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redrikkiOver the weekend I stared watching Outlander on Netflix. It's based on a series of books by Diana Gabaldon. In it, our hero Claire accidentally falls through time from 1945 to the 1740s while on her second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands. Part historical fiction, part trashy romance, and part magical realism, the books are pretty fun. I'm only 12 episodes in on the show, but so far the series is quite faithful to them, with a couple added scenes focusing on what the other characters are up to when the narrator isn't present.
The show is incredibly beautiful. I'm pretty sure it's shot on location in Scotland and everything is really pretty. The clothes are pretty, the people (at least the main characters) are pretty, and the cinematography is gorgeous. The music is by Bear McCready. He loved him some bag pipes back when he was writing for Battlestar Galactica, and now he has an excuse to use them all the time! He must be so happy.
Despite all that, I'm not sure I'm actually enjoying it. Part of the problem is that I have a pretty good memory for what happened in the books and that winds up sucking out the dramatic tension since I know exactly what's happening or about to happen in any given scene. There were some moments where I quite liked how they pulled it off, but, for the most part, it felt like they were marking off a check list of scenes from the book. I'm sure someone unfamiliar with the source material probably wouldn't feel that way, but I did and it left me a bit bored.
The other big problem is all the sex and nudity and sexualized violence. Not an episode goes by without a female topless scene and/or sex. At least half of the episodes involve some sort of sexual assault or the implied threat of same. They're all there in the book too, but I've mastered the art of skimming past the soft core porn, in a way you really can't when it's on screen. It gets a little old after a while and I find myself rolling my eyes at just how flimsy everyone's clothes are that they can casually rip through three layers of bodice, corset, and chemise whenever it's sexualized violence time. In the books, literally every single main character, male and female, gets raped at least once (except Roger, but there's still time) so if that's a trigger, this series is not for you. There's also some domestic violence which is played as hot or at least kinky, so, yeah, progressive it's not.
The show is incredibly beautiful. I'm pretty sure it's shot on location in Scotland and everything is really pretty. The clothes are pretty, the people (at least the main characters) are pretty, and the cinematography is gorgeous. The music is by Bear McCready. He loved him some bag pipes back when he was writing for Battlestar Galactica, and now he has an excuse to use them all the time! He must be so happy.
Despite all that, I'm not sure I'm actually enjoying it. Part of the problem is that I have a pretty good memory for what happened in the books and that winds up sucking out the dramatic tension since I know exactly what's happening or about to happen in any given scene. There were some moments where I quite liked how they pulled it off, but, for the most part, it felt like they were marking off a check list of scenes from the book. I'm sure someone unfamiliar with the source material probably wouldn't feel that way, but I did and it left me a bit bored.
The other big problem is all the sex and nudity and sexualized violence. Not an episode goes by without a female topless scene and/or sex. At least half of the episodes involve some sort of sexual assault or the implied threat of same. They're all there in the book too, but I've mastered the art of skimming past the soft core porn, in a way you really can't when it's on screen. It gets a little old after a while and I find myself rolling my eyes at just how flimsy everyone's clothes are that they can casually rip through three layers of bodice, corset, and chemise whenever it's sexualized violence time. In the books, literally every single main character, male and female, gets raped at least once (except Roger, but there's still time) so if that's a trigger, this series is not for you. There's also some domestic violence which is played as hot or at least kinky, so, yeah, progressive it's not.
