TV Review: Outlander -- Season 1 (2014)

Background:

Director: Metin Huseyin

Cast: Caitriona Balfe (Claire Randall), Sam Heughan (Jamie Fraser), Duncan Lacroix (Murtagh Fraser), Tobias Menzies (Jack Randall/Frank Randall)

Genres: Drama, Romance

I got this first season at my library. And if you're wondering this first season only correlates with Outlander, the first book, except maybe for the cliff hanger at the end of the season finale.

Plot and Thoughts:

The acting portrayed for Jamie and Claire was phenomenal. These two actors portray this characters almost exactly how I imagined they would look/act like when brought to life. Claire is more frustrating on screen than in the book, she just seems more spicy and headstrong in the book.

Randall of course is just perfectly terrifying. 

I love the setting, just like I had in the book and I love the time period. I love learning about history and I feel like I learn something new while following along with the Outlander fandom. I also love the bond within the clans and I loved Angus and Willy and how they added a goofy side to this dark story. And they seemed to grow to protect Claire and I loved that.

The only thing I had a problem with was pacing. Similar to the book, some of the episodes were long-winded/boring at times. The book made up for this by the long descriptions that Diana Gabaldon had perfected. But sometimes a 57 minute episode would have 5 minutes of action or all the action is crammed into the one episode. It was just kind of frustrating. 

The romance also was perfect on screen and I wanted to cry just looking at them, my heart aches for them.

 Accuracy to Book:

It's hard to complain about the pacing of the TV show because it was exactly like the book, where there were chapters that did nothing to the story. But I applaud the cast/crew because they stayed true to an 800+ page book and it's a very accurate TV adaptation and I thought they did that very well. 

I give this an 8/10 stars!

★★★★★★★★☆☆