Sam is a perfectly fine performer of the “Joshua Jackson school of acting.” He gets by on charisma and a naturally engaging way of saying his lines. He doesn’t quite do the WORK of acting in the way that Cait and Tobias do but not many people do, on any show. Outlander has arguably the strongest core of lead actors on…

Brianna is just an incredibly thankless role. I don’t even like her on the page, though I can appreciate that Gabaldon committed to writing a female character that isn’t always very pleasant. I’m not sure that a better actress would improve the character at this juncture. I had to laugh during the last stretch when…

I agree that it was an odd moment. Maybe the writers were backtracking a bit and leveling out the Saint Frank stuff? Maybe we’re supposed to wonder if he wasn’t as long-suffering as he seemed? Was it just stuck in there to make Claire think, “Jeeeez, what have I even been doing for the past 20 years?” Perhaps it was…

I’m trying to remember - did the books address the danger of the stones at this juncture? I know that in Dragonfly, it’s said that some people (like Jamie) can’t travel through the stones, so we have that information. I believe that after Claire goes through this last time, she’s knocked unconscious for a while and…

What I meant is that I think it’s missing the point to parse the other woman’s monologue for perfect internal logic. It makes broad sense that she would, in her grief, invent reasons to blame Claire for why Frank didn’t marry her (the other woman) when she would have wanted. Women say crap like that to each other all…

You really, really need to learn to see the puppet strings behind writing decisions. The conversation between Claire and the “other woman” occurs to provide a parallel to Claire’s dilemma regarding Jamie. It even makes sense on a character level when you realize that the other woman is grieving the love of her life.…

I sense that a good amount of effort went into avoiding ‘60s cliches. A lot of Claire’s characterization comes from being a modern woman in the past, and Jamie is even more tied to his time and place. Iconography and ideas from the ‘60s have a way of trampling over everything else so I understand and appreciate the…

I agree. This is how employment works...Kim tried to work out a contract and it just didn’t happen. It’s not like she committed to the project and then bailed. No one should have gotten their hopes up before everyone signed on.

I know that Willie is supposed to be a blonde. That’s why the redhead comment was a reference to Sophie.

Well yeah, my perspective comes from being a book reader, because that’s what I am. It’s also what the showrunners are. I’m explaining a suspicion I have about the behind-the-scenes process, which is just my own analysis and doesn’t need to be shared by anyone else, book-people or non-book-people. I stand by my…

I think the writers aren’t concerned about being completely graceful with subplots when they know the subplots aren’t hugely popular anyway. Are there really a whole lot of readers out there who are moved by these weird vignettes of Jamie having sad sex with other women? Diana put them in the story mostly as a way of…

I believe there are weird union rules. For Bree, the show could have hired an American if she’d been a full-season contracted regular, but the writers only needed the character for 1 episode last year and thus doomed us to Sophie (who was admittedly better tonight - she played Bree as energetic and more immature than…

For a subplot that concerned Willie’s resemblance to Jamie...is it really that hard to find local actors who resemble Sam H in any way? There were similar problems with Sophie. No redheads within a 100 mile radius?

As far as arranged marriages go, Isobel’s is one of the better ones.

The show has used modern songs before. The closing credits of last year’s finale, plus they used ‘40s songs in season 1 all the time over Claire’s Scottish scenes. It was a cool stylistic motif.

I think that people with academic backgrounds need to get over the mental hurdle/judgment against non-white collar/traditional teaching work. This isn’t a dig, as it took me a long time to change my thinking. Yes, it sucks when you decide to give up on the career path you’ve dreamed of for the past 20 years. I’ve been…

That might be one of my least favorite storytelling cheats. “I have no idea who murdered Jane! Everyone loved her!” Find me the most adored person in any community and there are bound to be several people who didn’t care for her.

Maybe Jaime Lannister will finally rescue Edmure Tully.

There’s this weird throughline in the books wherein every gay dude in Europe has the hots for Jamie. I’m no great fan of the Grey character - though I like him more on the show because I inexplicably like the actor - but it helps with future adventuring for Jamie to have rich friends in high places.

Given the later emphasis on “Jamie’s Ardsmiur men” I’m going to convince myself that Murtagh stays with us.