Ends and Beginnings.
Hmm. I've glanced through recent posts since the series finale. I'm entirely new to the show, binged it with a free Starz trial (but couldn't quite finish it before the first fee set in, and given the quality of the writing, music and acting, I don't really feel bad about them getting those residuals).
To be honest, I'm not generally given to watching 'popular' shows, least of all ones that are produced for American(ish) networks. I primarily watch British, French, Danish and Canadian content that most fellow Americans have barely heard of, if they have at all. But I am a time travel fan so I knew sooner or later I'd get around to this one, and I don't regret waiting until I could binge it in a spree. Looking at the IMDb page and seeing how it was impacted by Covid and the Strikes (capital S for those of us in LA, IYKYK), I can only imagine how dedicated fans felt waiting for the next season to drop.
But now that I've found myself here and finished the show, I'm curious about some things I guess I could google, but reddit being reddit I'd be more curious to hear them from you.
a) How faithfully did you feel the show matched the intent and direction of the original author's work? My sister read a bit of Diana's work and said a lot of the grit was already there. But I've also heard the books were published in the 90s after excerpts were posted in online forums, so...as a writer I'm admittedly curious how something of this caliber sat on shelves so long before being picked up for TV development. Forgive any basic ignorance of the development path or timeline, I'd truly heard so little about the show other than time travel/Scotland, I think I thought some of the posters were Sean Astin instead of Sam Heughan, who I only knew from the Spy Who Dumped Me.
b) The impression I get is fans of the main show are reluctant to watch the spinoff. Is this just the meh of having to get to know new characters despite knowing their ancestors, or down to something else? (I saw a few remarks about Ron not really giving the actors flex on scenes with nudity, and as an actor myself who has worked on sets with even Sensitivity Coordinators during violent protest scenes, I struggle to understand how a show of this nature didn't have an intimacy coordinator from the get go.)
c) I acknowledge another reason I waited to watch was because I'd heard of the intense abuse Jamie's character faced, and while I'm very pleased to see media admit men are also abused and delve into the important tangents and discussions related to that, I knew I needed to be in the right mood to watch it. I'm glad I waited, but also - and this may sound very odd to some of you based on a few passing remarks I saw here - I was relieved to find those scenes were not as rough as I thought they may be. To explain, I didn't realize they happened so early in season 1, I was glad he was at least married and no longer a virgin by then, that it wasn't his first encounter of any related kind, and that he more or less knew she would be there to support him after. Not saying that makes any of it "easier", but what scant details I'd heard made it sound ...I don't know, more like 300 or Spartacus, if that comparison makes any sense. It was still bloody and gratuitous, no doubt. But it wasn't a gang (for him, anyway), which I suppose I may have assumed it was, all things considered. While the psychological aspects are no less grueling, a healthy relationship before and after can heal those wounds more fully, and I found salve in their bookending it that way.
d) I haven't seen any of the interviews or articles, though I see a few of you have mentioned favorites here. Being LA based, my instinct now that I've finished the show is perhaps to watch the PaleyFest panel, but if there are standout clips you'd recommend, I'd trust your opinions over popular search results. I noticed some of you mentioned Sam wrote a book also, for instance, that was quite honest and revealed the reality we all face on set of being buried by the work. I'd also appreciate hearing which of the cast and writers other work you've enjoyed; I love going down a new-to-me actor/ress's IMDb catalog and watching their work back to back to fully appreciate the oeuvre of it. My TBR is also perpetually long, so - I'd love to hone in on the creme of the crop.
e) More unique to me perhaps, but maybe not as rare as it may seem at first blush: this show in particular, more than some others I've watched of late in British and Canadian realms, really made me miss set. Like many, I've stepped away from the more public parts of the industry while the ship rights itself, but ...I used to work predominantly on period pieces, historical dramas. It's just my type, and my appreciation of history and time travel lent me well to the work and keeping things true to the era. It was a time travel all its own. With the advent of AI, present studio mergers and the development pipeline grinding to a halt in a number of ways, watching a show like this makes me simultaneously hopeful and sad in almost equal measure: because I know for the most part a show of this nature would not be greenlit today, even with the book following. It would need a million followers on socials, and that audience gets more and more reductive and narrow by the day, less critical thinking, more lowest common denominator (the stories, not the people, should there be any doubt). I have so many industry friends shifting to verticals and interactive because that's where the work is right now, like the reality show boom in the 90s and oughts. But this show makes me a little mournful, because while the optimist in me wants to believe ensemble casts like this will continue to create and thrive somehow, the realist in me just doesn't see how. Not with the current studio heads, the current economic climate. I keep hoping we'll be the phoenix rising from the ashes eventually, the way we have after every other season of strikes, but...I don't know. It hurts my heart for this cast, because all of them deserve to land another few shows with this gravitas, and through absolutely no fault or lack of skill and interest of their own, they might not. And that's a loss.
Anyway. Those were my main questions and thoughts, joining this party so late. I wrote a couple fics for this show recently too, so to ensure I did them justice I just wanted to get my bearings. Apologies if these questions or ideas have been shared a million times over the years in this forum, forgive my being the newer Sassenach here who's still green.