Sunday, December 16, 2018

MOP Video: Outlander "Down the Rabbit Hole" Episode 407

28 comments:

  1. Where is William Buccleigh MacKenzie. Moag’s Baby is named Jenny?

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  2. "Bri goes to Lollybrock" is the most disappointing adaptation yet. Where was Jenny? And the other Murray's?
    And Mirage baby is Jemmy?

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  3. When I first saw Roger I thought it was James McAvoy. I like the beardless look—less of a tweedy academic and more youthful. Loved the cinematography of Bree in the highlands. Her fall reminded me of Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility when she hurt her ankle. Must be an acting class in the U.K. on how to fall down a hill in full period costume.

    Liked how they added the flashbacks of Frank as it filled in the gap of the storyline about wanting to take Bree to England.

    Bree should have had more pockets in her outfit for practical items like ace bandages lol.

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  4. Umm. Wasn’t as excited as you were. Good to flesh out the Bree and Roger characters. But Logarie(sp) and Ian’s scenes didn’t add anything to the show or book. They both acted as expected. I did miss the Jenny and Bree introduction. Joanie was adorable again. Steven was creepy. Roger’s beard was missing, maybe so he doesn’t resemble his drawing? The contrast between Jamie’s ‘he’s my son!’ and Frank’s ‘someday you’ll understand’ was kinda sharp to me. But the Rev’s research that is found when Fiona moves in, copied and on Frank’s desk makes me wonder if Brianna would have gone back to the Highlands one way or the other (whether Frank had died or not). Still waiting for them to give Sam something to do. Happy Holidays!

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  5. Having enjoyed the books it is always exciting to see the TV Outlander with the new twists and turns.
    It was a bit more difficult to suspend reality with this episode. If Brianna came thru the stones near Inverness it would be around 200 miles to Port Ayr, quite a walk with only a PBJ sandwich and a cape. Wouldn't she have planned to head to Lallybrach for help with her journey? In the book she at least had a horse and wore pants.

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  6. I agree with Tracy and Carol, I LOVED this episode as a book reader because I did not know what was going to happen! I did think that leghair locking Brianna up in the room was a little campy or silly, but I really enjoyed the conversations that they had with each other. I like Roger with a beard actually! :) Tracy is right Steven Bonnet did look very good even when he was being an awful person. That bit about the foundation of the house and him being pushed in was in the book you guys!!!! I loved that we have a new different insight into why Frank asked for the divorce. Just a great episode over all and I did not miss Jamie, Claire or even Jenny!

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  7. At first I did not recognize Roger without the beard. He looks so good without it. I wonder why the beard wouldn't have worked in the 18th century. Bonnet is bonnie indeed, in spite of his cruelty, but I expected him to be older and much more sinister looking. I wish they would've shown Roger and Brianna's entry into the stones. It'd have been less confusing.

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  8. This is a 50 x 50 episode for me. I liked the Roger and Frank time, but did not like the Bree time. Even though Jenny was not there, they could have kept the story line similar to the book. Missed the Pearls, the cave, just Bree learning about her new family and father. The time spent walking and with Leghair just was not right. Very disappointed in this episode. Don't know how DG could take this one. The source material is so rich, I just don't understand the changes they make.

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  9. I just don't understand the Lizzie casting. It just does not make sense to the story.

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    1. I agree. Overall, the casting has been good. Lizzie doesn’t fit the frail Lizzie role, unless they’re combining her with some other characters. Another casting I’m not crazy about isn’t popular. But the capt Bonnet of the books is older than the young guy they hired away from downton abbey. This fellow is good, but I don’t miss him when he leaves the screen like Ian and Jenny and Jamie and even Fiona. Not sure about Bree yet. She has some way to go before I believe her beyond her resemblance to her father.

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  10. I love Roger with or without the beard. 🙂 But I thought he was really good in this episode. All the actors were excellent ... even Sophie. Loved when she stood up for Jamie with Laughaire. There’s my Bree! Loved seeing Frank again ... very important that Bree felt like he was there to help discover who she really was ... and to give his blessing, so to speak. I wish there was a little more time at Lallybroch but understood the actress who played Jenny was not available to shoot this season because she just had a baby. Love seeing Ian. One of my favs of this season so far.

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  11. I try not to nitpick about variations from the book, but they have to make sense, or move the story forward or correct a less believable plot point from the books. I felt that almost none of these variations worked for me. Let's start with Laoghaire having a week to bad mouth "her husband" and to see how affected Joan is by the loss of her Da. So she now has an opinion of this mystery man, but then finds out it is Jamie they are talking about!! Bree doesn't know the state of that marriage. All she knows now is what Laoghaire has told her about Jamie leaving her. It almost came off like he left her when Claire arrived. It worries me that it will affect Bree's opinion of Jamie when she finally meets him. We know Laura was not available for shooting, but there was no reason why they still couldn't have Bree go to Lallybroch, meet the rest of the family, bond with Ian when he takes her to see the cave. This was necessary in the books to make Bree understand exactly what Jamie sacrificed. A total missed opportunity IMO. Next is Frank. While I enjoyed the use of him in flashback, it was what he said to Bree that bothered me. Talk about jumping the shark! So now the man that Bree has always idolized just tried to show her proof that her mother was going to die in a fire and he wasn't going to do anything about it! Um...nope. Rewriting "history" here may very well come back to bite them in the but. But Sophie was fabulous. I agree that she has really grown into the role. And the same for Rik. Incidentally, if you google photos of him, you will see very few photos of him beardless. Tracy, I agree with you. There is something disturbingly sexy about Bonnet. lol. Thanks again for another entertaining video. Marian

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  12. My first suggestion is for the powers that be producing the Outlander TV series:

    Take a pole... a LEGITIMATE POLE... directed to legitimate viewers of what they think are the absolute key points that they want to see in a season of the show... such as in this particular episode for example:

    *Did I want to see all that baloney with Frank Randall?... NO. Never happened... not in the books. Having him ghost the quay in his suit, hat, and glasses was far-fetched plus pretty hokey. He never went to see Brianna before he died. Claire and Frank never made it to even settling on a divorce. He died before his plan to take Brianna to England ever got to hatch. What a waste of time and film... It demeaned Frank rather than generating sympathy for either him or Brianna.

    *Did I want to see Brianna fall down a hill, wreck her ankle, and go limping over miles until she collapsed and is found by "WTF" Loaghaire who rescued her and took her to the estate that was close to Lallybrock. Made friends with her and her daughter. Was found out to be Claire's daughter. Again assumed she was a witch too. Held her hostage. Daughter helped her to escape to Lallybrock. ... NO. Ridiculous. Never happened. All should have happened at Lallybrock when Brianna arrived and the fight was on with Ian and Loaghaire regarding the alimony. Brianna confronting her over the pearl necklace was dynamite.

    *Did I want to see Steven Bonnet be so swishy between his "humanitarian self" and his "evil alter-ego"?... NO NO NO!!!!! This guy is an enigma. It was patent that this terrible man was no ignorant clod, such as one would inevitably suppose him to be from his exhibitions of brutality. He was as kind as he was dark, although such flashes were very rare. He rubs an infants sore eyes with his gold ring as a blessing and later throws the babe overboard with no feeling or remorse because of suspected pox. Absolutely NO definable difference is present for viewers to see this enigma at work. Where is his presence... it's too weak. I love the actor... he's great... but... put a little more "pirate" in there.

    *Did I care if Jenny wasn't able to be in this episode so much that important things had to be screwed up, changed, or left out?... NO NO NO NO!!! Ian could have carried those scenes on his own. And... he didn't take Brianna to the boat. She rode a damn horse and was escorted to the docks by young Jamie who forced her to buy a bond servant... Lizzie.

    Did I want to see a gargantuan actress play the role of Lizzie?... NO NO NO NO!!! My gawd... she's bigger than Brianna!!! She's not even close to the wafer thin 14 year old puny little blonde. She's also an extremely plain thing to boot. Lizzie wasn't a beauty either but at least she was supposed to be more than huge and plain. When did casting go blind???



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    1. Well... I have to laugh at this post, though I 'get it'. Of course, it's all fiction and none of it actually happened anyway. So, the point is whose fiction do you want to see. And whose fiction got to the screen was the writer's fiction and not the fiction that Diana wrote originally. Sometimes she likes what they do, and sometimes she doesn't. We all know that it's not a literal portrayal of the book. It is an interpretation of the narrative. So... nothing really happened. It's all fiction.

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  13. Got all that off my chest... whew!!!!! I've a lot more to say about my disappointment in this season to the writers and directors of the show. YOU ARE FAILING MISERABLY. I think your egos and personal perspectives are getting in the way of extremely important events that should be shown as opposed to the crap you are foisting on fans... books and TV series alike... (don't give me the crap that it's too difficult to transfer from the books to the screen... totally bullsh*t)!!! My gawd people. The ratings for this show are not for the popularity of what you've produced. It's because of fans like me who've read all the books at least 5 times and have watched every episode of the series more than that (STARZ subscriber). I watch because I hope YOU WILL GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES and PRODUCE EPISODES THAT ARE WORTH THE BOOKS AND THE ACTORS. The reason for all the awards snubs is your failure to get off your high-horses and get this show back to the caliber of the first episode "Sassenach"!!!!!

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  14. Oh... NO NO NO!!! Ladies... although you are giving praise to Loaghaire (which is unfounded) I believe that it was well acted... but your sympathy for her being deserted by Jamie is misdirected. She was an absolute shrew to him during the few years they were together... bad sex if any... crying and fighting Jamie every step of the way... and on and on and on. He left because he was pushed away... and even then he didn't divorce her. C'mon gals. For all her "sweetness", she's still the ignorant evil bitch she always was and you saw the action when she discovered Bree was Claire's daughter. Leopards seldom change their spots... eh???

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  15. Beard or no beard... Richard Rankin I see in Outlander: https://www.pinterest.com

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  16. I have been really good about all the changes in the show vs book, but this episode was extremely disappointing. No Jenny, well, everyone else could have certainly been there. Just don't understand missing the best parts of the book.

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    1. My question each week is Why do they call this show Outlander? Why not call it Sold Out?

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  17. Y'all. I love the episode, love Bonnet, love when Tracey cries and claps over Carol's comments! I did shake my head at Brianna's trek through the highlands, Morag's Jemmy (two Jemmy's?) and Large Lizzie. But tbh, these are the books that I read long ago and only once, so I don't have strong feelings about the changes. Merry Christmas, ladies!

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  18. I was surprised that you both liked this episode and thought that it might be your favorite so far. I"m not being critical. I was truly surprised because I was expecting a 'kebbie lebbie' and didn't get it! :) For those viewers who also watched the post-mortem by the producers, I was at least happy to hear one of them at least consider the possibility that they might have screwed something up by changing Frank's storyline. When one changes Canon... well, it's like in "It's a beautiful life" something else has to change down the line... all the pieces shift in the interrelated universe. I was glad to know that the writers actually considered that and didn't just indulge themselves.
    It wasn't my favorite episode. It did surprise me. I'm a multiple time book reader- and look forward to the narrative. I 'got' why Jenny wasn't there and they had to write around Laura Donnelly. You can't always get what you want with a cast of this size. Didn't care if I every saw the former Mrs. L. Fraser again... didn't need to feel sympathetic nor see her go all "Misery" on Bree. Roger- prefer with scruff not full beard, not clean shaven. Like ship Roger best.
    Bree on the road did seem to take up a lot of time- but then I have to ask myself if we would be critical if it hadn't.
    Now... Stephen Bonnet. There are people who love him and people who think he was miscast... Oh good heavens! Ed Speleers is playing the the most compelling Sociopath in television history right here and now. They are supposed to be sexy and manipulative- they are supposed to suck you in... thinking that they are good at times and then they will show you that they have absolutely no conscience. Look at the really famous, beautiful serial killers- Ted Bundy is a great example. They don't go around looking like murderers or pirates. They look like guys you want to like or sleep with or, get close to, or mother, or reform... and before you know it.... you are raped or murdered or robbed, or whatever.... Ed Speleers is perfect as Bonnet- and we are going to get to see more of that as he develops that character. Right up to the end- no spoilers.
    Lizzie is another matter. I'm willing to withhold judgment on that for now- because she said next to nothing. Granted, she is huge... but we all hated Catriona at first because she was not the physical type for Claire... some of us don't like what she's done with that character... but nuff said there. Just talking physical type. Remember that they cast for acting- not always for physical type.. so, let's see what this Lizzie can do and give her a chance. Look at Duncan LaCroix.... he is NOTHING like book Murtagh and we love him... So, I'm holding off on that one.

    That's all.... ;)

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  19. Nicely said !
    Happy holidays!

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  20. Is that Claire’s wedding ring on Bonnet’s finger?

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    1. Yes, I am surprised that that wasn't recognized by anyone. I thought it was important.

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  21. Here’s the scoop on episode 407 from Toni Grapia:

    https://twitter.com/Sony/status/1075857126411489280?s=20

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  22. 1. Definitely Roger over Bonnet. I think I like no beard, need to see a bit more
    2. While watching the episode, we also made a comment about suspending disbelief about Bree wandering through the highlands BUT as I pointed out to my sister, "we are willing to accept that she TRAVELLED THROUGH TIME and yet we want to quibble about other logistics??!?!?!"
    3. Re your comment about there now being a fuller tapestry of characters - when I first heard the new title theme, what struck me was that there were more "voices", particularly towards the end, and I thought that was fitting as now there are more "voices" in the story...

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