slow, and I kept thinking, Where’s the sex? So she told me to give it a few more pages, another chapter. Just keep reading. So I did.

This time I didn’t stop. I couldn’t put it down. Five days later, I was asking her for the next one. I was hooked. The writing was top notch, the characters were wonderful, passionate, three dimensional not perfect, humans that jumped off the page and took over the story. I feel like Diana Gabaldon just opened the door to them and they said, “Okay, we’re here, let us go”, and she didn’t stop them.

Cut to ten years later when I found out there was going to be a TV show based on the books I thought, “here we go, they’re going to mess it up.”

Well, I’ve watched and I’m impressed. They did it right, and I love it. Do I have a few nitpicks here and there? Of course, we all do. But overall, it’s a solid attempt and I hope to see it go for a few seasons or more. The fact that they have extended it into season 2 is very good news indeed. If it’s anything like Game of Thrones in 1 season per book, Season 3 will be my favorite. (Voyager for all you non book readers.)

A note on Spoilers: I don’t mind them. I will give alerts at the beginning of the recaps because I’m a nice guy, and if you read them without watching the show, don’t complain. I’ve read the books, and I may put little easter eggs and foreshadowy bits into my recaps, (I’ve read them about a half dozen times each so it’s inevitable) so don’t be surprised if you read about something that happens in book 3 or 5 or 8.

Also, another note before I go on. I’m assuming we are all adults, and from time to time I will use adult language. It’s inevitable that a few coarse words may find their way to this blog, and if you are offended I apologize up front. No it won’t be all the time, and I’ll keep it as potty mouth free as possible, so forgive me if there is an occasional four letter word here and there.

So on to the recap:

Episode 1 Sassenach

1. The fact they show Claire in her nursing days in 1945 is good, but I could have done without the bloody shoe. Oh well, I guess Saving Private Ryan raised the bar, right? And I would have downed that champagne also if I had heard the end of a five year bloody nightmare was over. Kudos girl. But do I suspect a possible drinking problem in future?

2. Just buy a vase, and the show ends and she goes back home to Frank and the show is over.

3. Credit sequence. It was okay, I guess. No Game of Thrones, but oh well, they can’t all be gems. The music is good, it’s just too many images, none connected. But I’m never really worried too much about credit sequences, I just want to get to the action. Tell me who’s in it and I’ll watch.

4. Bear Macreary does some good music, especially with the swing band music on the radio while the two of them are tooling down the Scottish countryside. He also does the Walking Dead, so there’s that.

5. Blood on doorways, pagan superstitions, like a biblical plague is going to happen. Uh… creepy, go away, run, get back in the car and go to where people don’t do that kind of thing.

6. I have to hand it to the set designers. The moment I saw the room they were staying in, I immediately thought, “That’s the way it was described in the book. Awesome!” right down to the look of the bed and the wallpaper. And the squeaky bed….

7. Speaking of squeaky beds… I love it when Mrs. Baird looks up at the swinging light and smiles knowingly. Didn’t know we were going to be ten minutes in and already have smut, but that’s DG’s writing so I guess it goes with the territory.

8. I think I have said this before, but I really like TV frank better than Book Frank. I’m sure many feel the same way, but I always thought he was kind of a bookish nerd. Of course, I haven’t read other books she’s written about him, and I’m a nerd myself. However, he’s kind of a dick in the books. Specifically in Voyager when she alludes to the fact that he has been sleeping around with his students. Oh well, we won’t have to worry about him anyway, except in flashbacks from here on out so there’s that. They go to Castle Leoch, now a ruin that apparently anyone can go into. And find a nice cozy room full of dirt and hanging vines. My Girlfriend, Fran, says, “Oh my god, are they going to do it right there on that dirty table? Oh my god what are they doing on that table? Oh myyyy….” 17 minutes in, another sex scene. And yes, it was pretty hot the way he John Snowed Claire.

9. More Exposition with the priest. We find out about Jack Randall, the evil dragoon (who we will meet shortly) and his relationship with the Scots. Claire is thoroughly bored so the servant comes and saves her. Then, there’s a tea reading. And it’s all muddled, and then a palm reading, which is utter hokum by the way. I know it’s all folksy superstition, and it works for the plot but whatever. I know JP its fantasy, so let it go.

10. More fucking exposition, the boys break up the party, there’s a mention of the Duke of Sandringham, and then Claire bids farewell, leaving the nerds to catch up on history while she goes back and does something normal like read a book or brush her hair.

11. The ghost of Jamie Fraser shows up and is outside stalking her. Then Frank busts up his party and the guy disappears. Then later on confronts Claire, even though he knows it’s a ghost he saw. What a douche! Whatever, she forgives him and then falls into bed and oh my god, what a scene. We are twenty minutes in and already three sex scenes. I know this is honeymoon but damn, do we need to see every time these two have, oh my god what is he doing to her, she’s grabbing the bedposts… hot! never mind. I like it, ok?

12. Anybody who wants to go see the sights at night after a hot bedroom encounter needs their head examined but whatever, we got to get this show going here, so the pair truck off to a set of standing stones to watch a bunch of witches cavort around with candles and barely nothing else. Which is cool, and it’s a pretty scene, and I know it adds to the drama, so I won’t make bones about it. It was cool to see little Fiona come back looking for something though.

13. The flowers. The blue ones, which are forget me nots maybe, planted several years ago I’m assuming, which has been a hot debate for the longest time, probably planted by Jamie after Claire is gone maybe, I don’t know. I have no opinion. But Claire wants to go back and so she tells Frank she’s going and he lets her. “I’m going to the stones, dear, I’ll see you in about three years, okay?”

14. Bang! Through the stones we go. We get a glimpse of the car crash that killed her parents and then she’s lying on the grass, and the world looks new and vibrant. I loved the change, it was clearly visible in the trees and sky. By the way, hon. It’s October in the highlands, don’t forget to take your shawl…. Yeah, you left it.

15. The first thing I do when I fall through time is to go running off into the forest to get lost. Bang! Shot at by English redcoats, live ammunition. That’s your first clue its not a movie set. Then you come face to face with the most evil sonofabitch that’s ever been written. Iago has nothing on this guy.

16. Black Jack Randal Esquire… need I say more. This guy is a total dick. He sees a damsel in distress and what’s the first thing he does? Pull a saber, push her up against a rock and try to rape her. Nice guy. Hey, try to give the lady the benefit of the doubt, she just got teleported through time here, ass. Thank god she got saved by one of the Scots. Then she gets knocked out by the Scot who rescued her. Never a break.

17. She wakes up in a cottage and immediately has to set an arm back into the socket of a handsome Scottish brigand. Jamie Fraser gives her the moony eye right off the bat. Oh, and she got called a whore too. Because she’s running around in a dress. Whatever, men in the 1700s are kinda dickish toward women.

18. So they leave the cottage, she doesn’t see any lights on the horizon, the stars are lighting up the sky and she gets threatened with death by the main guy of the raiding party, Dougal. This guy is going to be a thorn in her side for a while. And he’s totes going to wanna hit that. Then its back on the horse and let’s go.

19. She sees a set of rocky crags, tells Jamie what’s going on with them, because Frank told her in a random bit of exposition that would be handy later, “Hey see those big rocks up there? Yeah, the English are going to be hiding in those when you go back through time so give a heads up to the guys who capture you alright? Cool.”

Jamie tells Dougal, they drop her off the horse and go rushing about, killing English soldiers like it’s cool and she runs off, gunshots and yells of the wounded behind her. Hey Claire, you don’t know where the hell you are, best to stay put, aye? No, didn’t think so.

20. Hunky Moony eye guy comes back and gets her, because it’s easy to find a lady wearing pumps apparently, draws a sword and threatens to kill her if she doesn’t come back. But he promises to protect her from the depredations of the others and then takes her back. Well, Dougal is all, “hey that was cool, and all but are you a spy or something?” And she’s all like, “no way, but I can’t tell you how I knew this stuff because if I did you guys would stone me for a witch, and I’m already having to deal with you calling me Sassenach or something, which sounds like a dirty word if I knew a stitch of Gaelic which I don’t so just shut up and let me explain everything as best I can to the dude you’re taking me to alright?”

21. Minutes later, here’s Jamie falling off the horse because he’s a stubborn Scot and doesn’t want the pretty lass he’s in love with to know he’s a wuss. So after a bunch of fumbling in the dark and yelling at burly men in kilts, with foul language that only a sailor would admire, she gets the kid patched up again. Back on the horse and off into the night where we see Castle Leoch, this time in it’s original form, without the dark room where she made Frank perform Unspeakable acts on her body only ten scenes ago.

So that’s it, Initial impressions when I saw it the first time were that they got the gist of it correct. I’ve read all the books and Outlander like, three times. So I can tell you that Ronald D. Moore is keeping the story in mind, and staying true to the books. I’m also glad he’s keeping to the spirit of them as well, showing all the nasty dirty stuff and not going all Game of Thrones on us. All around A+ effort by everyone. The actors are good, and they have a lot to work with so it should be great to see them grow into the roles.

Jamie Fraser Mooney Eye pic of the week: