Outlander - The Books vs The Series

I’m intimidated by big books.  Any book with over 500 pages scares me.  I like to read fast and with a large book, I know going in it’s going to take a lot longer to read.  So even after hearing so many wonderful things about Outlander, I still gave it a pass.  But after hearing constantly how Jamie Fraser was the perfect hero, I finally bit the bullet and read it.  This is probably going back about 10 years or so.  I read Outlander, skipped Dragonfly in Amber and skipped a good deal of Voyager and read the part where Clare and Jamie were reunited and I was all good.  I was never tempted to read any of the other ones. 

 

 

 

I heard talk over the years about how wonderful it would be to see the books be made into a movie and who should play what part.  I never really cared.  But then I heard Starz was going to make it into a series. A much better idea then say a three part movie franchise like they do with so many other books to movies.  And while I was ambivalent as to who would play Clare, when I saw who was chosen for Jamie, well, my hot actor radar kicked up big time and the more I read about it the more excited I got until I could hardly contain myself when it started playing in Canada on Showcase.  I love period piece movies series, North and South, Last of the Mohicans, Rob Roy, The Highlander (the television series – never did see the movies) and so on.  So I was ecstatic when I found out that yes, we would be able to see it in Canada.

 

I loved it from the opening credits, in fact I have the song now from ITunes.  I waited anxiously for 10:00 every Sunday night for it to start.  And oh my, the connection between Sam Heughan as Jamie and Caitriona Balfe as Claire!  Their chemistry leaps off the screen.

I thought three episodes in that since it’s been a while since I’d read it, I should do a reread.  And now that I had a Most Excellent Picture of Jamie – I think I didn’t really before as he was described as having red hair and

Carrot Top kept getting in the way.  I skipped the first part and started reading where the series was up to and kept reading until the end of the first series.  I figured I’d keep reading when the series had a break but that didn’t happen.

The second series started last Sunday – and hands up – who watched it??  I gave up smoking when I broke my leg but my heavenly stars I could have used one towards the end of the final scene. 

 

That was – as Jim Carrey says – SMOKIN’.  I was definitely breathing heavy.  Anyway – moving on – I figured I’d best get back on the book horse and start reading again.  And I hit a wall.  A huge wall.  I wall I don’t think I can climb and now I remember why I didn’t get caught up in the whole series like so many others have.

 

I Don’t Like Claire.  Oh no I do not like her at all.  While not as apparent in the series because I do like Caitrona playing her, in the book, I find her dreadful. 

***Rant about to begin****

I do not understand why she seems determined to press all of Jamie’s buttons. 

It seems like it’s almost out of spite.  Here she has this hot, young guy who is strong and brave and hot and patient and forward thinking for his time and hot and willing to risk his own life for her and hot and funny and protective and willing to take on the punishment of others and hot and a virgin no less but very good at it once he gets going and hot and between the Jamie in the book and the Jamie in the series just about the most perfect hero – evah – and Claire seems determined to rile him up in one way or another.  I get that she comes from the future and as a working woman is even more advanced than the usual housewife, but she’s not in her own time and so she shouldn’t play be the rules she knows.  In the past, she should be led by Jamie.  While I don’t agree with the controversial spanking, she did do an extremely stupid thing and as a result has risked the whole clan, not to mention putting a HUGE target on Jamie’s back.  She knows there are redcoats wandering about.  She knows that Black Jack Randall is after her.  And during their epic fight she had the nerve to call Jamie a sadist – when she had evidence herself and what she saw he had done to Jamie, that Randall was a sadist in truth. 

Yes, I get that she wants to get back to Frank - though why I don’t understand completely why when she has Jamie.

Yet despite everything he has done for her she accuses him of cheating.  She accuses him of marrying her for money.  NO, you stupid woman!  He married you to SAVE YOUR LIFE.  I don’t see a whole lot of gratitude for that either.  Sure there was some – but not much.  I swear Jamie has the heart of a saint to both get past his anger so quickly and forgive her so easily.

 Anyway, I’m going to have to give up on reading the book.  To do both would be a double negative on my feelings for Claire.  I would be so angry with her while reading and so angry while watching.  And because the series is so good and Jamie is so, um hot, I’m just going to stick with the series.

~*~*~*~

 

And I need to update a previous post.  I was talking about getting invested in shows only to have them cancel before their time and I completely forgot about Copper.  This was another show that ran on showcase a couple of years ago about Kevin Corcoran,  a ‘copper’ from Ireland who helped police the slums of Five Points district in New York City just around the time of the Civil War.  He was a very intriguing character, a real anti-hero.  One scene he would do something heroic, the next something despicable.  It was a series done by BBC America and I loved it.  I was devastated when it was cancelled.

Well, that's it for today.

'til later

My newest obsession

I often wish I could do things like normal people, but alas, I sometimes can't. It's a manifestation of the obsessive type personality I have self diagnosed. I seem to have a new obsession. This is probably the number one reason why:




or another reason




to watch Stargate Atlantis

The show comes on three times a day: 8:00am, 2:00pm and 7:00pm and I embarassingly confess that if I have the day and it's good episode, I've been known to watch all three - on the same day. *sigh*


This vid is even better, but alas, embedding has been disabled by request so this is the not so good way.

http://youtu.be/NkYjMh3nqIk

His character on the show is so very intriguing and, well, romance hero typish.

From Stargate Wiki:

Ronon was a native to his homeworld of Sateda, an industrialized planet. Little is known about his childhood. He had a grandfather, who was suffering from the Second Childhood when Ronon was six years old. He was taken to the shrine on Talus, where his grandfather was temporarily cured. There, his grandfather taught him hand-to-hand combat tactics until he died. He also had the Kirsan fever when he was ten years old and claims he played with a triple barreled shotgun when he was little as a childhood toy. He also wrote poetry and did art when he was younger

When he grew older he became a member of the Satedan military where he held the rank of Specialist. It is likely that this is their version of the Specialist in the United States military, yet it is unclear exactly what this position does. He was also very close to a woman named Melena, although it is unclear what their relationship actually was.

Throughout his time as a member of Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team, Ronon's incredible physical abilities and fighting instincts have set him apart. He consistently subdues his enemy with relative ease in hand-to-hand combat or with his trademark gun, a Particle magnum. Ronon is fond of gun play, spinning the pistol around rapidly. In addition, he carries a sword. He also has a number of knives for use in emergencies, most of them hidden about his person. The exact number of knives and from where he gets them (or whether he fashions them himself) has never been revealed, and Ronon's seemingly unlimited supply has been a source of the occasional comic relief.

About seven years before his first contact with the Atlantis expedition, the Wraith attacked Sateda because the people showed resistance. He tried to get Melena through the Stargate before the Wraith attacked. Her refusal to leave the Satedans that would be unable to evacuate forced him to remain behind and fight the Wraith. Unfortunately, his efforts were in vain, as the Wraith defeated Satedan forces and Melena was killed before Ronon's eyes in an explosion.

After that point, he was captured by the Wraith while they wiped out the planet. Ronon was placed in a cocoon and a Wraith started to feed on him but stopped for some reason. Instead they made him into a Runner and implanted a tracking device in his upper back and set him loose to be constantly hunted. During the first few years of this, however, he learned several new tricks and decided to hunt them back. He survived for seven years, until he eventually met up with the Atlantis expedition.

His journey brought him to the planet P3M-736 where he was perused by a single Wraith. While trying to evade the Wraith, he came face to face with Lt. Aiden Ford. While they aimed their weapons at each other the Wraith shot him in the back with a Wraith stunner and Ford killed it with his P-90. Ronon managed to escape into the forest. During the night, he stunned Lt. Colonel John Sheppard and Teyla Emmagan, who were tracking the missing the missing Ford. He brought them to a cave and Sheppard was able to convince him they were not his enemy. He made a deal with them; if Dr. Carson Beckett could remove the tracking device in his back, he'd help them capture Ford. Beckett managed to extract the device despite the fact that he refused anaesthesia. After the surgery, he passed out but not for long. He escaped the cave and attacked Ford, who was about to kill Dr. Rodney McKay. The two of them both pulled knifes and attacked each other. Sheppard interrupted them and Ford ran off. Sheppard followed him and he cut McKay out of the trap. He returned with them to Atlantis. When they sent a MALP to the gate address he gave them, he discovered that his civilization had been completely destroyed. (ATL: "Runner")

Lt. Colonel John Sheppard offered Ronon a place on his team after he proved his worth against the Marines and Teyla Emmagan in hand-to-hand combat and passed the shooting range tests without any signs of hesitation or inexperience with various firearms presented to him. Dr. Elizabeth Weir was initially hesitant but ultimately agreed.

Reality Television

I have this watch/hate relationship with reality shows. The granddaddy of them, Survivor, I’m over and have been for several years now. I don’t care if Boston Rob or Russell stay or go, I won’t be watching. Others I find myself watching and then when it’s over, I wondered why on earth I watched it when I could have been reading a good book. I saw the Hoarders episode where the mean guy hoarded bunnies – now was that a strange episode! The really rude dude had a house full of rabbits. They were eating the house – literally! They showed a half eaten chair. I saw the one where they guy hoarded rats. They had to tear down the walls to get them all and when all were caged, there turned out to be over 3,000. I also saw the rather sad one where the nasty trailer trash woman kept these poor chickens in cages. Hundreds! They discovered a few flattened chickens and the woman herself was enough to give one nightmares. She had no teeth and big gums.


A couple of weeks ago I watched about two hours of a Toddlers and Tiaras marathon and afterwards thought “what the heck were you thinking; wasting your time when you could have been doing something productive like housework?” followed by the thought, “what the heck are these mothers thinking entering their children in these things?? What kind of message are they trying to send these children that somehow there worth is tied up in whether they wear flippers (false teeth) or a sprayed on tan?”


As you can see, I sometimes get too invested in some of these reality shows, going as far as too boycott them when they made me mad. This has happened a number of times with if Survivor is the granddaddy then this is the grandmamma, American Idol. I stopped watching altogether a couple of seasons ago - I mean where is Kris Allen? We know where Adam Lambert is – rockin’ it with ‘If I Had You’. But I decided to give it a try when J Lo and Steven Tyler were announced as judges and I’ve watched all the episodes so far. And I’ve been amazed at how really good they are. Seriously – before this I wasn’t a fan of J-Lo, though a couple of us at work agree that Stephen Tyler has this odd yet compelling kind of sex appeal. I may even try downloading his upcoming book from the library once it comes out.


But, being too heavily invested at times, I think Randy and the gang made a mistake last night when choosing the final girl. I’m of the opinion that 15 is too young to be on this show. Yes, yes, I know that Justin Bieber has made it big and he’s been younger. But so far at least he’s been a bit of an exception. Look at the mess that’s been made of the lives of Brittney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and the train wreck that may be headed our way of Miley Cirrus. Fifteen is just too young to be overwhelmed with fame and fortune for many a young person.


So it was with dismay that when it came down to the final two last night, a young 15 year old girl – I’m rotten with names so I don’t know her name, and the 25 year old rocker chick who had tried out 7 times already, that they went with the 15 year old. They didn’t highlight the 25 year old rocker chick much, but from the bit they showed last night, she could really sing!! And to me, at the age of 25, with 7 attempts under her belt and a real good husky, rock tone, she’s paid her dues and should have been put ahead of the young girl. They already have quite a group of really young singers. I don’t know the exact number, but there are a few. I figure it’s not going to hurt them to have another couple of years to mature. If they have great voices at 15, and they do, I won’t deny that, they will have them at 18 too. So when faced with two young women of equal great talent, I felt Randy, Jennifer and Stephen should have put through the older singer. I told them that too – but as the show was prerecorded, they didn’t hear me.


If the old guard, Simon et al were still on, it wouldn’t have been an issue with me since I wouldn’t have been watching, but since they weren’t and it was the new guard – guys – you blew it! And no – not enough for me to boycott AI. I still plan on watching it as I think there’s a lot of talent, Jennifer Lopez strikes me as being a warm, caring, compassionate judge, Steven Tyler is a hoot and the way he sits there sometimes with his eyes closed just seeming to take in the music and Randy Jackson never bothered me and he seems to have cut back on the ‘dawg’. So until the voting public manages to annoy me, I’m back with this reality show.

TV

I know I said I was going to cut out all reality TV except for So You Think You Can Dance – and overall I’ve done a pretty good job of it. I only watched about 15 minutes of Paris Hilton’s New BFF – and that was quite enough. I don’t care if Tilla Tequilla finds love the second time around so I haven’t been watching it. I did watch a bit of the MMVDD awards – but that was only to see Nico – his Mohawk is now gone by the way. But there is another one I kind of accidently got hooked on and I have this to say about it.

ARE YOU NUCKING FUTS????? I think I squeaked that out when she turfed him!! You turned down a hot and hunky airline pilot who was everything a girl could watch for a boy break dancer and/or a slimy, sleazy looking bad country singer? Where is your head at girl?? I’m not good with names – only jobs – but the airline pilot was fine and seemed a helluva lot more sincere then break dance boy.

That’s it – I’m now officially done with this show. She’s just TSTL for me to watch it anymore. What’s worse – she’s a Canadian girl!!!! Plus, from the previews of upcoming shows, it goes into waters that are too deep for me to feel comfortable in. Apparently they have “overnight” visits coming up and – not interested. Plus, it seems one of them has trouble ‘getting it up’ if you know what I mean. I don’t know if they identify him but if they do, I don’t think I’d want my name out there as the guy who couldn’t perform.

So I’m saying bu bye to The Bachelorette.


But


In good television news, at least for anyone who might be reading this and lives in Ontario, guess what is on tonight at 9:00 on TVO??


Give up???

The second part of *drum roll please* North and South – British style!! One of the girls at work pointed out to me that they are running it Tuesday nights. I missed the Part I but at least I have Parts 2, 3 and 4 to look forward too. So anyone who hasn’t seen my favourite DVD of ALL time can get a glimpse of it tonight.