Episode 508 - "Famous Last Words"
Apr. 13th, 2020 12:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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outlander_forumWow.
I'm actually going to start with something Matt Roberts says in the "inside the episode" feature that airs after the episode, and that is, if you've watched 508 only once, watch it again before making up your mind.
Episode 508 took a couple of major creative chances, either or both could have backfired. That both succeeded makes 508 one of the very best episodes of Outlander -- not of season 5, but of the entirety of the series thus far.
In my post on 507, I noted that despite being entitled "The Ballad of Roger Mac", 507 focused more on Jamie, and that 508 would be the real ballad of Roger Mac. I wasn't wrong. But rather than a ballad, we got a silent movie, literally and metaphorically. I am not going to lie -- when the silent film treatment first started, I was not only taken aback, but initially found myself thinking that I didn't like it very much. But then understanding dawned on me, as the episode played out, and on subsequent viewings, I marvelled at it. I think the silent movie imagery was genius and worked beautifully! They could have gone with a more conventional "holding-the-audience-by-the hand" approach in the form of unnecessary dialogue and/or voiceovers. But they didn't do that. Film is a visual medium and using a visual language to convey what is going on inside Roger was genius.
And apart from using the silent movie visual approach, this episode was almost a silent movie itself in terms of lack of dialogue. Roger was silent through most of it. Young Ian was no longer the loquacious young man from season 4 -- he was remote, barely speaking. Having the two pair up for a large part of the episode was risky -- as Matt pointed out. But the story unfolded clearly nonetheless, through gestures, facial expressions, and yes, even through silence.
The acting in this episode was superb all-around, with special kudos to Richard Rankin, Sophie Skelton and John Bell. I don't have the words (no pun intended) to do this episode justice. It's eloquent silence was simply magnificent
ERRATUM: In my post on episode 507, I wrote that Diana Gabaldon penned the script for 508. She did not. She wrote the script for 511, I believe. I think I had confused her comments on some panel about the quality of Richard Rankin's performance in 508 with her comments about writing one of the episodes.
.
I'm actually going to start with something Matt Roberts says in the "inside the episode" feature that airs after the episode, and that is, if you've watched 508 only once, watch it again before making up your mind.
Episode 508 took a couple of major creative chances, either or both could have backfired. That both succeeded makes 508 one of the very best episodes of Outlander -- not of season 5, but of the entirety of the series thus far.
In my post on 507, I noted that despite being entitled "The Ballad of Roger Mac", 507 focused more on Jamie, and that 508 would be the real ballad of Roger Mac. I wasn't wrong. But rather than a ballad, we got a silent movie, literally and metaphorically. I am not going to lie -- when the silent film treatment first started, I was not only taken aback, but initially found myself thinking that I didn't like it very much. But then understanding dawned on me, as the episode played out, and on subsequent viewings, I marvelled at it. I think the silent movie imagery was genius and worked beautifully! They could have gone with a more conventional "holding-the-audience-by-the hand" approach in the form of unnecessary dialogue and/or voiceovers. But they didn't do that. Film is a visual medium and using a visual language to convey what is going on inside Roger was genius.
And apart from using the silent movie visual approach, this episode was almost a silent movie itself in terms of lack of dialogue. Roger was silent through most of it. Young Ian was no longer the loquacious young man from season 4 -- he was remote, barely speaking. Having the two pair up for a large part of the episode was risky -- as Matt pointed out. But the story unfolded clearly nonetheless, through gestures, facial expressions, and yes, even through silence.
The acting in this episode was superb all-around, with special kudos to Richard Rankin, Sophie Skelton and John Bell. I don't have the words (no pun intended) to do this episode justice. It's eloquent silence was simply magnificent
ERRATUM: In my post on episode 507, I wrote that Diana Gabaldon penned the script for 508. She did not. She wrote the script for 511, I believe. I think I had confused her comments on some panel about the quality of Richard Rankin's performance in 508 with her comments about writing one of the episodes.
.
