Breaking Down Outlander For Your Consideration Emmys Panel

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That’s Normal Proverb: There is no Droughtlander so long as Sam Heughan is picking out footwear. Last week, the Television Academy hosted its For Your Consideration events in LA, and it was a big night for Starz’ Outlander and fans from southern Cali. If you are like the rest of us at TN, you saw a few insta posts at the top of your regrettably non-chronological feed from Sam, but you haven’t had a chance to check out all the coverage from the event.

Dinna fash. We gotchu. Here’s a break down of the important stuff (like gossip and fashion and spoilers and hair) that you missed.

Sam on Social Media

Outlander Starz social team let Sam take over the official Instagram account. This is always a good idea, because they follow only 45 people AND I, Beth Thorne, AM ONE OF THEM. So, I get a chance to inappropriately DM Sam, and he gets a chance to like my vacation collage. But we also got a few good reminders of why in the world we talk about this stuff so much.

When most celebrities take over industry feeds, you get about five placating and mundane posts that offer no new info or insight. But with Sam, we got to help pick out his shoes, (door #1, Sam, DOOR NUMBER ONE), reminisce about the iPhone 3G camera capabilities, debate feminism with idiots in the comments, admire this fan’s selfie game, applaud Botox and put faces to the names in my nightmare-scape. Thank you for making Insta fun again, Samwise!

Best one: My first reaction to this is NO. But on second thought, do you, lady. Sam’s hair looks AMAZING from this angle, and I wish they would let Jamie have hair like this.

Also, THIS is peak @Heughan circa 2013. I don’t know if you remember him (I introduce you to @Heughan here), but it was difficult to tell if he was hot or not, silly or sweet, smart or simple. And where this video ends looks like it could easily be a post from his personal insta from the Batman Live days.

Ah, the good old days of 2013 – when we only knew Sam on Instagram and we still got 250 comments on an Outlander post because we hadn’t alienated the sycophants yet.

To sum up, Sam on social is a good time, and he should do it more often because I have more DMs in me.

Spoiler Tidbits

What do the cast and crew have to say about the upcoming season 4? I guess these aren’t really spoilers, just the casual red carpet coverage that you get at events like this, but I’m going to call them spoilers anyway. Because spoilers are a BIG DEAL to some folks.

Ron Moore: “Season four is about settling down, finding a home, building a home, grandchildren.”

Wow. RIVETING. Can’t wait.

Jon Gary Steele‘s favorite set of the season is Aunt Jocasta’s plantation as it’s more beautiful and heavily detailed than even the Parisian sets.

As always, Outlander is a pinnacle of historical and cultural sensitivity. 

Maril Davis continues to awe and inspire with amazing soundbites.

ELLE got all the good scoops:

  • Sam and Caitriona told them that the next season is about old grandparents finding domestic bliss. FUN!
  • Brianna will show up after traveling a different way than Claire, and Claire won’t like it. BIG SURPRISE!
  • Jamie will be chopping wood for their home. LUMBERJACK!JAMMF is MY JAM.
  • And BEST NEWS EVER … Frank might be back, if only in flashbacks.

The Panel

If you missed the actual panel, it’s still available on YouTube and the questions begin around the 16:00 minute mark. Before that is actually a really good primer for the third season, giving Emmy voters all the best scenes to chew on. But since the video itself is pretty long, I’m gonna break down what you need to know.

  • The moderator is effusive, and sometimes a little wrong, and at this point, Caitriona is all of us. And she has no problem showing off her engagement ring.
  • “There are a lot of different flavors of storytelling out there, and ours is a big one. We go for the big thought, the big emotion on this show,” Ron says. An allusion perhaps to how we’ve all noticed (and criticized) that they don’t let subtlety stand in this show, and they don’t ever trust the audience to get the point with indirect or understated storytelling??

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  • Here, the moderator asks about the hurricane special effects and how that scene was technically achieved, and Matt talks about the writing process instead (and the practical filming, but still no info about the fx or who was in charge of that). On a show that constantly highlights the costumes, music and production design, it would be great to hear from or highlight the more technical creators as well.
  • Jon Gary Steele talks about the different builds of the print shop … and how they burned them. Props to Ron for being the one to ask him a couple of great questions. Get this man a moderator gig!
  • Caitriona talks capably about costumes, but you know ALL about that if you’ve spent even 12 seconds on Twitter.
  • Caitriona’s favorite scenes were with Tobias, and has no time for this goofy moderator. Sam’s favorite scenes were the first episodes too, for the opposite reason. Ron has three fave moments: Jamie leaving Helwater, Geillis coming out of the bloodbath, and Claire’s face when Jamie faints. Maril’s fave was Claire’s response to Frank when he asks if she could have forgotten Jamie. JG Steele loved the Boston episodes for their amazing acting, and Sam’s acting in the shed at Culloden – again for the acting and writing. Toni loved CAITRIONA’s performance when having to leave HER DAUGHTER*.

*emphasis mine to be important later

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  • Caitriona gave a really thoughtful answer about her favorite scene of Sam’s (“heartbreaking and nuanced”). And Sam gives a stale, meandering answer about his for Cait’s (“you do good work”). But at least she calls him out on it.
  • I LOVE THIS QUESTION. Mostly because of the character who is not in anyone’s answer. Which brings me back to *this point … NO ONE mentions either Brianna or Sophie, as a favorite scene or as someone they were excited to work with, write or design for. I mention this because despite the (incorrect) opinion that she’s tolerable and maybe even good, no one in the production can be arsed to remember that she’s in it much less that she’s literally the most supporting female character of the series. Tobias, David, Lotte, Elias Pound … all get effusive praise while Jamie and Claire’s offspring, the physical incarnation of their love, goes unremembered and unremarked upon. It’s TELLING.
  • And I also agreed with Matt 100% (again- this is getting ridiculous) that David Berry was an amazing addition to the cast, and a wonderful actor that they were lucky as hell to get.
  • A bit of foreshadowing from Ron Moore: As the series goes on … things are going to get less and less like the books.

The Lewks

Let me just begin by saying: I LOVE THEIR HAIR. Sam has clearly needed a break from dying and styling, and the showrunner should be letting him keep it short for the rest of time. It’s actually a TRAVESTY that he spent 3 seasons with terrible hair IRL so Jamie could have equally terrible hair on screen. Likewise, Caitriona’s fringe and blunt bob is NOT ONLY exactly the style I had the last time we saw each other, but also is totally adorable on her. You’re welcome for the inspo, Cait.

Yes, I know that the two of them having cute hair in real life means WIGS and EXTENSIONS on the show, and it will be terrible. I don’t care. I’m shallow enough that I would rather they look hot in person than care about how seamless the hairlines are in North Carolina humidity.

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HOWEVER, as soon as you scroll past either of their chins, it just gets ridiculous. Sam clearly didn’t take our advice about his boots, his suit doesn’t fit at all, and why won’t he wear a collar? At least we are a bit past the days of extra thick-stringed hoodies and stretched out v-necks, but his shirt was gaping on stage. It simply did.not.fit.

And Caitriona’s dress was working until I saw her booties. I just could not take the Halloween Nurse/Stripper Heels seriously. Sigh.

The Aftermath

Extreme Shippers think that Sam told the LA Times that he and Cait are REALLY together because they can’t understand context.

Some dick started selling Caitriona’s charity shirts on TeeSpring and she ain’t having it.

Deleted scenes from S3 came out and showed the carved J and C initials on Sam and Caitriona’s hands. Explanation: they filmed it, so they wore those scars and then they cut the scene, so they digitally removed those scars, except they didn’t bother for the deleted scenes. That seems … like a lot.

ETA: I don’t know how I forgot this in the original post, but no one called me out on the biggest aftermath/spoiler of them all: Ron confirmed that there will be a season five of Outlander on Starz!!! Endless camping in the woods and rinsing out Jem’s clouts! That’s all I remember.

 

That’s it! Everything you need to know from the latest Outlander industry event.

But before we get back to Droughtlander, a question … who wants to do an In the Waterweeds book club for Drums of Autumn? And when? TELL US!

About Beth

Current Obsessions: Fantasy novels. John Krasinski. Melina Marchetta. Edinburgh. Captive Prince and Yuri on Ice. James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser. New words. Gay wizard regency novels.

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