WatchrTina

Here's link (I hope) to the NEW opening credits, as posted by Outlander to their Facebook account. Happy Thanksgiving! https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1554683091568569 ETA: Here's the link to the YouTube version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw7GBCODFL0

I bought the Kindle version too. Unfortunately I was all set to pay for it with American Express reward points (I have a bunch accumulated and using them to pay for Amazon purchases is an easy way for me to use them up) but, alas, the system would not let me do that. My diagnosis is that Amazon knows they have us over a barrel when it comes to e-books. We have no choice but to purchase e-books from Amazon if we use a Kindle reader so they won't accept AMEX Reward Points for those purchases. They will only let you use those points to purchase things that can also be obtained from other vendors. That way they only steal business from their competitors. I can see the logic but that doesn't make me resent Amazon any less. Now I wish I'd gone to my local independent bookstore and bought a hardback copy from them. Oh well. It's water under the bridge now. Happy reading everyone! Oh, and since this is ACTUALLY the "Outlander in the Media" thread (and not the WatchrTina bitching about her misadventures trying to purchase the e-book thread) here's a link to a story on today's book release. https://parade.com/1195939/paulettecohn/new-outlander-book-go-tell-the-bees-that-i-am-gone/

Here's a Twitter story from Down Under (Australia) where Sam and Graham are promoting their new book, The Clanlands Almanac.

Diana was on Good Morning America this morning talking about the new book. Here's the link (I hope.) https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/video/author-diana-gabaldon-talks-outlander-book-81323960 Publication day is TOMORROW!!! (Tuesday, November 23, 2021).

For you fans of Douglas Henshall (a.k.a. Season 1's Taran MacQuarrie), a new season of "Shetland" (Season 6) is available on-demand. I'm watching it via my BritBox subscription on Amazon Prime Video. As usual, the scenery of the Shetland Islands (located off the northeast coast of Scotland) is spectacular. Also as usual, the mystery (or mysteries) to be solved are complicated and twisty and DARK. (This is NOT a "cozy" detective show like Midsomer Murders.) Alas, they are releasing the show weekly instead of giving us all the episodes to binge-watch (so cruel!) Since I can't binge season 6 I've decided to go back and re-watch the first 5 seasons. They are each only a handful of episodes long so it's not that big a commitment of time and -- quite frankly -- the mysteries in this series are SO convoluted that Season 1 - 5 feel like I'm seeing them for the first time. Trigger warning: Season 3 has an upsetting rape story line.

Today I finally got around to watching the episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in which this year's People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive was announced. Alas, it was not Sam, it was Paul Rudd. But that reminded me that I had not actually READ the edition of People Magazine with Paul on the cover and, hey, a magazine full of sexy men is a nice way to kick off the morning. So who did I spy with my little eye on page 71? Sam Heughan -- who is included in a group of sexy men selected by reader polls. I must have missed that poll (shame on me -- I've been known to campaign for Sam in online polls ye ken) but even without my contribution Sam won "Sexiest Foreign Accent." His delivery of the word "Sassenach" was specifically mentioned. Sigh. Remember that? Remember during season 1 when the show runners would publish video clips of the show's Gaelic coach teaching the viewers various Gaelic words, but when he tried to teach us the word "Sassenach", Sam interrupted the clip and taught us how to say it himself? With that sexy purr of his? Remember that? Ah, good times, good times. So . . . where was I? Oh yeah, Sam got a shout-out in People's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue. Yay!

The more I think about this, the more I like this idea. It was always a bit ridiculous the number of crimes and murders that the vicars of Grantchester (or Father Brown or Jessica Fletcher) encountered in their small, rural villages. But if Leonard ends up serving as a conduit between Will and a population of current and former inmates of the prison who know of mysteries to be solved and injustices to be righted, then that is a whole new field of opportunities for the writers to plow.

(WatchrTina quietly tiptoes to the keyboard to look up "Agatha Raisin" in the hopes that she's just learned of a new "cozy" British TV detective she can binge-watch . . . since she's seen EVERYTHING else that fits that category.)

I have to say I'm not enjoying this season of Grantchester as much as I have in the past due to the awful circumstances in which Leonard finds himself. I appreciate that his situation creates a wealth of opportunities for plot points -- this IS a murder mystery series after all -- as well as social commentary about the cruelty and hypocrisy of England's "morality" laws during this time, but I just hate to see his ongoing suffering. And is EVERYONE at the top of the prison system corrupt? Maybe that is just how it was, but I find it quite depressing to contemplate. My hope is that Leonard will prove instrumental in the solving of a crime and will get time off for good behavior as a result. Or maybe he'll serve his entire sentence but find satisfaction and internal peace by ministering to the spiritual needs of his fellow inmates. Either way, I look forward to his return home (though HOW he will return and IF he will return remains uncertain). More importantly, I look forward to the return to the contrived, pastor-solving-a-mystery-of-the-week format we have come to know and love.

Well, I finally got around to watching the final few episodes of this season. The fact that I stopped mid-binge-watch weeks ago speaks volumes because I love fantasy/SciFi and have a high tolerance for the ridiculous in those genres. (I was once the proud owner of a hard-back copy of "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul," a.k.a. Dirk Gently #2, though I don't know where it has gone these days). Still, I finally got around to finishing this season. It left me confused and frustrated but also entertained from time to time. I give the actors high marks for giving their all and committing to what must have been a REALLY confusing script. The production values were really good too. But plot is king and . . . damn. That plot was hard to follow. (I particularly detest time-travel and alternate parallel universes in SciFi/Fantasy so that's probably a BIG contributor to my disappointment.) Oh well. It was an amusing trip through a carnival fun-house fictional universe. If there is another season, I'll probably watch. But if there is not another season I probably won't notice.

Anybody need a fix of Scottish culture? Here's the Scottish tribal pipes & drum band Clanadonia playing "Ya Bassa." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwWmcMz0ZVk

Caitriona just appeared on the Today Show (3rd hour) to promote her upcoming film, "Belfast." What a happy surprise! It was interesting to hear her use were own natural accent during the interview (which is different from Claire's accent) and then to hear her do a Belfast accent during the clips from the upcoming movie. I predict that the Belfast accent is going to be a wee bit of a challenge for some viewers. Here's a link to the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja3PPOnJQ2k

This is your annual reminder that Sam's holiday movie -- A Princess for Christmas -- will be airing on the Hallmark channel. In my area it's airing on Nov 11 at 1:00AM but you should check local listings.

I'm not who you addressed with your question but now that you mention it, YES! I get a very "Tim Shaw" vibe from the new evil duo.

I am hugging myself with glee at the prospect of Jacob Anderson (a.k.a. Grey Worm from Game of Thrones) having a recurring role this season. And I am only slightly less excited at the prospect of John Bishop joining the cast. Bring on the new fam! I found the new episode confusing but I think we all understand that its purpose is to set up the conflicts that will be addressed in the coming season. Allons-y!

Double posting because I've just stumbled upon a four-part Outlander "End of Summer Series" (that would be LAST summer -- 2020) that I somehow missed. I'll post the links here (and then I will pour myself a wee dram and sit down to enjoy them.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs1_43-2XRc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ok-w4dfQvc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUXEk2qIItM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJCIIjuYqYk&t=119s

Quoting from an article in Town & Country: Is that the first confirmation we've heard that there WILL be a Season 7? Either way, I'm delighted to hear the news. I've missed this show. Link to the article: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a26888592/outlander-season-6/ Hmmmm. Having now READ the article more closely, one of the paragraph headers says "Outlander was also renewed for a 7th season" but then the paragraph itself quotes Ronald Moore as saying "Conversations are underway on both season seven and on a spinoff." Okay, yay about the spinoff (I hope it's about Lord John Grey since he has his own book series that they can use as source material) but that sentence suggests that season seven has NOT yet been locked in. So I'm a bit confused. I hope the headline is correct and we have a nice LONG season seven in our future as well as the forthcoming, Pandemic-shortened, season six.

This may be old news but today I stumbled across a fan-made music video homage to this episode by the VERY talented Julie LeBlanc. Here's the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7sbXpsEaQ0 (Note some of the footage is from prior episodes but the second half of the video -- the most visceral part -- all comes from this episode, so I guessed this was the most appropriate place to post this.) Gosh I miss this show . . . and our online discussions.

This actually happened to me in real life. Someone said to me (in the context of a mild disagreement) "What a hassle" and I did not hear the "H". But it would have been SO out of character for this person (a co-worker who reported to me) to have called me that that I stifled my initial reaction and quietly said "What did you say?" He repeated it, I caught the "H" on the second try, and then I told him what I thought he had said (his face went white.) What a lovely episode. I had to rewind and watch the "Hollywood Handshake" twice -- especially after he faked her out like that. My only frustration is that now I'm craving a savory pie and that's not a craving I am likely to be able to satisfy anytime soon.

That was kind of the moment when I thought, "What IS this show?" The death off the father was a defining event for the series so while it was horrific it was -- presumably -- necessary for the narrative. But creepy well girl killing a child for no particular reason? Ew. I guess the purpose was to show us how dangerous and amoral she is and to drive home the point that she is a genuine threat to the family. But still. Ew.

Hmmmmm. Okay, maybe I'm mis-remembering. Maybe I was so scarred by baked-Alaska-gate that I'm thinking there were more incidents of bad behavior in prior seasons than really happened. But never mind. What matters NOW is that the show gives me unfailingly positive vibes. I like all these current competitors and I think the right people are winning (and, alas, the right people are going home.) The challenges are difficult (which you need to separate the field) but not designed to fail. (I can recall at least one technical challenge in the past that NO one was able to make successfully in the time alloted, which was just mean.)

I agree and I think they do that to increase the drama without increasing inter-personal conflicts. I still have PTSD from some of the shitty conduct I witnessed from bakers in the early seasons and I have always had a theory that that kind of conduct was -- at first -- "rewarded" by the show-runners by putting footage of it into the edit that was aired. But somewhere along the way I think the show-runners realized that viewers were getting turned off by the toxic behavior of certain contestants and as a result those people stopped being cast (or at least their toxic conduct is no longer highlighted in the edit that airs.) They may have also stopped requiring competitors to share refrigerators and freezers, which was a source of some of the worst blow-ups back in the day. I think most people watch this show now with unfailingly positive feelings. Our hearts break for the contestants who fail and we cheer on the successes. I'm glad there are no more "villains" in the tent (other than the clock).

That is the fabulous Zoe Wanamaker you speak of, who I first noticed back in 1991 when she was AMAZING in the very first "Prime Suspect" (the show that also introduced me to the fabulous Helen Mirren.) This show is not short on talent. The cast is really terrific.

Just quoting this to say, "Ditto." I really WANT to like this show but I found it all so hard to follow that it just frustrated me. Maybe it will all sink in better if I do a re-watch right before the next season starts. Or maybe they should have stolen the Game of Thrones tactic of showing a map at the beginning of each episode or maybe an opening text crawl (like Star Wars) or an opening voiceover (like Highlander). Just throw me a rope show-runners!

Was it though? I thought the Fold came out when he deliberately uttered a spell -- one he was frantically looking for. So while he may not have known exactly what he was conjuring I sure got the sense he did it on purpose (and not as some out-of-control magic-created, physical manifestation of grief.) But I don't trust my recollections, having only watched once. I'm going to have to re-watch this whole season in one go because I'm really having trouble following it / retaining the details. I'm even confused by the references to character names that I see in the discussion here on this board because I've already forgotten who <insert secondary character's name> is. All that being said . . . I'm having fun and the costumes and the cast are all just gorgeous. Damn, this cast can wear the hell out of a hat -- especially the crows. On the other hand, the stag horn "necklace" gives me the creeps.