I know, I know. First thought that came to mind was, Wait. It’s Wednesday. Did I take the garbage cans out? Answer: I didn’t. Second thought that came to mind was, There’s a World Outlander Day? Was I supposed to buy my friends Claire’s knitted arm warmers or the official mortar and pestle set?
All the cool kids have this for their herb collection.
Needless to say, I didn’t. But there’s always next year. My hope is that the official Outlander store will start selling the authentic swan nipple coverings that I’ve been daily requesting.
And although I completely forgot, Outlander and the fans didn’t. Social media was flooded with well wishes to Diana Gabaldon, fan art, and this gem from Backstage Magazine and their spread on Sam Heughan and Tobias Menzies. Quite honestly, they look like the surviving members of a defunct 80s British pop band who play at obscure music festivals and county fairs while audience members gorge on funnel cakes, fried Twinkies and watered down Bud Light.
And then Outlander, who clearly learned from looping yule logs and exclusive pictures of a disease smelling dog, gave fans this gift and everyone lost their damn mind:
We're celebrating #WorldOutlanderDay with not one, but TWO more seasons of #Outlander! 🎉 💚 🎉 pic.twitter.com/ssQj4BigTd
— Outlander (@Outlander_STARZ) June 1, 2016
And then if the announcement that a two season renewal wasn’t enough, Starz’s CEO Chris Albrecht finally decided you needed a life on Saturday nights: Outlander will migrate to its new home on Sunday nights. (And yes, Starz’s other shows like Black Sails and Power will also find their new home on the Lord’s day.) It’s time to say goodbye to your weekends for the next two years, because Outlander is joining the ranks of shows (Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Penny Dreadful, anything football) that believe Sunday family dinners are for chumps, hogging the remote control is an Olympic event, and live watching overtrumps DVR recording EVERY TIME.
Why the move? Get your #Emmys4Outlander tweets ready:
from The Hollywood Reporter
Starz’s shift also is motivated by a desire to be included in the awards conversation (53 percent of the 2015 Emmy nominations were for series that premiered on Sunday nights).
“Sundays are a prestige night and we feel our shows are definitely going to be very competitive, not just in viewership but in the attention-getting business on Sundays,” Albrecht says.
A Saturday night time slot was the only reason why Outlander couldn’t get nominations? Well, color me the wide eye or zipper mouth emoji.
Only time will tell if Outlander will earn Game of Thrones water cooler status or be relegated to exclamation point status in your DVR recordings.
But you have to hand it to Starz and their cojones: the network is betting Claire’s red dress that it will have a firm two year lease on your Sunday nights. Here’s what we know so far: the third season will cover Voyager, and the fourth season will cover Drums of Autumn. Chances are the fifth season will cover The Outlandish Companion, Volume 1, and perhaps the sixth season will just be Cait and Sam coloring pages from that adult coloring book.
And while the news about not just a one but a two season renewal and a new night shocked almost all of us, there were some mixed feelings when reality finally set in. Of course, I will be dramatically interpreting two contrasting responses with GIFs because #art:
Response #1Source
Response #2Source
And yes, two more seasons means more “Well, Actually,” more “But in the book…,” more “What’s going on with Jamie’s hair?” and more “Calm your shit, Claire.” But think of this: it also means more moments with the Frasers that make us smile like morons at the screen, more moments for Sam to show off the results of his newest #MyPeakChallenge/CrossFit ab workout, more moments for us to parody the lyrics of the theme song, and more moments to match the actors’ expressions with emojis.
Nailed it, Tiff. Nailed it good.
So what could season three and four possibly have in store for us? How closely will these seasons follow books that clock in over 800 pages? If second season has taught us anything is that first, Jamie is clearly a boob man, and second, some of the best moments this season have the show venturing away from the books. Let us not forget the opening of the season and Claire’s horror at being back or Frank’s rage against the tool shed machine. Even last week’s Laoghaire and her fangirling over Jamie’s shirt was off the linear narrative path but was still good. So, here’s just a few of the ways I hope Outlander’s third and fourth season will surprise us:
(The following list may or may not contain fabrications. And yes, I did read the books.)
- A complete musical episode, Hamilton style
Sans “Boogie- Woogie Bugle Boy” because no one should have to endure that again.
- A lip sync battle between Jamie and Lord John Grey – song choices: Beyonce’s “Formation” and Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling.”
- Claire finally realizing that you shouldn’t brush curly hair
- Brianna calming her shit because seriously
- Roger getting some type of personality because seriously
- Less rape because seriously, added with a dash of FFS, and a smidge of enough already
Jamie’s forehead wrinkles totally agree.
- Claire using her nursing skills to help a young doctor named Carlisle Cullen in an Outlander and Twilight crossover
- A Murtagh and Fergus spin-off where they travel all over Europe to solve crimes and break hearts
- More Frank – please and thank you
- Colum tap dancing
