Outlander: Death Be Not Proud (7x03)

Okay, so, there were bits and pieces of this episode I greatly enjoyed, but it felt sort of... odd, as a full story.

Cons:

The Bugs haven't been real characters in the show up until this exact moment, it felt so odd to have such an emphasis on the story of the gold, and Murdina's death, and all that. I think part of the issue is in adaptation, where there are just so many things that happen in these books, so many subplots and minor characters who end up having their own significant plot moments, that in order to do justice to them all, sometimes it feels like something is coming out of nowhere. That's how I felt big-time in this episode, with the story of the Bugs stealing the Stuart gold from Hector's crypt at River Run, and then the two of them trying to sneak off with it, and Ian shooting Murdina, thinking she was Arch... it all felt like a scene straight out of nowhere, and it really overshadowed the central thing that happens here, which is that the house burned down. I wanted to linger more on that, instead of on these extra new developments that connected so little to anything that has happened at all recently in the show.

I know this is lifted straight from the books, but I wish Jamie's dreams of the future were a little less literal and magical. It seems too neat and tidy that he literally has visions of things like telephones, therefore pretty much confirming that what he's seeing is true.

Outlander: The Happiest Place on Earth (7x02)

Dang, I'm honestly incredibly surprised about some stuff in this episode!

Cons:

As an overall note, this episode just felt incredibly crowded with incident. The fact that the episode in which we learn the end of the Christie storyline, with Allan telling his story and meeting his fateful end, is also the episode in which Brianna and Roger have a baby, discover Mandy's health problem, and leave, and is the episode where we meet adult William for the first time, and is the episode with the fire that's been built up for several seasons... it's just so much to happen all at once! I feel like especially the start of the episode with Allan, coupled with last week's revelations from Tom Christie, all belong to an earlier plot thread that really should have been resolved separately from the Brianna and Roger leaving story, and the Wendigo Donner/fire story.

Mainly, I'm surprised that Roger and Bree are actually going into the future at all, with their kids. That whole plot development in the books is incredibly important, but I thought after they hinted at it and then bailed back last season, they were just going to skip over it entirely. A lot of plot happens in these books, I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd given this whole thing a pass. I am excited to see how it plays out, I guess, but it does make the fact that they decided to go and then changed their minds before, kind of ridiculous.

Outlander: A Life Well Lost (7x01)

We're back! It feels like it's been forever since this show was on the air, but I guess it was May 2022 when we last left off, in quite a dramatic fashion, with Claire arrested for a murder she didn't commit, and Jamie separated from her, desperate to save her before it's too late!

Cons:

To start, I do not like the new vocals on the intro. Mostly they were okay, but that weird breathy whisper thing at the very end fading into the episode title card, was just bizarre.

The voiceover is still a weakness of the show. A holdover from a concept that wanted to use Claire's first person POV from the books. There's one instance of it early on from Claire where she's talking about how she knows how long the Revolutionary War will stretch on, and it just felt like an unnecessary emphasis on something we could have gotten just from looking at her face as the other prisoners spoke of the hardships they were facing.

Brianna is still the weak link as an actor. I think I've realized that she's no good at anything but the extremes. She has a really infectious sweetness when she's playing super hyped and excited, and I've seen her do despair and pain very well too. But when she just needs to have a normal conversation with her husband, it sounds super stilted and I feel like I can basically see her reading the lines off a script. It's too bad, I really wish I liked her more. Book Brianna is going to reign supreme, I'm afraid.